The Chronicles of Narnia: The Eternal Winter and the Great Exodus
by VPVPVP
Summary: Summary is in the intro of the story
1. Chapter 1

**Chronicles of Narnia: The Eternal Winter and the Great Exodus**

 **Introduction**

 **Hi, Narnia fans. My name is Vicky who goes by the pen-name of VPVPVP on this fanfic website. This is my first Chronicles of Narnia story but I have actually been part of since late 2012 and pretty much all of that time from then until now have been spent on writing a story series on another franchise, the Blue Sky Studios film series Rio (made by the same producers of the Ice Age series). If you don't know what it is it is about a blue Spix macaw named Blu, who is supposedly the last male of the species who has to go to Rio to pair up with a female of his species to save it from extinction, and the series takes off from there. I won't go into details as I might spoil it for those who have not seen the movie series yet, but that is just a summary of the franchise. I have written an amazing six stories around that franchise but now, I am going to start writing a story based around another franchise which is the Chronicles of Narnia, the series of books by C. S. Lewis and one of my favourite book and film series.**

 **This story is currently called the Eternal Winter as it will be set during Jadis the White Witch's 100-year reign and the wintery curse she had cast upon the land of Narnia to ensure that the winter is all-year round such that spring, summer and autumn had become obsolete (for that time). It is therefore set between the events of The Magician's Nephew and the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and will explore the impact of the evil witch's reign on the land and what sort of oppression she had afflicted on the creatures of Narnia besides her spell of winter which, as you would know, caused a massive food shortage and other snow-related consequences.**

 **I am going to use OCs for this story and my OCs will be creatures that C. S. Lewis had not included in his story series (though I will have OCs of said animals and mythical creatures). Some of the creatures will, for example, come from Japanese mythology as well as possibly any Greek mythological creature C. S. Lewis hasn't included in his stories to imply that other types of creatures will have existed in the fictional world of Narnia as well, and with parts of their mythology included will have an important role in the story.**

 **Anyway, without further ado, I would like to introduce one of my protagonist OCs, Kushanku, a young Nekomata (Japanese mythical cat creature with a forked tail) who was orphaned as a kit, along with his three older siblings, a sister and two brothers, and who grows up with his three siblings and a family of Narnian Cheetahs who become the four Nekomata kits' adopted parents, family and siblings. This story will explore Kushanku's curiosity about the wintery conditions of Narnia but he, and his two brothers and sisters and their adopted Cheetah siblings, are taught that Narnia had come into being by chance and that there was no Creator, a teaching the 'Queen' of Narnia (that is, the White Witch), may have decreed to be taught as I believe that during her rule, the White Witch will have banned any mentioning of Aslan (the Lion of Lions and the true Lord of Narnia) and anything else to do with him, which will spell extreme difficulty and consequences for the animals and creatures who still believe in the Great Lion's existence, as we'll see in the story. Kushanku will become curious about the possibility of Narnia being created and will doubt the teachings of the world coming into being by chance which will potentially lead to friction between him and his adopted family who very greatly fear the consequences of believing in the 'Forbidden Subject', as they will call it, or even the mentioning of the 'A' word (referring to Aslan). However, Kushanku will find himself taking up a very important role later in the story. All this will be revealed when I write it.**

 **So this is an introductory summary of my first Narnia story and I hope you enjoy it. By the way, all OCs, such as Kushanku the Nekomata, are mine and copyrighted by me.**

 **Thanks, VPVPVP**

 **Summary**

The entire land of Narnia is trapped in a freezing, never-ending winter by an extremely cruel, corrupt, sadistic and wicked empress who has also bestowed upon it an equally corrupt judicial system to severely oppress the Narnians in addition to the problems caused by her winter spell, such as food shortage. After evacuating to a hidden base owned by two very wise Kitsune who are also the parents of the Kitsune species, Kushanku, a young Nekomata orphaned as a baby with his two brothers and sister, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, is tasked with leading the Exodus to the safety of Archenland in the south of the country. However, Kushanku has a lot to learn and must deal with a wide variety of setbacks and challenges which will test his courage, faith in Aslan and will to the absolute limit.


	2. Chapter 1b

**Chapter 1- a mother's frantic escape to save her four kits**

The land of Narnia was heavily coated with pure white, and the trees resembled icy skeletal sculptures with icicles hanging off of their branches. The rivers and lakes were nothing more than meandering snakes and patches of frozen water and the sky above the Narnian land was often saturated with snowclouds that dumped the flaky white stuff like confetti onto the already thick blanket of white stuff on the land. The temperatures were almost sub-zero, sometimes as cold as the Antarctic on Earth (our world), even during the daytime. Though the sun in the Narnian sky still bathed the landscape with its golden sheets of light, the thick blanket of snow and ice remained covering the lands as far as the eye could see. At night, however, it was different scenery. Narnia resembled a dark, haunted, snowy wasteland, often smothered by blizzards, and any unfortunate creature that was caught and lost out in these conditions were surely likely to face death by freezing temperatures. Conditions truly were unforgiving in the Narnian land, and even worse, it had been like this for around 25 Narnian years now, but before, it had not always been like this.

Before Narnia became a permanent landscape fridge saturated with snow, ice and frost, it had had joyful and more pleasant weather and regular seasons that were annual and normal as one would expect. The landscape was a grassy green canvas with a wide variety of trees and flowers scattered across the greenery like colourful sprinkles on a cake, and the trees had been smothered with a bush of green leaves, especially during the spring and summer. During autumn these leaves would change to a colourful mottle of reds, browns, yellows and golds, and in winter, they were pretty, leafless fingers of branches decorated by sparkly icicles and flurries of snow, and during winter, the festival of Christmas was always celebrated by the Narnian creatures. Furthermore, the rivers and streams had been glistening, blue ribbons and patches respectively, especially during spring and summer. During these times, various creatures such as Fauns and Beavers, would come by the banks to fish and to play in the shimmering waters, especially during scorching hot days. Thus, the joys of the yearly spring, summer and autumn, and also winter and the things in them had been enjoyed by the Narnians, even taken for granted by some, but 25 years ago, something went terribly wrong. Shortly after the Age of Conquest (Narnian Years 1 to 900), the landscape of Narnia had been plunged into this never-ending wintery wasteland. Spring, summer, autumn and their beautiful greenery and colours and other joys and blessings associated with them, such as the joy of colour and playing in the streams and rivers, and also Christmas, had seemingly passed away, and all it had been since then till now was snow, ice, snow, ice, snow ice, winter, winter, winter… all year round. Not to mention misery and the boredom of seeing nothing but white all the time. And because the rivers and lakes had turned into nothing more than frozen bodies of pure ice, fishers had been unable to go out and fish and other creatures had been unable to play in those waters. The freezing conditions, deep snow, frozen lakes and rivers, and blizzards had caused an awful lot of problems for the creatures of Narnia. Crops and fruit could not be grown and had to be imported from outside the Narnian lands… humans that had lived in the land had disappeared… and the creatures had been forced to use a LOT of wood as fuel for heating just to keep warm. Things certainly were difficult for everyone in Narnia, but the cold and the snow weren't the only factors causing the great oppression…

 **Somewhere in the frigid Narnian forest**

It was night-time and as usual, a blizzard was blasting through the dark, snowy Narnian forest. Thick billows of snow raced across the white blankets covering the forest floor and through the frozen, snow-covered skeletons of the trees. The blizzard was so thick that visibility had been reduced to no more than a few metres. The Narnian air shuddered as the sound of howling winds which carried the clouds of snow through the forest rattled it, and some of the skeletal trees wavered with these winds. However, another set of sounds was also tearing at the Narnian air. Under a large mountain of snow appeared to be some sort of hut, but from that hut emanated the sounds of screams of anger, anguish, fright and agony, accompanied by vicious barks and growls, all of them exploding through the windows. The sounds of solid, fragile things such as glasses smashing, wooden things getting overturned and other sounds of furniture getting broken, scattered or crushed were also heard within the hut, and a wooden construct with legs, a stool, was sent flying through one of the windows from within the snow covered building, but inside, a massive skirmish was going on.

"QUICK, GET THOSE KITS OUTA HERE, FAST… AAAARRRGGHH!"

"WOOF! WOOF! SNARL! GROWL!"

SMASH! CRASH! BANG!

As the sounds of the skirmish continued to explode from within the hut, a form suddenly appeared in the window. This form was wearing a thick coat and from its sleeves, emerged two paws that grasped something: a basket containing some bundles. Emerging from under the coat were furry hind legs, shaped like a cat's. More catlike features were obvious on the creature's face as they stared fearfully into the dark blizzard and trees. They were amber in colour, as one would expect on a cat. Below the eyes was a nose from which strands of fine filaments emanated, and the mouth was also catlike. This creature was obviously a cat but its similarities to a cat ended there. Snaking from the lower, back rim of the coat was the creature's tail but unlike regular cats which had one, this cat-like creature had _two_ tails, bifurcating from near where the tail joined the body. And based on its facial features, this two-tailed cat was a female.

The cat-creature flashed an extremely terrified glance back into the hut at the carnage that continued to occur and flinched when she heard a loud bark from whatever was attacking whoever inside, slid down from the window and began to make a break for it into the snowy, dark forest. The basket in her paws shuddered as she ran for her life through the trees. Dangling from the basket was a glowing yellow glass container: a lamp, but another thing, a tag of some sort, was also attached to the basket. The tag flashed and glinted in the light emanating from the lamp, gleaming gold and yellow and on closer inspection; the tag seemed to be in the shape of a lion. The lamp and tag swung from the basket as the two-tailed cat continued to charge through the forest, the freezing blizzard blasting into her face and hood and the snow impeding her attempts to flee as it mounted up in front of her hind paws with every step. Behind the cat, snarls and growls erupted and suddenly, the cat realised that she was being chased. Terrified, she flashed a glance behind her and resumed her attention in front of her.

The cat's chasers were quadrupedal or four-footed. Many of them resembled dogs with ears pointing straight up but a few others of the creatures resembled a more menacing combination of creatures. The creatures' faces resembled a fanged monkey or ape, their mouths armed with two knife-like teeth, like that of a sabre-toothed cat, and emanating from their faces was a mane of hair. Their bodies were like that of the cat's but were larger, bulkier, the legs thicker and the paws larger but what was most frightening about these creatures was their tails. Their tails resembled a string of beads fused together which curled back towards the creatures' heads like a chain and on the end of that chain of 'balls' was a spike, sharp and deadly, like a spear. This spiked tail lashed and sliced at blizzard air as their owners continued to pursue the two-tailed cat. The dog-like creatures and their chimera-like allies continued to chase after the cat as she clutched the basket containing her precious cargo as she continued to struggle through the thick snow. The cat then snapped her terrified amber gaze to a nearby tree and with a flash of quick-thinking, turned abruptly from her trajectory and charged towards it. The hideous creatures also turned sharply and gave chase. Then as soon as the cat was near the tree trunk, she jumped onto it and, with a powerful heave of her hind legs, she thrusted herself sharply in the direction of another tree, much to her chasers' shock.

"Come on!" cried the leader, one of the doglike creatures and with that, it and its comrades gave chase as the cat landed on the second tree and jumped off of it, sending herself flying in the direction of another tree trunk of choice. Soon, the two-tailed cat was leaping from tree-to-tree with astonishing agility despite the reduced visibility caused by the blizzard and the winds as she tried to evade her chasers. Her lamp sliced through the dark, snowy air like a comet as she continued leaping. However, the cat's chasers continued their relentless pursuit of her despite not being able to perform her ability. Then the sabretooth monkey-faced creatures, of which there were three in this pack, ran ahead and as they did so, a pair of umbrellas flared open from their manes. These umbrellas resembled hands with the fingers connected via a membrane, like a bat's. Then with a massive flap of these wings, the three hideous creatures launched themselves into the air after the cat as she continued jumping between tree trunks.

"You can't escape us, Nekomata," growled one of the flying maned monkey-faced creatures as it approached the two-tailed cat, "You're under arrest on orders of the Queen of Narnia and are to be put to DEATH!"

The two-tailed cat, called a Nekomata, in response, flashed a glance at her flying pursuers as she perched on a branch and leaped off of it and continued to leap between trees, her chasers pursuing her both on the land and in the air. When she saw that her pursuers, especially the flying ones, were beginning to gain on her despite all that she could do, and that she was feeling exhaustion creep over her, the Nekomata landed on a branch and flashed a concerned look at her cargo in her basket. Suddenly, a paw armed with sharp claws appeared and swiped at her shoulder, making her release a scream of fright and launch into another leap; one of the flying pursuers had attempted to knock her out of the tree with a paw-swipe. A growl of frustration flying from its sharp-knife-armed mouth, the creature continued its areal pursuit with its two comrades while the doglike creatures continued their on-foot chase, ready to catch the Nekomata as soon as she was knocked out of the trees.

Suddenly, the Nekomata landed on the branch of another tree and pierced her pack of pursuers a glare, especially at the trio of flying pursuers. Slipping a paw into a pocket of her coat while holding the basket with the lamp and tag with the other; the forked-tailed cat reached into the pocket and produced a small glass bottle. This bottle contained some dark blue, almost black, liquid, and as soon as she had the bottle out in the open and as her pursuers were seconds away from her, evil cackles exploding from their mouths, the Nekomata threw down the bottle and leaped away. A second later, a POOF jabbed at the snow-saturated air as the bottle exploded right in front of the doglike pursuers and before they knew it, they were smothered in a very thick, dark blue smoke cloud as it erupted from the spot where the bottle exploded.

"Ugh… I can't…SEEE!" barked one as it flinched and began to wave at the smoke cloud to disperse it with a paw. In the air, the trio of winged hodgepodge monsters descended to help their doglike creature comrades to disperse the smoke as they also began to cough and splutter as the blue smoke entered their mouths and noses. While her pursuers were distracted and temporarily blinded by the blue smoke from the bottle she had flung down, the Nekomata continued to ascend up the tree branches to a certain spot she knew. On the way up, she flashed a worried glance at her stalled pursuers and shuddered. She knew she didn't have much time and had to save her cargo in her basket before the blue smoke cleared and the three winged beasts pursued her again. Fearing the safety for her cargo in the basket, the Nekomata resumed her ascent up the tree, the blizzard's gusts blasting through her coat and fur and threatening to freeze her or blow her off the branches, which she did not want for her cargo.

As soon as she was near the pinnacle of the tree with her basket containing her cargo, which were four bundles, the Nekomata tapped the branch and shouted into the blizzard air. Within moments, movement in the snowy air ascended from the surrounding trees and approached her, before taking the form of a completely transparent woman, the snow blowing around her as she hovered before the Nekomata on the branch. She was made completely of air, and was a female Narnian air spirit called a _Sylph,_ a being of the air. Narnia had nature spirits living within it. The earth spirits were called _Dryads_ who lived in the trees, while the water sprites were called _Naiads,_ who lived in the seas of Narnia, and the fire sprites were called _Pyros,_ who were very rare. As the Sylph hovered before the Nekomata, the Nekomata offered her basket to the air woman. These two were close, long-time friends and had known each other since the female Nekomata had been a kit. Now in these difficult times, the female Nekomata was begging the air woman to take the basket to safety.

"Please, take my four precious babies outa here and find a suitable foster family for them, safe and away from these hideous minions of the so-called 'Queen'," begged the two-tailed cat as she held the basket, her tears beginning to ooze tears as heartbreak swamped her. In the basket, the four bundles squirmed, indicating that the Nekomata's precious cargo she was trying to escape with were four Nekomata kits. Suddenly, the Sylph and the Nerkomata were jolted by the sounds of a snarl. At this, the pair shot a terrified gaze through the dark, blizzardy branches below and saw a shadowy form rocket in their direction, its eyes flashing menacingly in the dark as they pierced the two. Without hesitation and understanding the dire situation, the Sylph took the basket from the Nekomata's paws and nodded in understanding, before flying off into the trees, carrying the basket with her. The Nekomata mother gazed after her Sylph friend as she glided away with the basket containing her four kits, tears streaming down her cheeks from her eyes like rivers.

"Please, Aslan," she murmured tearfully, "Watch over my four kits and help my Sylph friend find them a suitable foster home, where they will be raised safely away from that false 'Queen's' minions…"

The moment this sentence left her mouth, the creature, one of the winged sabretooth-monkey faced beasts, let loose a snarl and then raised a paw the moment it was near the heartbroken two-tailed cat. As the sound of agonised screams erupted from that tree, the Sylph continued to hastily carry the basket of four kits, now orphaned, into the dark, blizzardy trees, the sounds of hearing her friend's screams of agony piercing her heart and making her flinch.

 **Later**

The blizzardy night continued, the massive flurry of snow blasting across the Narnian landscape with the wind whistling wildly through the trees. In one part of the dark, freezing landscape, something continued to move through the air. The Sylph continued to fly through the trees with the basket of four kits she had been entrusted with by her Nekomata friend. Making sure that the four vulnerable kits were protected from the cold and joined by two other Sylphs, whom she explained about the kits in the basket and that they were in need of a foster home, and quickly, she and her two friends continued to glide through the trees, trying to stay out of the blizzard and protect the kits from the blustering snow. Soon, the three air women found light streaming out from under another snow mound: another snowed under living spot; this time a den. After reaching an agreement that this will be the four kits' foster home, the three Sylphs descended towards the front door of the den and hovered just outside, carrying the basket out of the blizzard in the process. One of them placed the basket of kits gently onto the floor while another knocked to attract the attention of one of the residents.

Moments later, the door opened and in the doorway, two creatures, both of who were catlike appeared. However, these two cats did not walk on two legs like how Nekomatas did. Instead, they were four-footed. They both had a golden pelt smattered with black spots and its eyes had a black stripe running down from below each of them, rather like a river of black ink. Their chests were large but as their bodies reached the waist, the width shrank. Their legs and tail were long and the two cats were streamlined. These two cats were obviously built for running at high speeds, and their spotted coats served as camouflage against any dappled backgrounds, allowing them to be skilled in ambush. This pair of cats was a male and a female, with the male being larger. As the two gazed curiously out into the dark, night, blizzardy air, wondering who had knocked on the door of their den, their gazes moved down to a basket and its contents: four bundles of blankets. As the male moved in to inspect the contents closer, one of the blanket bundles twitched and from one end, a small cat's face emerged. The cat's facial fur was a grey colour and its eyes were large and amber-coloured. Then out of the other three bundles, three more light grey cat faces emerged. Small kitten-like whimpers emitted from their mouths as the little kits squirmed cutely in their cradle. As the male spotted cat continued to examine the kits, the female spotted a sliver of white peering out from behind one of the kits. At this, she approached the basket, reached in with a long paw and took hold of it. As she took out the sliver of white, which was a piece of paper, and began to read the writing on it, the male spotted cat, her mate, said, "These four must be Talking Cat kittens, dear, looks like they have been abandoned."

"No, they're not Talking Cat kittens and they're not abandoned, Dashiell," replied the female spotted cat as she read the sheet of paper, "These are Nekomata kits and it looks like they have been orphaned."

At this, the male cat, named Dashiell, returned his gaze to the four squirming kits, scepticism taking him over.

"Nekomata kits, when young, bear a strong resemblance to Talking Cat kittens," explained the female spotted cat, "They're also usually light grey with a single tail but as they grow, their tail will begin to split from the tip down and their light grey fur colour is shed for a more colourful, adult colouration," she then came over to the basket and gazed at the four kits, "It's obvious that these four are Nekomata kits, and that they are orphaned. I believe we have been entrusted to raise this litter as they now have no-one else to raise them…"

"But we already have three cubs, Honeycomb," replied Dashiell, "And _these_ are _Nekomata kits_. How are we supposed to raise four kits of a completely different cat species?"

At this, the female spotted cat, Honeycomb, placed her paws on the basket and lifted it up, before gazing at her mate, "Well, for one thing, it's freezing and blizzardy out there which will not be good for else kits and two, who else is gonna raise them?"

As she spoke, one of the kits burst into a loud cry, making both the two spotted cats jump. Dashiell flashed a gaze at the screaming and crying kit and sighed.

"I guess we're gonna have to take them in," he said, before his gaze turned to outside, "It's a bit late to take those four kits to somewhere else, anyway."

Honeycomb managed a small smile and with that, she took the basket into the den. She knew that the Nekomata kits needed attention and wanted feeding. Dashiell then turned to follow his mate but not before stealing one last gaze out into the blizzardy night. A sombre look came upon his face as he gazed into the snowy darkness and his ears drooped. Sighing, the male spotted cat entered his den and shut the door.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- a typical day in the frozen land, about some of the Narnian creatures**

 **Ten Narnian years later**

The sun rose into the sky spread out like a massive blanket above the land of Narnia and its surrounding areas. However, the sky was saturated with a miserable shade of grey while the land below was still smothered with a thick blanket of snow, the forests still resembling ice-covered skeletons with icicles hanging off of their branches and the rivers and ponds still frozen snakes and pots of ice, snowed under by the thick blanket of freezing, deep white cotton. The temperatures were still in the sub-zero arctic conditions and in the distance, near the horizon, thick snowclouds were building, implying more snow. The land of Narnia had been like this for the past ten years and any sign of spring, fresh greenery of leaves on the trees and bushes and other plants, as well as flowers and spring-associated creatures like butterflies was still completely absent. Furthermore, the festival of Christmas was still extinct. I reckon you'd be absolutely SICK AND TIRED of seeing white, white, white and feeling nothing but cold, cold and more cold temperatures and air by now, especially with no sign of spring in sight. In fact you and I would probably become sick and tired of conditions such as these in perhaps a few months, much less ten years. That is how the majority of the creatures of Narnia felt but it is not just the cold and frigid conditions that was causing them so much misery and despair…

In a certain snow-smothered den with only holes perforating the blanket which were actually windows to the den with another larger one leading to the door, a certain family of Cheetahs and their housemates were waking up to their usual routine. In the kitchen, two adult Cheetahs were up to their usual morning work in preparing breakfast and setting things up for the morning ahead. Dashiell and his mate Honeycomb were roasting a small bowl of nuts and small pieces of meat over a small fire while one of their housemates was setting the table for the young members of the house, and another was cutting up some fruit with a wood shard shaped like a knife. The housemate setting the table resembled a large brown hare but it had feathered wings and tail, like a bird, which were also brown with countless spots of white sprinkled over them. This creature was called a 'skvader', and they were a species of Narnian creature that were essentially hares with the feathered wings and tail like those of a game bird, while the one cutting the fruit was a large hedgehog. Dashiell and his family shared their den with several other creatures, with the Skvader and the Hedgehog being two of them. A number of other creatures were also present and they were scattered throughout the den performing the other morning housework chores, such as brushing the snow off the lower lips of the windows and tidying up. Two of the creatures were also rabbit or hare-like creatures but had antlers like a stag, with the female having shorter antlers than the male; three more were hedgehogs and were related to the Hedgehog chopping up the fruit. Another was a large bat, another was a parrot, another was a monkey and still another was a beaver, and these creatures were sweeping the floor with brooms made from wooden sticks with smaller, more flexible twigs forming the bristles at one end. In the middle of the room, another fire was burning on a wooden lampstand-like construct. The fire was flickering from a cluster of twigs and flameproof cloth to prevent the flames from spreading to the rest of the lamp's body. This fire lamp was the only source of heat for the den and some of the animals were dressed up in thick coats for it was extremely cold despite it being a sunny morning, and the fire lamp was powered by a fire sprite called a Pyro.

As the Skvader, which was a female, continued laying the table, which was nothing more than a very simple large and thick wooden log disc mounted on another, smaller log disc to form the table, by setting out the plates, Dashiell came in.

"Are the young Cheetahs, Nekomata and the other young 'uns up yet, Mensa?" asked the older male Cheetah. At this, the Skvader gazed up at the spotted cat.

"Um, no, Dashiell, I don't think so," replied the bird-winged and tailed hare as she set the next plate down. At this, the Bat came in. He was a large winged mammal and had ginger body fur, a grey head and black membranous wings, and was about the same size as the Jackalopes (the antlered hares).

"I'll get them up," he said and with that, he fluttered off, his cape-like wings sweeping at the air.

"Well, make sure you do, Shadewing," said Honeycomb as she turned one of the small meat pieces in the pan with a wooden spatula so that its topside would become the underside to be cooked, "Breakfast is nearly ready."

The Bat named Shadewing nodded and fluttered off to a corridor leading to the other compartment in the den.

Dashiell and his family and housemates' den consisted of two compartments. The larger, main one was used as a kitchen, dining and living room while the other, smaller one which was joined to the larger by a short corridor was used as sleeping quarters. Poverty was absolutely rife and rampant amongst the majority of Narnian creatures, mainly due to the sheer winter that had lasted for 35 Narnian years now. Because of this, many of the creatures had been forced to share their homes and whatever meagre resources they had for many of them, living alone was impossible due to the extreme conditions. This was especially the case for the Bats such as Shadewing, the Pterosaurs, and other Narnian creatures in which winter was very often a difficult time for them. Shadewing used to live with some other Bats in a roost and was a husband to a female bat and a father to a Bat pup, a son, but he had since become a widower who had lost both of them at some point in his past and before Dashiell took him in. Amongst the animals that had offered to share their homes and resources with the other animals, Dashiell and his mate were one of the pairs for their den was quite large despite being a two-compartment building. Also because of the cold, growing crops was rendered almost completely impossible. Even in a magical place like Narnia, crops still needed the warmth and light of the sun to grow and produce food but due to the extreme, eternal winter, the growing of outdoor crops was rendered impossible but some, but very, very few, of the creatures had managed to improvise by growing indoor plants, but even that was not easy. The two Jackalopes had a fruit tree growing in a large pot one corner of the main den compartment and had to constantly keep checking on it to make sure that it did not wither with the freezing conditions, but the Jackalopes had managed to concoct a special fertiliser made from several ingredients, some magical, to help it grow and bear fruit despite the conditions and to help keep food on the table. However, there was a massive factor that made this even more difficult as we will see later.

Shadewing touched down before the entrance to the sleeping compartment, walked in and laid his eyes on some sleeping forms of the younger members of the family and group comfortably curled up together in a smaller bed, wrapped up in thick blankets, their eyes tight shut and their minds in slumber-land. Three of them were young Cheetahs, one was a Skvader kit, one was a Jackalope kit, one was a Parrot chick and four were young cats with split tails. Opposite the young members' bed were several more beds belonging to the adults of the family such as Dashiell and Honeycomb but they were empty and tidied up for the adults were already awake, but Shadewing the Bat's 'bed' was a branch for Narnian Bats, like our world's bats, hung upside down from their feet when they slept. Shadewing went over to the sleeping youngsters, hooked his wing-thumbs onto the blanket and pulled it from over them.

"Alright, kids, time to get up," said the bat as he peeled the warm covering from the sleeping kids, making them wince as the warm covering was stripped and replaced by the frigid air. One of the split-tailed cats' paws rose above his head and felt for the blanket, wondering where it had gone. Then Shadewing tossed aside the blanket, climbed onto the bed and nudged the Parrot chick, one of the Cheetah cubs and the Jackalope kit.

"Come on Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw," he said, his eyes starting from the three Cheetah cubs and sliding over the rest of the youngsters and as he continued to nudge each of them, "Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia," his eyes passed over the Parrot chick, the Skvader kit and the Jackalope kit respectively, before his eyes moved over the four young Nekomata, "Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Kushanku, wake up please. Breakfast is nearly ready."

The sounds of various young animal groans entered the air as the ten youngsters woke up, stretched their arms, legs and wings and reluctantly moved to get out of the bed.

The four Nekomata kits were now grown up and were named Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Kushanku. The first two were male, the third was female and the youngest was male. They resembled regular Narnian Cats and had all their features, such as their lithe bodies and amber feline eyes, but they had several big differences separating them from the Narnian regular Cats. First off, they were bipedal and walked on their hind feet, and their tails were bifurcated or forked. However, because they were still young, their tails were only split a quarter of the way down. When they grow and age further, their tails will continue to divide towards where their tail joined their body until they possessed two tails when they were full grown adult Nekomata. All four kits possessed fur colours of regular Narnian Cats and the cats of our world on most of their coats. The older two brothers Nyarth and Satoshi resembled tabby cats with drab brown, black and reddish striped fur while the sister Akira resembled a calico, having a white pelt with a smatter of black and ginger blotches. The younger brother Kushanku, however, had a quite different fur colour. The fur covering most of his head and upper body was light grey, like a pale Russian grey cat but from his chest level downwards, his fur took on a metallic icy blue hue which glinted like the surface of ice every time light struck it. Kushanku also possessed a mop of white hair that cascaded down the sides and back of his head like a frozen waterfall, and whenever he got angry, exited or afraid, this white mop of hair would suddenly flare out. His older three siblings also had patches of metallic fur smattered over their pelt: Nyarth and Satoshi's tabby cat-like fur was strewn with patches of metallic grey while Akira's calico-like pelt was smattered with metallic aqua blue that was far bluer than Kushanku's icy blue body fur, and Kushanku's older siblings also had prominent head fur. Satoshi and Nyarth's head hair was a bush of fur with Nyarth's being black and brown and Satoshi's being ginger, and Akira's was a pile of metallic aqua blue curly hair similar to Kushanku's straighter white hair. Much of the four Nekomata's fur traits were possessed by their late mother whose fur also had metallic icy blue, aqua blue and metallic grey fur, and she must have passed on these traits to her four kits but when Kushanku and his three older siblings were very young, they resembled pale grey cats with a single tail.

Nekomata kits strongly resembled the kittens of regular Narnian Cats when very young but when they reached the age of five Narnian years, their tail will begin to split from the tip down and they gain the ability to walk on their hind legs, learning to walk in a similar manner to Human toddlers albeit on their toes and not on their entire foot for Nekomata walked on their hind foot toes. The tail splitting process was painless and it was a natural thing for Nekomata as it was in their genes, but the tail of their highly similar cousin who had remarkably similar traits including bipedalism, the Bakeneko, remained single, giving these Cats a resemblance to regular Narnian Cats that walked upright on the toes of their hind feet. Also, the fur of both Nekomata and Bakeneko changed colour as they aged, and their baby grey fur is shed and replaced by a sub-adult pelt at the same time a Nekomata's tail begins to split from the tip down. This developmental process was similar to how the chicks of many Bird species would shed their downy feathers in exchange for an adult plumage as they matured. Furthermore, Nekomata and Bakeneko were both species of magical Cats who possessed a few magical abilities which also developed as they aged. As kits however, any sign of magical ability was largely dormant, but those signs will begin to manifest as the kits aged.

Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Kushanku's adopted Cheetah cub siblings, brothers Gingerfur and Sandstorm, and younger sister Amberpaw, were the biological offspring of Dashiell and Honeycomb, the four Nekomata kits' adopted parents. They now resembled adult Cheetahs but were still small. Narnian Cheetahs had a longer cub-hood than our world's cheetahs, and the young of Narnian Cheetahs don't reach maturity until they entered their teens, rather like our world's humans. This aging and maturation was common throughout many of the Talking Creatures of Narnia, though some have an earlier puberty than others. Nekomata and Bakeneko do not reach maturity until they were twenty years old, so Kushanku and his older siblings were still young. The other three kids were a female red and orange Parrot chick named Crystal, a male white and brown Skvader kit named Snowwing (whose downy feathered wings were white like the snow covering the landscape outside; much like Narnian Birds and the birds of our world, young Skvader bore downy feathers as youngsters), and a female brown and black Jackalope kit named Dahlia. Though she was a Jackalope, Dahlia resembled a regular Hare kit and was yet to get her antlers when she reached her teens. Jackalopes did not get their antlers until they were around fifteen Narnian years old and thus resembled regular hare kits when young, and unlike Deer and other Cervids, both sexes of the Jackalope possessed antlers though the female's antlers were smaller than the male's. Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia were still young kids and Crystal's mother was named Rubyfeather, who had red feathers with some of the flight feathers in her wings giving off an iridescent metallic sheen; Snowwing's mother was named Mensa; and Dahlia's father and mother were named Hopper and Daisytail respectively.The Beaver was named Chiseltooth and the Monkey was named Rosemary, and Dashiell's den was also inhabited by a Pyro named Emberflame. Emberflame's job was to help provide heat for Dashiell and his family and group and also to warm up the food for cooking. She was one of the very few fire women for the extreme winter and its cold had made conditions for Pyros to live for they needed heat to thrive. Rather like Sylphs, the women of the air; the nature, tree and plant spirits called Dryads and the water spirits called Naiads and Nymphs, Pyros have the ability to take the shape of a woman. Their appearance resembled a flaming woman made of fire, much like how the Sylphs' appearance resembled a transparent air woman, a Naiad or Nymph's appearance resembled men and women made of water, and a Dryad's appearance resembled a man or woman made of leaves and petals. A subtype of Pyro, called a Lightning Pyro, was made of sparking electricity. These beings were mostly male.

As soon as the younger members of Dashiell's family were up, Shadewing prepared to lead them down the corridor to the main compartment. However, two or three of the youngsters, Nyarth and Gingerfur, attempted to return to bed for they hated being out in the cold. As the other eight youngsters prepared to make their way to the main compartment through the corridor, Shadewing caught the oldest Nekomata and Cheetah adolescent leap back into the simple bed construct and pull the blanket over themselves.

"Nyarth, Gingerfur," shouted the Bat as he saw the two cover themselves with the thick sheet and went over to them, "It's time to get up!"

As the Bat went over to drag those two most reluctant youngsters out of the bed, Snowwing the Skvader kit folded his paws and shook his head, an indignant and annoyed look on his face.

"Every morning," he muttered to the other seven. Then Crystal fluffed up her red and orange plumage and wrapped her wings around herself and shuddered. From her beak, a puff of steam emerged with her breath.

"It sure is cold, I can tell you," she squeaked, "it would be great to feel the warmth of the sun on us."

"What, in this frigid weather?" muttered Satoshi, the cold air also enveloping him, Akira and Kushanku and making the three Nekomata's fur bush and drawing their forelimbs, which were arms for Nekomata were bipedal cats, around themselves, and as steam of condensed air in their breaths also left their mouths as they breathed out, "I doubt it."

"It's always been snow, ice and frost for as long as we know anyway," said Sandstorm as he stood with Amberpaw, before the young Cheetah's gaze moved to the white landscape through the bedroom window partially covered by a thin, tatty sheet forming a crude curtain that fluttered in the frosty air as it blew through the window. This 'curtain' was barely thick enough to keep the frigid air outside and the warmth in. Since Dashiell and his group were so poor with few resources, the sewers of the group, such as Snowwing's mother Mensa, could not make any curtains thick enough to block out the freezing air of outside. Then Kushanku, the youngest Nekomata, flashed a gaze at his adopted Cheetah brother. Because he, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth, along with their adopted Cheetah siblings Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw, had been born during the eternal winter, they had not seen what the Narnian landscape looked like when it was spring, summer and autumn their entire lives for those three seasons were now obsolete. The only landscape they were familiar with was white, snow, ice, and blizzards. This was also the case with the younger members Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia the Jackalope kit. Like the seven cats, the Parrot chick, Skvader kit and Jackalope kit had never seen expanses of fresh green grasses, green leaves on trees, blue skies and a multi-coloured sprinkle of flowers on the green canvas all their lives either, and some of them had dreamt of seeing such landscapes rather than the boring, dull, perpetual land of white, grey and leafless trees saturated with freezing temperatures that overshadowed the sun's warm rays, and the blizzards that sometimes blasted the landscape, all the time.

As soon as Shadewing had dragged a grumbling and squirming Nyarth and Gingerfur out of the bed, things like, "It's TOO COLD!" and "I don't WANNA GET UP!" flying from their mouths and disgruntled looks plastering their faces, the Bat commanded them and the other eight to make their way to the main compartment, which they did. As the group of four Nekomata and three Cheetahs including a still-very-reluctant Nyarth and Gingerfur, Parrot chick, and the Jackalope and Skvader kits appeared from the corridor and made their way to the table, Mensa had finished adjusting the position of the plates, utensils and other dining equipment while Honeycomb, Chiseltooth the Beaver and Hopper, the father of Dahlia, came in with the cooked food. The four Hedgehogs namedRosebush, Spikeball, Quill and Thorn, who were a cousin and three brothers, came in with Rosemary the Monkey, Rubyfeather the Parrot and Crystal's single mother, and Dahlia's mother Daisytail and as soon as they were near the table, they sat around the disc on small pieces of cylindrical logs the group used as makeshift seats. The group was then joined by Shadewing, Dashiell, Chiseltooth, Mensa, Honeycomb and Hopper as soon as they had finished checking on the ten kids and had placed the food on the plates. As the other adults sat on their log seats of choice, Kushanku, Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi gazed at the contents on their plates. They were a few roasted nuts, slices of fruit and one small pieces of meat each. As they gazed at the meals, another disgruntled look came upon Nyarth's face.

"Right, let's eat," said Dashiell and with that, knives and forks were picked up and were plunged into the food, before they were lifted up to mouths and beaks and consumed. Kushanku continued to gaze at his meal, picked up a fork and began to fiddle with the piece of meat on his plate while Akira, Satoshi and a very reluctant Nyarth set to placing their first morsels of choice into their mouths. As the youngest Nekomata continued to gaze at his breakfast and fiddle with it, Honeycomb shot him a concerned look.

"Something wrong, Kushanku?" asked she. At this, the light grey and metallic powder blue Nekomata flinched and shot his adopted Cheetah mother a surprised look.

"What? Oh, no, Mother," he replied sheepishly, "I was just… gazing at the selection of food on our plates," he then jabbed his fork into one of the fruit slices and stared at it, "surely there are _other_ pieces of food that we could include."

"Yes, I'm getting SICK AND TIRED of seeing the SAME types of food on our plates EVERY DAY!" shouted Nyarth sat two seats from Kushanku, snapping the youngest Nekomata's gaze in his direction, along with that of Akira and Satoshi. Nyarth wore a disgruntled, grumbling look on his face, and he was glaring bitterly at the piece of meat on his fork and the roasted nuts and fruit on his plates. At this, Dashiell shot his oldest adopted Nekomata son an annoyed look while the others continued eating, some of them also sharing the head Cheetah's annoyed glare towards Nyarth as well.

"Look, Nyarth," snapped the male Cheetah, "This is ALL we have," his paw then went to gesture to the landscape outside the den through one of the windows, also with a thin piece of cloth serving as a curtain for it. Each of the den's windows had one of these thin, tattered cloths hanging above them to serve as crude curtains. Dashiell went on to explain to a grumbling Nyarth the reasons why nuts, small pieces of meat and fruit were the only food available, "This winter has been going on for YEARS and we have been FORCED to make do with whatever we receive or grow indoors…"

At this, the Jackalope couple, Hopper and Daisytail, nodded in agreement as they remembered their fruit tree they were caring for was soon to bear fruit. Then one of the Hedgehogs, Spikeball, turned to the Cheetahs.

"Oh, that reminds me," said he, "Today is our monthly Food Delivery Day from the delivery Eagles and Owls from the Food Black Market."

"We must get ready to greet them when they come to knock on our den's door," added Rosebush.

"Oh, yes, I forgot about that," said Dashiell, "Thanks for reminding me of that, Rosebush and Spikeball."

The two Hedgehogs nodded and resumed eating their breakfast. Then Dashiell returned his scolding glare at Nyarth as the oldest Nekomata pushed away the plate, "Now you will EAT that breakfast, young kit, or you will NOT be allowed to leave the table. Is that clear?"

No reply, except a bitter return glare from Nyarth. Dashiell hardened his scolding glare, "I said, is THAT CLEAR!?"

Nyarth reluctantly nodded and replied, "Yes, Father," and resumed eating his breakfast, much to Dashiell's satisfied smile. Kushanku then began to eat his breakfast, a cautious look fixed on Nyarth and Dashiell. As the family continued to eat, Kushanku gazed at Dashiell.

"Pops," he said.

"Yes, my adopted son," said Dashiell.

"When that food arrives," said Kushanku, "Do you think we should keep all of it?"

At this, Rubyfeather the Parrot, who sat next to her daughter Crystal, shot the Nekomata a stern gaze.

"Oh, no, we shouldn't, Kushanku," said she. At this, Kushanku's eyes blinked in confusion.

"Why?" he asked.

"Kushanku," said Honeycomb, "You've asked about this COUNTLESS times now."

"Yes," put in a very irritated Shadewing, "Especially every month."

Suddenly, a shout from one of the kids erupted from across the table.

"Hey, DAHLIA!" shouted Snowwing, "Those are MY PIECES OF FRUIT!"

At this, Kushanku snapped his gaze from Honeycomb and Rubyfeather to a certain Jackalope kit and saw that she had seized some of the fruit slices from Snowwing's plate and had greedily shoved them into her mouth, much to Snowwing's anger. Then Hopper and Daisytail entered rebuking mode.

"Dahlia, you apologise to Snowwing this MINUTE!" barked Hopper to a flinching Dahlia as she swallowed the fruit she had snaffled from Snowwing's plate. The other members rolled their eyes at Dahlia's greedy behaviour before Honeycomb resumed her explanation of the delivered food to Kushanku.

"When we get our food from the delivery Owls and Eagles," she said, "We MUST set aside around ninety percent of the total amount that we obtain."

"The same applies to the amount of ripe fruit that our tree bears as well," added Daisytail, flashing a stern glance at Dahlia as she apologised to Snowwing and Mensa for snatching some of the former's fruit. Kushanku's head tipped to one side.

"Set aside ninety percent of the food?" he asked, "For whom?"

"Oh, Kushanku, you know for whom," said Shadewing slightly irritated, "For the Queen of Narnia of course."

"As soon as the delivery Eagles and Owls have gone," continued Chiseltooth the Beaver, "We will get more visitors, and they are the from the Queen's castle and when they do," the Beaver's gaze hardened, "We MUST give that food to them for them to take to the Queen and her highest ranking followers."

"And if we don't comply?" asked Akira while a confused frown formed on Kushanku's face. This question was answered with a dark look from some of the adults.

"Well, if we don't…" said Rosemary the monkey as she held her fork jabbed into one of the roasted nuts. However, she trailed off, not wanting to speak of the consequences.

"Or what?" asked Satoshi timidly. However, the only answer he got was complete silence and a fearful, dark and serious gaze from Rosemary, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Shadewing and Rubyfeather. This led to Kushanku, Akira and Satoshi to exchange confused and timid glances and to disgruntlement igniting within Nyarth as he glared bitterly at the small breakfast on his plate again.

"Well, so what?" growled the oldest Nekomata bitterly, "If the Queen really CARES for us, then why doesn't she allow us to have more food on our plates with a greater variety rather than this… meagre… BORING… selection of this… MISERABLE STUFF ALL THE TIME!?"

"Nyarth, watch your tongue!" scolded Thorn, the youngest of the Hedgehog brothers and Rosebush's three cousins, "If the Queen's food collectors hear you say that about Her Majesty and her rules, they could bestow upon you some very serious consequences."

"What consequences?" asked Kushanku as fright tore through Nyarth and made him shudder, vaporising all his bitterness about the 'boring' meals. At this, Dashiell intervened.

"Let's just resume eating our breakfast, guys," he said, "We'll tell our kids about the Queen's rules when they are older."

And with that, all 23 Animals resumed eating their breakfast. Kushanku then gazed at Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi and also Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, and Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia who, in turn, gazed back at the youngest Nekomata with curious, confused and fearful looks. What did Thorn mean by 'very serious consequences'? This question had been bothering the ten youngsters for a long time now and still Dashiell and the other adults had refused to tell them because in their eyes, the ten kids and pre-adolescents were 'still too young' to understand yet. However, pushing that rather frightening fact aside, the ten youngsters resumed eating their breakfast.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- the food delivery and sorting according to the Queen's laws**

After Dashiell and his family of Cheetahs, adopted Nekomata kits and additional family members had finished their rather simple breakfast, everyone rose from their seats and dispersed from the log disc table until only Honeycomb, Rubyfeather, Rosebush and Daisytail were left to clear away the plates and cutlery to wash and put away. Gingerfur, Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Kushanku went straight for the crystalline TV-like screen while Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal went to play with some of the toys Dashiell and his family had for the young members of the family.

"I wonder what's on TV today," said Sandstorm as he, his brother and sister and four adopted Nekomata siblings sat around the crystalline screen mounted on a wooden cube. The TVs in Narnia were flat, crystalline planes, and were Narnia's equivalent to our own world's TVs, and were used for broadcasting programmes, mainly from the Queen's palace. However, the TV system in Narnia had some magical traits even though the crystalline plane screens behaved like the screens our world's TV sets had. Very, very, VERY few creatures in Narnia had this TV system in their homes and Dashiell and his family were amongst this tiny handful of creatures to have one. And like our world's TVs, the TVs of Narnia were operated by a type of remote, although the remote used magical waves to operate the device. Sandstorm then switched on the TV and then seized the remote which resembled a crystalline cuboid with smaller, cylindrical crystalline buttons adorning its top, and pressed the 'on' button, the remote aimed for the screen. As the shiny mirror-like screen flashed to life, the seven cubs and kits all sat down and prepared to watch the broadcasted programme of the morning. As the seven fixed their eyes on the crystalline screen, Mensa came by.

"Don't get too focussed on that TV, you seven," said the Skvader and Snowwing's mother, "It'll be time for lessons soon."

"Not to mention the food delivery, which should be any minute now," added Shadewing and with that, the Bat flashed a glance at the clock (Some of Narnia's inhabitants also had clocks like we do in our world) and registered the time. Then he left to help Honeycomb as she prepared to wash the eating equipment in a very simple sink with Rubyfeather, Rosebush and Daisytail. Kushanku then turned to Mensa and asked, "What subject will we be learning in our lessons?"

"It's the prehistory of Narnia, little adopted brother," said Amberpaw with a wide smile as the crystalline TV screen began to display some moving images, like how our world's electronic equivalents did, "I overheard Mom and Dad discuss about it while we were getting ready for breakfast."

Kushanku's head tipped to one side. "Prehistory?" he squeaked confused.

"It's the past of Narnia before recorded history," explained Sandstorm, "and we're gonna learn how we, and Narnia and its universe as a whole, came to be."

"But…" began Akira when suddenly, a knock on the door sounded, cutting her off and making her, the other three Nekomata kits and the three Cheetah cubs turn their attention to the door. Shadewing ran over to the door.

"I've got it," he said. He was followed by Rosemary the monkey who beckoned the four Nekomata and three Cheetah cubs to come over. At this, Kushanku, Akira and Sandstorm exchanged glances with Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Nyarth and Satoshi before abandoning their sitting spots before the magical TV and converged in a beeline towards the door after Rosemary and Shadewing. As the group neared the door and Shadewing opened it, bringing in a gust of frigid air that made the Bat, along with the Monkey, the Cheetah and Nekomata youngsters flinch, the group was greeted by a small flock of Owls and Eagles, all of them dressed in coats and many of them with sacks in their large talons. However, two of the delivery group members resembled humanoid women with feathered wings with claws, and tails and talons like the Owls and Eagles, their feathers and hair being a ginger and orange colour with a metallic sheen strewn through their feathers. These two creatures were called 'Harpies' and they were essentially humanoid creatures with the wings, tails and talons of an eagle, similar to how Centaurs were humanoids with the body of a horse and how Fauns were humanoid creatures with their legs resembling the hooves of a goat, alongside a pair of horns on their heads in many. As Shadewing's group greeted the lead deliverer, which was a lead Owl, that Owl said, "Food delivery for Dashiell and his family," which was accompanied by some of the other Owls, Eagles and one of the Harpies coming forward with the sacks. Shadewing and Rosemary smiled, gave the group a polite, thankful nod and took hold of the sacks which were full of food. Kushanku and the other six youngsters with him did the same and soon, the food sacks were taken into Dashiell's den. Dashiell, Chiseltooth the Beaver and Rosebush's cousins Spikeball, Quill and Thorn the Hedgehogs came in to help. As the group took in the sacks of food, Kushanku examined the amount of food in each sack as Shadewing and Dashiell began to check with the lead Owl and his group as the latter began to deliver further instructions. Scattered throughout the den, Honeycomb and the other family members continued with the washing up of the pots and tidying.

"Her Majesty the Imperial Queen's visitors will be coming by to collect the ninety percent of your weekly delivery of food, Dashiell," said the Owl, "So make sure that you set aside that ninety percent and make sure that all the food in that offering is the best of the delivery."

"Yes, and make sure that you do not include any of the fruit and other food that looks bruised or damaged," added one of the Eagles, a female, "All of the food in the offering to the Queen and her highest ranking followers should be as best as possible."

At this, the eyes of Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira flashed in confusion as they helped the Hedgehogs set down the sacks and prepare to empty them of their contents while Nyarth's face formed a look of utter distain. In the delivery group, one of the Harpies, a female with red hair and metallic orange feathers on her wings, tail and lower feathered legs, and yellow talons put on an uncertain look, especially as she gazed at Dashiell's family and at the Cheetah and Nekomata kids. Dashiell nodded in understanding to the Owl and Eagle's instructions as some of the other Owls, Eagles and the two Harpies checked the larger bag containing more food sacks to be delivered to the other animals and creatures.

"We will," said the head Cheetah, "You have a safe journey and be careful of any blizzards."

"We will," said another Owl as he and his comrades took hold of the large bag with their talons. Then within moments, the delivery group was off, and Dashiell shut the door. As soon as he had done that, the adult Cheetah male went over to Shadewing, the Hedgehogs, the three Cheetah cubs, the four Nekomata kits, the Beaver and the Monkey as they began to sift through the food, and began to help.

The food delivery consisted of a variety of fruit, among them apples and bananas; vegetables like carrots; game creatures like dumb (ordinary, non-talking) pigeons and other creatures and a variety of nuts. As the group sorted through the food and set aside the best in the ninety percent to be delivered, Kushanku gazed at the apples in his paws before moving his eyes to the fruit in Rosemary's hands as she segregated the unbruised and undamaged fruit and veg from the bruised and damaged ones. The former went into the pile to be offered to the Queen while the latter went into the pile to be packed away into Dashiell and his family's food storage for future use. At this, Kushanku frowned and returned his gaze to the two apples in his paws. One was green and the other red and yellow and the red and yellow one had a large, unsightly bruise on its side, as though it had been badly punched in that area leading to the dark patch. Then Kushanku used a finger in his other paw to feel that bruised spot and noticed that it felt very soft. Much of the food Dashiell and his family had left to eat was often bruised and/or had pieces of their flesh torn away, and the nuts and meat had also sometimes not been very palatable either. To add, some of the youngsters in Dashiell's family, such as Crystal and Dahlia, still felt very peckish for the meals the group ate were very small portions, and Kushanku also felt his stomach begin to rumble. At this, the youngest Nekomata kit gazed down to his rumbling tummy and placed a paw on it. It was clear that the breakfast portion had been small and his stomach was not even half-full. In fact, Kushasnku and the rest of the family had always had very small meals with most of the food either bruised or badly damaged as they had to give away the best food to the Queen's food collectors. As Kushanku was about to allow a wave of lament at the hunger to overtake him to the point of the temptation to complain to take hold, Dashiell's voice pulled his attention from his partially full stomach to the little commotion stirring up.

"Nyarth, take that pear out of your mouth this minute. We're not finished with the sorting of our food yet!" shouted the adult male Cheetah, his rebuking frown on a certain Nekomata that had a pear very close to his open mouth, his teeth about to plunge into it. At this, Nyarth's face morphed into a very disgruntled glare and he reluctantly did as he was told. Then the oldest of the Nekomata quads dropped his paw and the pear and sat back bitterly.

"I'm STILL hungry," he muttered, "Why can't we at least eat some of the food we have just received?"

"Nyarth, you've just had your breakfast," said Chiseltooth as he placed some of the best bananas into the to-be-collected pile, "I'm afraid you're gonna have to wait until lunch."

"Yes, we MUST preserve some of our food stocks if we are to avoid starvation," put in Dashiell, to which Kushanku, Akira and Satoshi exchanged glances, "Now shut up and resume placing the best food into the Queen's collection pile."

Nyarth, however, was so saturated with bitterness, especially from his rumbling tummy that he was just about past caring. It was clear that the past ten Narnian years of such small meals, with larger, fulling ones being very rare, few and far between, was finally getting to Nyarth and some of the other kids in Dashiell's family (and even the adults though they were able to conceal their complaints better than some of the kids). Then Nyarth stole a glare at Dashiell, turned that glare to the pear in his paw and returned it to his mouth. He opened his mouth and placed his teeth just above the skin of the fruit in defiance.

"Nyarth, don't you even THINK of taking a bite out of that pear," growled Dashiell in rebuke. Rosemary nodded in agreement. "Yes, take that pear away from your mouth, Nyarth," she added. However, Nyarth defiantly kept the pear in his mouth and threatened to sink his teeth into its flesh to take a chunk out of it, and Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and also Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw could clearly see the boiling anger on the faces of Dashiell, the Hedgehogs, Shadewing and Rosemary as their glares converged on the defiant oldest Nekomata kit.

"Nyarth, do as your adopted father says," commanded Quill as he, Thorn and Spikeball glared at the Nekomata. No compliance and refusal to obey.

"Nyarth, this isn't a joke you know," said Thorn, "That pear is one of the best in the pile and we are required by the Queen's orders that we hand her the best of our delivered food to her in the ninety percent portions that we give her."

"No take that pear out of your mouth and place it into the to-be-collected pile," said Spikeball in a rebuking voice. Still no compliance and Nyarth's teeth moved closer to the pear's surface skin such that his fangs were now in contact with the fruit. Kushanku continued to gaze at his older brother and began to think again about letting his urge to complain get the better of him.

This wasn't the first time this had happened. The previous times Nyarth and also Gingerfur, Sandstorm and at times Satoshi, Snowwing the Skvader kit, Dahlia the Jackalope kit, and Crystal the Parrot chick had disobeyed these orders and had either sneaked aside a best apple or other fruit or had taken a bite out of one in front of the adults had landed them on the receiving end of a harsh punishment set upon them by Dashiell and Honeycomb. Then a memory of Kushanku himself disobeying his adopted parents and the other adults like this flashed in his mind and he remembered how he had been forced to shovel away the deep snow walling the entrance to the den under the strict eye of Honeycomb after he had been caught sneaking away some best bananas and apples from the to-be-collected pile by Daisytail and Hopper the Jackalopes, and that punishment had been completely unpleasant for the poor Nekomata and he actually thought he was going to catch a very bad cold, for that day it had been absolutely freezing. Not to mention the hard work that had to be injected and it made Kushanku's muscles groan and ache from the effort.

The giving of ninety percent of the food delivered, or the food grown indoors such as the Jackalope's fruit tree, to the Queen and her highest ranking followers had always been a very strict rule that EACH and EVERY creature living in the frigid land of Narnia had to do, weather they liked it or not, and that ninety percent must contain ALL the best food in that 'offering'. If they did not comply, they would be dragged away to the Queen and severely punished. Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth did not know what kind of punishment the Queen bestowed on the disobedient yet but Kushanku daren't think of those consequences. However, the giving of that much food to the Queen always came with a severe side-effect; there was always little left for the animals to eat and that remaining ten percent most often consisted of bruised and damaged food that often had a very unappetising appearance. No wonder so many creatures were struggling to keep their bellies full and ravenous hunger, even to the point of starvation, was not an uncommon thing throughout the winter-trapped land of Narnia. Because of this, many of the oppressed animals were beginning to despise this law and bear a massive grudge against the Queen and her followers for making these rules, alongside the other oppressive laws that female dictator had set upon the poor creatures, and sooner or later, that volcano of rebellion will begin to erupt. Something has got to give at some point.

Suddenly, Kushanku, together with Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Gingerfur and Amberpaw, all jumped into the air as though the ground under them had suddenly sprouted spikes as Dashiell's voice exploded right at Nyarth, the Cheetah's anger at the Nekomata's disobedience having finally erupted. The fruit and veg they had in their paws were dropped and the six backed away as they watched the head Cheetah lunge at Nyarth and seized him by the arm.

"LOOK, if you are GONNA BE CHILDISH and REBELLIOUS," bellowed Dashiell as he began to drag the screaming and balling Nyarth away from the group and in the direction of the corridor to the sleeping quarters, "Then YOU SHALL have an EARLY NIGHT, shall NOT PARTICIPATE IN OUR LESSONS and FACE WHATEVER PENALTY US GROWN-UPS decide to GIVE YOU…"

As Dashiell dragged a tantrum-erupting Nyarth away, Kushanku shot a timid gaze in the direction of where his brother had been and saw a pear; that same one Nyarth had in his paw and mouth, lying on the floor, a bite-shaped crater gouged into its side. Kushanku then arrived at only one conclusion.

"He's bitten into it," whispered Amberfur near him. Kushanku flashed his adopted Cheetah cub sister a gaze and said nothing while Satoshi, Akira, Gingerfur and Sandstorm continued watching Dashiell then shove Nyarth into the sleeping room at the other end of the corridor and slam the door hard, shutting the screaming and crying Nyarth in the sleeping quarters and leaving him to throw a MASSIVE paddy. As Dashiell came out of the corridor and returned to the large living quarters of the den, he was met with a convergence of stunned looks from the others in his den, including Honeycomb, Rubyfeather, Rosebush and Daisytail, who had been disturbed from the washing up and putting away of the eating tools by the commotion stirred up by Nyarth's defiance and tantrum. At this, Dashiell put on a firm look, raised his front paws and said, "Look, just continue with your tasks, okay? We'll deal with Nyarth later."

At this, the other family members exchanged glances and resumed their tasks, with Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Sandstorm resuming their task of helping Shadewing, Thorn, Quill, Spikeball, Chiseltooth and Rosemary with finishing the sorting of the delivered food into the Queen's pile without any complaints or hesitation for fear that they might end up facing the same consequences as Nyarth as well, while Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal hastily rushed over to Honeycomb's group to help with the washing of the eating tools.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- It's the year of the Decadal Fighting League, a sense of unfairness**

Some time later, Honeycomb, Rubyfeather, Rosebush and Daisytail, together with Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal, had finished packing away the eating utensils after drying them and had dispersed to tend to other tasks. Dashiell and the others apart from Nyarth who was still throwing his paddy in the sleeping quarters also dispersed to do chores around the den, though Thorn and Quill had opted to stay by the ninety percent two-be-collected food until the Queen's food collectors arrived. As the group dispersed with the kids excluding Nyarth returning to before the magical TV, Kushanku turned his gaze to the Jackalope couple and Dahlia's parents, Hopper and Daisytail, as they left to tend to their indoor fruit tree. Curiousity welling within him, the youngest Nekomata kit broke away from the other eight kids and followed the Jackalopes. A few seconds later, Kushanku was a short distance away from the fruit tree as Hopper and Daisytail examined the fruit borne by the plant. The fruit had a beautiful golden colour to their skins though some possessed darker orange or lighter yellow ochre patches on one side or nearer the top or bottom, the gold colour fading to those shades. There was quite a number of these fruit that their gold colour was practically interspersing the greenery of the leaves, the only greenery Kushanku and the other nine kids including Nyarth had ever seen in their entire lives. And based on their plumpness and firmness, these fruit looked ready to be picked.

"Our tree's doing quite well despite the limited magic fertiliser we've had this year, eh, Hopper?" said Daisytail as she admired the ripening fruit, one of the golden balls in her paw.

"Yep," said Hopper with a small smile as he checked the tree's soil to see if it needed topping up with water, "We've done well to grow those fruit."

As he said this, Kushanku took a few more steps closer when Daisytail's eyes found him.

"Oh, Kushanku," said the female Jackalope when she spotted him and as she let go of the fruit, "What are you doing here?"

"You're supposed to be getting ready for lesson time," said Hopper. Kushanku then gazed at the fruit on the Jackalopes' indoor tree.

"Are you gonna pick those fruit to add to our stock of food in the coming weeks?" he asked, before sliding his eyes over the fruit on the tree's branches, estimating the number of them, "I can see you've managed to grow enough to feed all twenty-one of us for a couple of weeks or so, with possibly quite a few more left over…"

At this, Hopper hopped over to him and smiled.

"I believe we have done well this year, young Nekomata," he said, before flashing a proud gaze at the fruit number, "It has not been easy growing those fruit in these constant snowy and frigid conditions that we've been having for years and years but we certainly have managed to get quite a large number to ripen on our plant."

"Oh, so why don't we pick those fruit and add them to our stocks, Mrs Daisytail and Mr Hopper," said Kushanku, "And maybe share the rest of them with some of the other animals living near us?" he gazed at the number of fruit again, "There's plenty enough of them to be given to some of our neighbours."

Daisytail was about to reply when suddenly a knock on the door broke through the air, interrupting the conversation and preventing the female Jackalope from speaking. This time it was a very hard and firm knock. At this, the two Jackalopes and young Nekomata's heads popped up and shot gazes in the door's direction. Thorn rushed for it on all fours for this was often the preferred method of rapid movement in Narnian Hedgehogs, having already deduced who that was.

"That'll be her Majesty's food collectors," he said and with that, he reared up onto his hind legs and pushed down the handle with his front feet which were also his hands. Kushanku, at this, dashed off to join the other eight kids while Daisytail and Hopper left to join Thorn, who was also being joined by Dashiell, Honeycomb, and the other adults including Shadewing. Then Kushanku, along with Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal, dived behind the tatty sofa and peered out as Thorn opened the door.

"Your ninety percent portion of your food delivery please," came an awfully creaky voice. This voice was so creaky that it made some of the kids', including Kushanku's, skins prickle slightly. It sounded like the creaking of tree trunks on a windy, blizzardy day. Then Akira tried to get a glimpse of the collectors at the door by climbing onto the sofa's top but could not quite see the figures because of the adults in the way. Then as the group watched Thorn, Quill, Rosebush and Spikeball the Hedgehogs rush over to the to-be-collected pile of food, placed into a sack, and then drag it in the door's direction, Crystal and Snowwing spread their wings and lofted into flight to ascend to a higher point than Akira and get a glimpse of the collectors at the door. As the Parrot chick and the Skvader kit hovered up there, Akira turned to them.

"What can you see, you two?" she asked. At first, the pair did not answer but when they managed to get a glimpse of the collectors, albeit small because of the screen of adults, the Parrot and Skvader kids shuddered.

"One of them looks like a Hag and a few others, Wolves," said Crystal timidly. At this, Kushanku, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia squinted to get a glimpse of the collectors and soon enough, they managed to pick out a sliver of shaggy grey fur through a gap between Dashiell and Hopper, just as they moved aside to help the Hedgehogs hand the bag of to-be-collected food to them and whoever else was there at the door, sent here by the Queen. As the sack disappeared behind the screen of adults as it was handed to the collectors, the creaky voice, which obviously belonged to a very ugly creature called Hag, then spoke.

"Jackalopes, we wanna come in and inspect your indoor fruit tree to see if it has any ripened fruit yet, based on the orders of the Queen that ninety percent of any indoor-grown crops are handed to us as well," she said sternly and with firmness in her croaky voice, and Kushanku and the other eight kids could sense the seriousness in that tone. At this, blinks of confusion flashed from the eyes of Kushanku and company and some of them shook their heads.

"What?" hissed Gingerfur. Then Kushanku slowly turned a nervous gaze to the others.

"The Jackalopes' indoor fruit tree," he whispered. The other eight, at this, slowly returned Kushanku's worried gaze. However, they did not understand very well that it was also by the Queen's law that those who were growing food and crops indoors that ninety percent of any ripened food is picked and taken away as well. Some of the Narnian creatures were also rearing a small farm of dumb animals for food as well and the law applied to them as well, that ninety percent of their reared meat source was handed to visiting collectors sent by the Queen. Then Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing watched as Hopper and Daisytail led a small group of creatures from the door in the direction of their fruit tree. As the Jackalopes led some of the collectors along, the nine kids got a full glimpse of some of the creatures that stood had Dashiell's den's door.

These creatures were a frightening and hideous sight. Four of the creatures resembled dogs but had shaggy grey fur with darker grey patches smeared on some parts of their body, such as their back. Their bellies, however, were snow white. Their tails were bushy like a Fox's and their ears were erect, unlike some of the Dogs whose ears often flopped down by the sides of their heads. Gingerfur had a Dog friend who lived nearby in the snowy neighbourhood and was best friends with him. One of the creatures resembled an ugly, slouched old woman wearing a very shoddy, shadowy cloak. Her face was dotted with very ugly lobes and blotches of skin, her nose was crooked and her eyes were inflated out of their sockets. Her skin was a sickly green colour and the sight of her made Kushanku and company's stomachs turn. This was the first time they had seen a Hag, and Hags were very loyal creatures to the Queen. She wore a cloak with a hood and resembled a black ghostly shadow gliding across the floor of Dashiell's room as she walked. Also with the collectors heading for the Jackalopes' fruit tree was another black ghost-like figure. However, this figure was definitely gliding over the floor. Its black cloak was far more ragged than the Hag's and its tattered cloaked arms swept out to the sides like a bat's wings but with a far uglier aspect to it. Kushanku and company did not get a glimpse of its face but the flying creature's face was as ugly as the rest of its body. Its face had a very dark grey skull-like appearance, with large, hollow, black eyes without eyeballs and its mouth constantly open in a frightening hole, and that hole was ridged with tooth-like protrusions, but its overall appearance made Kushanku and the other eight cringe and shrink back into their hiding place. They clearly did not like the sight of this hideous gliding monster, the Hag and the accompanying Wolves. As the Jackalopes led the small group of hideous creatures towards their fruit tree, Akira turned to the other eight.

"I heard that Mrs Daisytail and Mr Hopper had managed to grow quite a number of fruit on their tree this year," she said, "And that it had taken them months of especial hard work to achieve the goal."

"It has taken me and Mom and Dad many months of very hard work, care and the making of fertiliser to get that tree to grow the crop alright," said Dahlia, for she had often helped her parents to care for the indoor tree and its crop, before her gaze returned to her parents and the collectors accompanying them as they began to pick the tree's fruit, two of the Wolves holding a bag to collect it. At the door, Dashiell and the other adults had already handed the rest of the collectors the sack containing the ninety percent of the food delivery. Then Kushanku and company watched on as the Jackalopes and their accompanying collectors began to pick the tree's fruit and pack them into the Wolves' bag.

"I've seen the number of fruit you have managed to grow with your parents, Dahlia," whispered Kushanku, to which Dahlia shot him a surprised look, "And by my estimations, you have grown enough fruit on that tree to feed all of us for about a week or two with plenty left over to share with some of the other creatures in our neighbourhood."

Dahlia's face, at this, slowly fell and the Jackalope kit shook her head, "I'm afraid we can't do that, Kushanku."

At this, the youngest Nekomata kit shot the young Jackalope an incredulous look and thought, 'You're kidding me!'

Then a number of minutes later, the collectors' picking and collecting of the fruit was finished. This done, the four Wolves with the sack containing the Jackalopes' fruit tree crop, the Hag and the gliding ghost-like cloaked figure turned and walked, or glided in the ghost-like figure's case, back in the direction of the door and their comrades waiting there, the two Jackalopes following. As the collectors and the Jackalopes left, Kushanku darted out from behind the sofa and rushed over to the tree to inspect the number of fruit left.

"Kushanku!" shouted Sandstorm as he watched his adopted Nekomata brother rush off. Kushanku did not reply and skidded to a halt near the indoor tree. The Nekomata then began to examine the number of fruit left. Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Akira and Satoshi then rushed over and joined him. As Kushanku examined the tree, his heart dropped and disappointment and disbelief swept over him. The other eight also examined the tree. Before, the Jackalopes' fruit tree had been decorated with a large number of gold, orange and yellow ochre fruit, most of them ripe but now, the majority of that gold and yellow ochre area had been stripped to nothing more than a few spots, the green of the leaves and gaps in the branches now forming most of the tree's branch area. Some of the kids shook their heads in disbelief and Dahlia's eyes travelled to the remaining spots of the gold, orange and yellow-ochre.

"That's all we've got left for ourselves," whispered the Jackalope kit.

"That number of fruit from your tree isn't gonna feed all of us for a couple of _days,_ much less all _twenty-one_ of us for _two weeks,"_ muttered Akira. Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal and Snowwing just said nothing but the despair-saturated expressions on their faces as they continued to gaze at the stripped tree said it all, and definitely proved Kushanku's sister's point. Then some of the kids gazed down at their still-partially empty stomachs and breathed despairing sighs but Kushanku felt a surge of hot rage burn through him. Snapping his gaze from the stripped tree and turning it in the door's direction, Dashiell and the other adults and the collectors just as the latter were prepared to leave, his saddened gaze giving way to a look of outrage, Kushanku darted off in the adults' direction.

"Kushanku!" called Gingerfur and with that, he and the other seven kids followed.

Meanwhile Dashiell, Honeycomb, Daisytail, Hopper and Thorn were seeing the collectors off as the latter carried the sacks containing around ninety percent of the delivered food and the vast majority of the Jackalopes' crop. Outside, other groups of food collectors sent by the Queen were already departing, having collected the food from those homes as well.

"We will see you next week after the deliverers have been like usual," said the Hag as she prepared to lead the group away, "And make sure to keep up the good work."

"Yes," said one of the Wolves, one of them holding one of the sacks. Dashiell, Honeycomb, Daisytail, Hopper and Thorn nodded but before the Hag and her group could leave; a small metallic powder blue cat with a grey head and neck and a split tail appeared between Hopper and Throne, much to the male Jackalope and the Hedgehog's surprise.

"Please, Ma'am," said Kushanku to the Hag and her group of ugly comrades, the revulsion of the creatures' appearance pushed aside along with the anger at the amount of fruit stripped from the Jackalopes' tree, as well as the biting jaws of the frigid air and snow as he stepped outside to beg the Hag and her group, "Can you at least spare us some more of the Jackalopes' crop?"

"Kushanku, get inside!" barked Dashiell in rebuke. Behind Thorn and Hopper, Akira, Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal and Snowwing peered through the gap between the male Jackalope and the Hedgehog and watched as the first two brother began to beg the Hag and her group. Ignoring his adopted Cheetah father's sharp commands to return inside, Kushanku continued to beg the Hag and her group.

"…Mrs Daisytail, Mr Hopper and Dahlia have worked EVER so hard to grow that much fruit," continued the young Nekomata, "and there had been plenty enough of them to share with our neighbours, some of who might be starving."

At this, the Hag gazed at the metallic powder blue and grey split-tailed cat with a surprised look while the Wolves and the floating black ghost-like creature exchanged frowned looks. Then the Hag's ugly face morphed from the look of surprise to one of fury. Shooting that angry look at Dashiell, the Hag growled, "Cheetah, have you really brought up this young Nekomata kit to respect his elders at all!?"

"Yes, I can see he's being REALLY bratty and childish," put in one of the Wolves. The other Wolves and the ghost-like cloak creature, their faces laced with annoyance and anger at Kushanku's behaviour nodded in agreement. Dashiell, at this, felt his tongue stick in his throat as embarrassment sank its teeth into him, and Thorn, Honeycomb, Hopper and Daisytail also said nothing. Behind Hopper and Thorn, Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal and Snowwing shuddered. This meant only one thing.

"Uh-oh," murmured Gingerfur when he saw the situation Kushanku had put himself in. Finally Dashiell found something to say.

"Uh…" he began but the Hag cut him off.

"Just deal with that utterly disrespectful kit, Cheetah," she snarled, her Wolf and Ghost-like comrade nodding harshly, their faces also laced with anger at Kushanku's behaviour, "NOW!"

The way she snarled that word made Dashiell and the others jerk their heads back like an electric shock, and Kushanku also flinched. And before anyone in Dashiell's group could say anymore, the Hag and her group was off, the two sacks of food in their clutches. Kushanku looked on with a saddened look but he soon found himself on the receiving end of a number of angry adult glares, but most especially one from a male Cheetah. When he saw Thorn, Honeycomb, Hopper, Daisytail and Dashiell converge their angry glares on him, Kushanku widened his mouth into an innocent smile but the no-nonsense Dashiell hardened his glare.

"Inside, NOW!" he barked, sending a jolt through the little Nekomata. Behind Thorn and Hopper, Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal and Snowwing backed away as an ashamed Kushanku slowly slunk into the den and past the five adults. After Dashiell had slammed the door shut the moment Kushanku, his head bowed and ears flattened with shame, was inside, Rosemary called the others over to the crystalline TV.

"Guys," shouted the Monkey, "An important message is being broadcasted from the Queen's palace."

"Really?" asked Dashiell.

"Is it an announcement or something?" asked Thorn. Then a pattering of paws and feet sounded as Dashiell and the others hurried to gather around the TV. Satoshi, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal and Snowwing followed while Kushanku was the last to arrive, the shame of unintentionally embarrassing Dashiell in front of the Hag and her comrades gripping him but under that shame, the sadness and anger at the Hag and company's stripping of the Jackalopes' tree of most of its fruit continued to bubble. As Kushanku joined the other family members excluding Nyarth who was still in the sleeping quarters, the group of animals began to watch the announcement as another Wolf took to what appeared to be some type of room, like a studio.

"Should Nyarth also see this?" asked Rosebush as she sat with her cousins Thorn, Spikeball and Quill. At this, Mensa stood up and spread her feathered wings.

"I'll go get him," said the Skvader and with that, she lofted into flight and flew off in the direction of the sleeping quarters to get Nyarth.

 **All around the frozen land of Narnia**

Crowds and smaller groups of the creatures living in the winter-locked land of Narnia had gathered around whatever magical screens they could find, whilst the few that had magical TVs watched the announcement from their homes. Amongst the crowds of gathered animals before the larger crystalline screens, a row of ugly-looking creatures, mostly Wolves, Hags and several other horrible looking creatures who were devout followers of the Queen and some of her peacekeepers, were also present and made sure that all the animals were present as the important announcement began on the screens.

Another Wolf then appeared on the screens across Narnia and prepared to open up to the audience as he began to deliver the announcement.

"Thank you all for tuning in for this very important announcement, everyone," said the Wolf, "My name is Romulus and I'm the head of Her Majesty the Queen's Wolf pack and police who help to reinforce her laws and that any disobeyers are punished, and I'm here to deliver this announcement to you all, so listen carefully…" his face then turned firm but with a smile. All ears then prepared to receive the important information.

"This year is the year of the Fighting League," continued Romulus, "A special event that Her Majesty has set up to occur once every ten years to commemorate her conquering of Narnia and her rescuing it from a certain war that had occurred thirty-five years ago, so this marks the third Fighting League since it is now thirty years since it had been set up…"

In Dashiell and his group's den, all twenty-one animals including Nyarth kept their eyes glued to the crystalline TV screen. Nyarth was under the strict supervision of Mensa and Shadewing who will return him to the sleeping quarters once this announcement was complete. As they continued to watch the announcement, Kushanku tipped his head to one side in confusion.

"Third Fighting league?" he whispered.

"Shush!" snapped Honeycomb, making the Nekomata flinch. Romulus on the TV screens and broadcasting screens throughout Narnia then continued.

"Now before any of you ask why we have this important event once every ten years, as well as why our mighty Queen should be mightily honoured, respected and exalted, I would like to play you guys a small film that will explain on my behalf the answer to those questions," said the Wolf and with that, he turned round and commanded someone in the background to start playing the film. Kushanku, Akira and Satoshi continued to watch with the other animals including their older brother Nyarth who still wore a sour look on his face, especially as he stole a glare at Mensa and Shadewing. Then Romulus gave the watchers one last look and said, "Now, everyone, watch carefully," his face then turned hard, "and _learn it well!_ This is mega important."

After he had said this, the Wolf left the screen as the film began to play. All eyes from the watchers all around Narnia then began to intensify their focus on the magical screens as the film began to play.

The film started with scenes of fighting with the clashes of metal against metal sounding. As these scenes played, a deep voice from the narrator erupted from the images.

"War… it is a terrible, terrible thing (the war scenes continue). It affects everybody in every area of their lives, and is extremely costly and has a MASSIVE impact on every aspect of each and every one of us…"

All the ears of the creatures of Narnia remained intently fixed on the narration as it continued.

"It spreads a blanket of fear… despair… hopelessness… and any other negative emotion over us all, and it costs us a LOT of our resources… the lives of a LOT of our loved ones… and our happiness as well."

"This war has been raging for years and years with nothing but fighting… fighting… bloodshed… chaos and confusion… all of which seemed to have no end in sight at all. And you know the reason why this war had to be fought?"

All ears continued to listen to the film as the narrator continued.

"The reason why this war has been going on is because of one creature that tried to take over our lands... This species had come from a different world (curiosity wells within Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira and the other kids including Gingerfur, Amberpaw and Sandstorm in Dashiell's den)… and had the intent on driving out the inhabitants of Narnia so that they could take it over… this species was… HUMANS!"

As this word exploded from the film, an outline of a few figures appeared on the screens. These figures walked on two legs and had two arms, a head and wore things called clothes over their bodies. The Narnian creatures continued listening as the narrator continued.

"These creatures, known as humans, were the reason behind all that war over thirty years ago. They are nothing but pure evil creatures that should be loathed… should be despised… and should be shunned, and to make matters worse, some of YOU Narnian creatures also chose to fight alongside these wicked creatures. As a result, the war has severely impacted you lot as well," the Narnian creatures continued watching this film, "And just when those who fought against those evil humans and the traitors who joined alongside them to conquer our lands, a huge heroine rose out of the depths and put an end to this carnage. This heroine is born here in Narnia and is of royal descent… that heroine was the HER MAJESTY, the mighty and powerful QUEEN JADIS…" the animals continued watching as the narrator's voice tone then turned serious and sombre, "She was the one who brought us peace… who drove away those wicked humans and the traitors who joined their side... with her powerful magic. However, her actions leading to the peace we now have had come at a severe cost. In order to stop the war once and for all and to ensure that no humans returned, Her Majesty had to put a spell on Narnia and turn it into a wintery land as a warning to those horrible humans so that they will stay away from our lands…"

The narrator continued, "And because of that, we now have to suffer the consequences of our Queen's actions to bring us peace, so to make up for this, our Queen has put forth a special event to occur once every ten years… the Decadal Fighting League…" all animals continued to listen and watch the film… "In this event, several hundred families of creatures will be selected at random by the Queen and once the selection is done, she will send her followers to those families' homes, where a further random selection of the individuals of those families will take place so that the selected individual will be given to the visitors, taken to the Queen's palace and sent into the arena, where they will fight to the death with the other selected participants in this event we call the Fighting League (shivers tore through some of the watchers as the narrator continued). So when your family is selected and you are visited, you MUST give those visitors your family member randomly selected by those visitors because if you don't, you are severely disrespecting the Queen (this added to the intensity of the shivers of the watchers)."

The narrator went on, "Then once the Fighting League is done, the last one standing will be showered with riches, food, warmth and other luxuries, alongside their family, by the Queen who will then give that family a better house complete with warmth, plenty of food, and freedom from starvation (this tickled the ears of the creatures, especially Nyarth and Gingerfur in Dashiell's home, and delight and hope flashed through them). "This is to show the Queen's generosity and kindness in return for the ninety percent food offerings you have to give to the food collectors, also sent by the Queen, to your houses in mighty thanks to her for stopping the war and bringing us peace, as well as punishment on those humans and the traitors," the watchers continued watching as the narrator prepare to close the film, "We will continue to thank our mighty Queen, Jadis, for rescuing us from the chaotic storm of the war and from the clutches of those humans and the traitors by speaking mightily of her, giving her ninety percent of our food, which we MUST continue to do, and serving her as the true Narnian heroine but before we close this film, there are a few more reminders that we MUST give you…" the watchers continued to watch and listen, "First, NEVER, EVER speak badly about our mighty Queen. She is our heroine and should be held within the highest regard. There are her patrollers out in your communities who will ensure that nothing is said badly of our Queen and they will NOT hesitate in dealing with those bad speakers so BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SAY!"

As these words were said, in Dashiell's den, Dashiell and Honeycomb flashed an agreeing look at Nyarth with a nod, who said nothing. The narrator continued, "Secondly, keep an eye out for ANY two-legged creatures called humans. They are evil creatures that should be dealt with pronto, so if you see any suspicious creature that appears to be human, report it to the Queen's police right away so that that human can be caught and disposed of. Thirdly, and most importantly, do NOT speak of ANYTHING to do with the Great Lion. This subject is an ABOMINATION to our mighty Queen and could result in SEVERE consequences. In fact, do NOT EVEN say the 'A' word, as that is the worst word in all of Narnia and is also a MASSIVE abomination to our Queen. If your kids aren't aware of this, make sure that you teach them this rule as soon as possible, or else you will be held accountable for disrespecting our mighty Queen and may face severe consequences," at this, in Dashiell's home, Dashiell and the other adults shuddered, while Kushanku's head tipped to one side, especially at the terms ''A' word' and 'Great Lion'. The film then drew to a close with an exaltation to the Queen.

"Good luck to any of you families that are selected for the Fighting League. We hope that you will win a luxurious lifestyle free from the consequences of the Queen's work to give us peace and live a better life. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN OF NARNIA!"

Then as the film drew to a close, Romulus the head Wolf's head appeared on the crystalline screens again. His face was laced with excitement and thrill.

"Well, that was indeed dramatic," he said, before turning his gaze to the audience, "But it's time to prepare for the main event that is due to occur within a few weeks once all our selected participants are chosen and brought to the palace. Our Queen's currently starting the lottery on which families will offer up a participant for the League but in the meantime, you lot continue with your daily activities and duties reminded of you in that film," Romulus's glare then hardened, "Remember, watch out for ANY humans, do NOT discuss ANYTHING to do with the Great Lion and continue to honour our mighty Queen. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN OF NARNIA!"

After this, the screens went blank as the announcement had finished. In Dashiell's home, there was a stunned silence for a moment but then Dashiell broke it.

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait for a knock on the door when the Queen has finished with randomly selecting the families for the Fighting League," he said boldly. However, under the boldness, nervousness and fear was bubbling. This was also bubbling within the rest of Dashiell's family and also all the other creatures throughout Narnia. The next few weeks were going to be a frightful time for everyone as the Queen will soon send out her followers to their homes where a randomly selected family member will be collected, taken to her palace and sent out into the arena which will also be watched on the magical TVs. As Dashiell's group dispersed and Nyarth was returned to the sleeping Quarters by Shadewing and Mensa, Gingerfur was brimming with hope. However, under that hope was uncertainty as well.

"I sure hope to be selected for the Fighting League where I will hopefully be the last remaining fighter standing victorious so that Her Majesty can bestow us with better shelter, more food and warmth," he said. However, Amberpaw and Sandstorm said nothing. The two siblings of Gingerfur were more afraid and did not want to be thrown up against dozens and dozens of other animals in an arena where a massive fight will take place. As the three Cheetah cubs left as Honeycomb called, "Alright, kids, lesson time."

"Yes, it's time to teach you about Narnia's prehistory," added Daisytail with a smile. As the female Jackalope and the mother of Dahlia left to get some books on the subject, Kushanku looked on with a surprised look on his face. Daisytail, along with Hopper, were behaving happily as though the loss of the majority of the crop from their fruit tree had never happened. However, the young Nekomata kit had deduced that the couple and their daughter Dahlia had severe despair and sadness at the loss of so much of their crop they had worked ever so hard to grow boiling under that happy outlook. As the young metallic powder blue and light grey Nekomata continued gazing at the female Jackalope, a stern, rebuking voice jolted him out of his thoughts.

"Your behaviour towards that Hag and her group of collectors before they left with our offerings to the Queen was absolutely OUT OF ORDER and UNACCEPTABLE, Kushanku. You could have faced some serious consequences."

At this, Kushanku turned and found himself on the receiving end of a very stern look from an adult male Cheetah. However, he began to protest.

"B-b-but…" he began but Dashiell cut him off.

"Let's just prepare for lesson time, son," snapped the Cheetah and with that, he ordered the kit to join the other kids, "We'll give you your punishment later."

At this, Kushanku flinched. He knew he was in trouble but he knew that the amount of crop the Hag and her group had taken from the Jackalopes' fruit tree was completely unfair. Then as he followed Dashiell to the other kids as they, Honeycomb and the others apart from Nyarth prepared for lesson time, Kushanku replayed the film he and every other Narnian creature had seen broadcasted by Romulus from the Queen's palace via the magical TV screens had seen and began to wonder.

'If the Queen really _is_ the heroine of Narnia, then why is she placing so much demand on our food supply and running some type of Fighting League that's causing fear in so many of us?' he thought. Like almost every other animal in the winter-locked land of Narnia, Kushanku feared getting selected for the Fighting League and pitted against countless other creatures in the arena at the Queen's palace. 'Also, why is the subject on some 'Great Lion' banned?' he thought. However, he was forced to push aside these questions as Dashiell's sharp voice broke through his thoughts. At this, Kushanku flashed his adopted Cheetah father and darted after him.

 **For those of you who have read the Chronicles of Narnia books, you obviously know that the portrayal of the Queen in the film is not true (for example, was she really born in Narnia? You should know the answer to this question), but this film, along with the Fighting League, has a far more sinister and wicked implementation in reality under its façade. Also, I imagine that the Wolf pack who served as most of the Queen's police would have had a different leader in these times, whereas Maugrim was the leader of the pack at the time Jadis's spell began to weaken when the four Pevensies entered the magical world. Because of this, I portray Romulus as one of Maugrim's ancestors.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5- lesson time and the forbidden 'A' word**

Soon, the lesson of Narnia's prehistory was underway. Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia each had a book before them and the family member being the teacher today was Rubyfeather, Crystal's mother. Nyarth was having his lesson in the sleeping quarters by Shadewing for he was still under the punishment from throwing a paddy over the food sorting a while ago and thus was absent from the main group. The announcement made by Romulus and the short film he and the others had played throughout Narnia had been put aside so that Dashiell and the others could focus on the kids' lesson time; Dashiell, Honeycomb, Mensa, Rosebush, Spikeball, Quill, Thorn, Hopper, Daisytail, Rosemary and Chiseltooth sat nearby watching the lesson as Amberpaw was reading from the book that was given to her at the start of the lesson, the watchful eye of Rubyfeather focussed on her intently as she read aloud for everyone else to hear.

"Millions and millions of years ago," said Amberpaw as she read from the book, skimming one of the fingers of her front paw under the words of the page on the go so as not to lose her place, "Narnia was nothing more than a flat disc of molten earth that was entirely devoid of any life and water. The disc had formed extremely close to its sun that had formed at roughly the same time as it. However, the sun began to recede further from the hot, molten disc and as it did so, the molten, unstable terrain of the proto-Narnia began to cool. The disc continued to cool over millions more years as the sun continued to recede at about three centimetres a year, and as the sun eventually reached a point such that conditions allowed the molten terrain of the proto-Narnia to cool, proto-Narnia solidified into a disc of bare desert rock consisting of enormous peaks and troughs formed by the instability of the earth when it was molten. However, though proto-Narnia was now solid, it was still scorched by the sun's heat…"

The other kids continued to listen but Kushanku kept turning his eyes down at his feet as he listened to his adopted Cheetah cub sister read.

"As millions more years passed," continued Amberpaw, "the sun continued to recede at its three-centimetre-a-year rate further away into the sky, from the desert disc of proto-Narnia, and eventually, the temperatures on the surface lowered to a balmier, comfortable level. It was then that clouds, clouds made from water, began to condense and form in the skies above the desert earth of proto-Narnia. These clouds then expanded and coalesced to form the first storms and the first rain. This rain pelted down onto the dry surface of the desert-like land…"

Kushanku, at this, tipped his head to one side curiously as Amberpaw continued reading. Next to Amberpaw, Snowwing and Dahlia were smiling in fascination.

"The rain continued to hammer down on the parched land of the proto-Narnia disc for millions more years," continued the female Cheetah cub from the book, "The deluge flooded the troughs of the land, forming the early oceans while on the peaks; the first rivers running down them were formed. It continued to rain heavily for millions more years until eventually; the desolate desert was transformed into a land consisting of both ocean and dry land…"

Kushanku blinked and briefly stared ahead at a wall as his adopted Cheetah sister continued reading.

"Then a few more million years later," continued Amberpaw, "a catastrophic event occurred. From outer space outside the domed sky encasing the circular land, a massive meteor hurtled towards the disc of proto-Narnia. It flew past the sun, plunged through the early atmosphere and crashed spectacularly into one of the large peaks near the primordial ocean. This resulted in a massive explosion that sent countless rocks, the fragments of the meteor, flying upward into the sky in a fountain. Those rocks then rained back down onto Narnia, many of them landing in the primordial sea…"

Kushanku, at this, frowned in confusion as Amberpaw continued, the adults including Rubyfeather the Parrot watching on and the other kids listening. As Amberpaw continued to read, Satoshi tapped Sandstorm on the shoulder and tried to speak.

"What would you like to do…" he began in a low voice but was cut off by a loud, "HEH-HEM!" from Rubyfeather, making Satoshi jump and snap his mouth shut and also Sandstorm to flinch slightly. Amberpaw looked up at the Parrot, curious at her sudden command.

"Sorry, Amberpaw, please continue," said Rubyfeather, which Amberpaw did. "Many of the rocks were lifeless but some of the other rocks happened to contain living microscopic organisms, or microbes for short. These microbes apparently formed from the essential bio-molecules that were on the meteor out in space but as the meteor crashed into the land of proto-Narnia and sent their capsules flying into the sky and raining down into the sea, these microbes became the first pioneers that seeded the land of Narnia with the first-ever lifeforms, starting from the primordial oceans which became their nest as they broke out of their protective, rocky containers…"

At this, Kushanku raised his paw, stopping the reading.

"Yes, Kushanku," said Rubyfeather and turning the heads of the other kids in the Nekomata's direction.

"I don't get it," said Kushanku, "How can a bunch of microbes just form from non-living chemicals and then survive that violent explosion as the meteor they were on crashed into Narnia's land? Wouldn't they have been destroyed in that blast?"

"Look, Kushanku, it just happened, okay," said Rubyfeather firmly, "We may never know how those microbes formed on the meteor and have survived the crash into Narnia but they did. They were our ancestors millions of years ago and the pioneering lifeforms on Narnia."

Kushanku then tipped his head to one side again and raised an eyebrow. "Surely someone must have been there to witness all that happen, right?" he asked, "Like a creator or someone?"

At this, Rubyfeather leaned forward and said, "Well if that is true, then the evidence would have been left behind by 'that creator' and he or she would be here now to tell us about it," the Parrot then stood back, "But there is absolutely no evidence of Narnia ever being created from nothing. It formed from a molten disc caused by the sun as evidenced in its mountains and landscape, such as the ocean basins, and no-one was even around at the time since there were no lifeforms before the meteor came. As for the microbe containing rocks, quite a few of them have been found in the sea by some Merfolk geologists, providing more evidence for the theory of microbes arriving on Narnia from space."

She then turned to Amberpaw and said, "Continue, Amberpaw."

"And so the primordial sea became a living ecosystem," read the Cheetah cub, "as the different species of microbes, each formed uniquely on the meteor and scattered by the explosion in the sea, found various niches to occupy. As they diversified, they faced great competition with each other for food and other resources," Kushanku, at this, gazed at Amberpaw as she continued to read, "and as millions more years passed, the majority of the different microbes developed more advanced adaptations and eventually evolved into macro-organisms (large living things), such as sea polyps and fish, that eventually populated the sea. Some microbes, however, moved to the water's edge where they eventually developed into the organisms that will become the land creatures and the plants of Narnia. These land creatures, after developing adaptations to move on land, such as legs, then abandoned their life in the sea and moved onto land, developing into the variety of creatures and evolving along their own paths. Some of the land creatures developed wings and other adaptations and eventually took to the skies…"

It was then that Kushanku began to allow his concentration to falter and before long, his mind had drifted off into a daydream, his listening to Amberpaw's reading eventually phasing out. As the young Nekomata entered daydreaming phase, Gingerfur firmly tapped him on the shoulder to snap him out of the daydream. Kushanku was jolted back to reality.

"Kushanku, pay attention will you," said Rosebush nearby. She had obviously witnessed Kushanku phasing out. Kushanku then tried to concentrate as Amberpaw continued to read from the book. However, most of what she read entered into one of his ears protruding through the white sheet of his head hair and slipped like melted ice out of the other.

"Many of the evolving creatures eventually developed into civilised creatures," continued Amberpaw, "who then discovered a variety of things like fire, farming, art, music… and all kinds of other things that began the first steps to the civilisation we are familiar with today…"

Kushanku then began to phase out again and was jolted back to reality by Gingerfur with another tap of the latter's paw on his shoulder. Then Kushanku raised his paw again.

"Yes, Kushanku," said Rubyfeather, stopping the reading once again, much to Amberpaw and several others' annoyance and lack of patience.

"How did the variety of Narnian creatures evolve from different types of microbe into the forms of today?" asked the young Nekomata, "I'm confused."

"That would take too long to explain," said Rubyfeather, "and besides that, it's a very advanced topic of biology. If I tried to explain, you and the other kids would't understand…"

"But I wanna know now," protested Kushanku insistently, much to Rubyfeather's irritated sigh. Near Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal and Snowwing exchanged glances and shrugged. At this, Dashiell stood up and rolled his eyes in slight amusement.

"Let me take Kushanku aside and give him a simple explanation of our microbial evolution," said the adult male Cheetah and with that, he commanded Kushanku to leave the group and follow him to a short distance away. As Kushanku left, Gingerfur looked on.

"I thought he'd find biology interesting," he whispered but Rosebush hissed a 'Shush!' at him, prompting him into resuming his attention to Amberpaw as she continued reading at Rubyfeather's command.

 **And so**

Dashiell and Kushanku sat by an image set up from colourful stones and wood carvings shaped like animals and other creatures such as Centaurs. The colourful stones were one of the kids' toys and were sometimes used in forming pictures, rather like a mosaic with the tiles, and they came in a variety of greens, blues, reds, oranges, yellows, purples, browns, whites, greys, blacks, and pinks. When not in use, the pebbles were stored tidily away in a basket, out of the way so as to avoid them becoming a trip hazard. The wood carvings were simply figures carved into a variety of Narnian creatures, among them a Centaur, an Elephant, Dashiell's species the Cheetah, Kushanku's species the Nekomata, and a few Narnian Bird species. One was also carved into a multi-tailed Fox, known as a Kitsune which, like Nekomata, possessed more than one tail. However, the number of their tails went beyond two and reached a maximum of nine, and was an indicator of the Kitsune's age, wisdom, and in some, skills in magic. These figures were also toys the kids sometimes played with in games such as board games involving throwing dice and moving the figures along the number displayed on the dice's faces with the goal to reach the end first.

Dashiell had set out the pebbles, separated into their separate colours, into lines and on the ends of the lines; he had placed the animal figures. A blue blanket had been laid out before the setup, and Dashiell wanted this to represent Narnia's (supposed) primordial ocean in which the microbes lived. Some of the pebble lines extended from the 'blanket ocean' and onto the stony floor, which Dashiell had decided would represent land, and ended with the land creatures placed at their end. For the sea creatures like Dolphins and Merfolk, Dashiell had placed these on the blanket at the ends of the pebble lines that did not extend from the edge of the blanket. All this was supposed to represent a simplified picture of the different ancestral lines of the different species of Narnia. Then after Dashiell had finished setting up the picture and had placed the final figure, a Faun, on the end of one of the pebble lines, he began to explain.

"Okay, let's say these single, lone pebbles represent the microbes that populated Narnia's early oceans millions of years ago after their meteor blew up and scattered them into the waters," said the adult male Cheetah as he stood over some of the pebbles placed separately from the pebbles in lines on the blue blanket. Kushanku looked on.

"These microbes are our ancestors," continued Dashiell with a paw pointing to the lone 'microbe' pebbles, "But those different microbes gave rise to the different creatures of Narnia," he then moved to the line of pebbles and pointed to them with a paw, "as represented by these lines of pebbles leading to the wooden models representing the variety of Narnian creatures," Dashiell then moved his paw point to the series of pebbles leading to the water creature models with Kushanku's gaze following, "In the oceans, some of the microbes evolved into the water creatures, like the Merfolk, the fish, the Dolphins and the Seals," he then gazed with a smile at Kushanku, "Obviously the microbe lineages went through a series of evolutionary stages eventually reaching the forms possessed by the aquatic creatures of today, while some of the other microbe lines," his paw then travelled to the lines of pebbles snaking out of the ocean-blanket and onto the stony floor intended to represent land, and ending at the land and air creatures of Narnia, "went through a series of evolutionary stages which developed legs or other land-based adaptations and took to the land. Some of the land creatures also developed wings and took to the air."

"Oh, so each species of Narnian creature has its own microbial ancestry, like how us Nekomata are descended from one type of microbe and, say Kitsune," he gazed at the carving of the Kitsune figure on one end of one of the pebble trails, "are descended from another?" asked Kushanku with a small smile. However, under this enthusiasm, he still found it confusing.

"That's right," said Dashiell with a proud smile.

"What about related species like Nekomata, Cats and Cheetahs?" asked Kushanku.

"Ah, some of the Narnian creatures that are of the same type of animal have diverged and branched over the course of their evolution," said Dashiell, "For example, the Cheetah and the Nekomata, being cat-like creatures, share the same microbial ancestor while the dog-like creatures like the regular Fox, the Dog, the Wolf and the Kitsune, are descended from another microbe type…" and with that, Dashiell searched for a carving of a Fox and a Dog, and as soon as he had found them, he placed those two with the Kitsune figure to explain his point.

"That's a lesson for another day," continued Dashiell as Kushanku examined the three carved dog-like figures, "in the meantime, just be familiar with the evolutionary lineages of the microbes into the different types of Narnian creatures."

Kushanku then stood up, took a few steps back and began to examine the whole picture of the supposed ancestry of the Narnian creatures from the microbes in the ocean (represented by the blue blanket) and tipped his head to one side. The eyebrow above his right eye then rose.

"Um… this isn't anything at all like the reading someone gave me and also Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi when we were very young kits," he said.

"Hmmm?" hummed Dashiell curiously, "What do you mean?"

"Well, when we were very young kits," said Kushanku, "so young that we only had a single tail and were yet to walk on our hind legs, someone read to me and my three siblings the history of Narnia from a different perspective…"

Dashiell raised an eyebrow as confusion at this statement welled within him, "Like an alternative explanation of how Narnia came to be, you mean?"

Kushanku nodded. However, Dashiell formed a small smile.

"Please, Kushanku, you know better than to believe in silly myths we often hear as young kits, cubs or whatever baby animal you are," he said, before gesturing to the pebble, blanket and animal carving setup, "this is the only scientifically valid explanation of Narnia's prehistory and its evolution, and the scientists have found enough evidence to prove that we had evolved from microbial ancestors…"

At this, Kushanku gazed at his adopted father and began to explain an alternative explanation to Narnia's entry into existence someone apparently told him when he was younger.

"Pops," he said, "according to what I remember," The Nekomata then entered into thought, "Narnia started out as nothing more than a black void," this captured Dashiell's curiosity and he began to listen as Kushanku launched into an explanation of the story, "but then a voice spoke, or rather _sung,_ everything into existence… starting out with the creation of the stars and sun that illuminated the dark skies overhead…"

"Then," continued Kushanku, "all the plants were brought forth from the ground. A wide variety of different trees, flowers, and a sea of grass was commanded to grow and transform the black ground into a vast sea of greenness…"

Dashiell shook his head with surprise. In all his life, Kushanku had never seen a blade of greenery in Narnia in his entire life, except for the leaves on Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes' indoor fruit tree, alongside the leaves one or two of the other community members and their families possessed in their homes as well, and yet the young Nekomata was somehow familiar with grass, leaves and flowers despite that. Kushanku then continued.

"And along with the plants, the animals were sung into existence. After this, some of those animals became Talking Animals," Dashiell continued to listen but then when Kushanku began to venture into forbidden territory, wariness overtook him.

"Or at least… that's what I can remember," continued Kushanku, his left eye narrowed with the other eye widened with a raised eyebrow as he checked his certainty of the story, before turning excitedly to his adopted Cheetah father, "But wouldn't it be amazing to learn that Narnia might have been sung into existence… b-b-by a powerful Creator?"

"Kushanku," said Dashiell as the Nekomata's excitement began to burn higher like the flames from a Pyro, a being of fire.

"A Creator who may have existed even before the foundations of Narnia was laid?" continued a very enthusiastic Kushanku. However, that enthusiasm was suddenly flattened when Dashiell out on a very stern face.

"Kushanku, STOP!" barked the Cheetah, startling his adopted Nekomata son into stopping. Then Dashiell became gentler but retained his sternness, "Remember the strict rule proclaimed by Romulus, the head of Her Majesty's Wolf police about stuff like that when he broadcasted the announcement for the Fighting League," Kushanku blinked as Dashiell hardened his glare, "It's too _dangerous_ and an absolute INSULT to our Queen to believe in such stupidity."

"Why?" asked Kushanku.

"Why?" snapped Dashiell, "It's because our Queen is to be respected, exalted and revered, THAT'S why!"

"Why should she be revered and all that?" asked Kushanku. This began to add fuel to Dashiell's boiling irritation at the Nekamata's questions. Not too far away, the rest of the group, including Rubyfeather and Honeycomb, had stopped their lesson, the distraction caused by the igniting argument between Kushanku and Dahsiell having seized their attention.

"She's the one who rescued us from that war of course, and because of that, SHE'S the one who is to be revered and respected…" continued Dashiell before returning his glare in Kushanku's direction, "Kushanku!"

Kushanku then glared with a frown over the model of Narnia's supposed history set out by the pebbles, animal carvings and the blanket, "It obviously makes more sense to me to believe that Narnia had been sung into existence by an all-knowing Creator, than to believe that we had evolved over millions of years from some non-sentient microbes into sentient creatures via blind, natural processes…"

"Kushanku," shouted Dashiell in a louder voice but Kushanku swept on.

"And if I remember off the top of my head, I think that Creator could have been the Great Lion…" continued the enthusiastic Nekomata, his excitement flaring up again. A terrified and flabbergasted look appeared on Dashiell's face. His eyes inflated out of their sockets, his mouth dropped open, and a gasp entered through it.

"A-a-also known… as um… Aslan, I think it was?" continued Kushanku, but in a split-second, he realised that the entire atmosphere had plunged into complete silence, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop onto the stony floor from across the main den compartment. Kushanku, his excitement suddenly and instantly vanquished, soon found himself on the receiving end of an especially flabbergasted stare from his adopted Cheetah father. However, it soon became clear to him that Dashiell's ears had not been the only ones to pick up what came out of his mouth. Kushanku, at this, turned and saw more extremely alarmed and shocked stares converging on him.

Honeycomb and Rubyfeather looked on at the young Nekomata kit, their mouth and beak also hanging open; the Hedgehogs Rosebush, Thorn, Quill and Spikeball, who had been handing out some sheets of paper to the kids, stopped in the middle of the job, dead, and gazed at Kushanku in utter horror. Mensa the Skvader, Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes, Chiseltooth the Beaver, and Rosemary the Monkey were also stood stock still, the same flabbergasted looks at Kushanku replicated on their faces. And the other kids Gingerfur, Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Hopper and Daisytail's daughter Dahlia, Rubyfeather's chick Crystal, Kushanku's own siblings Satoshi and Akira, and Mensa's son Snowwing also gazed in utter shock at Kushanku, their mouths and beaks open and their eyes inflated, and the book lay at Amberpaw's feet, the adopted Cheetah sister of Kushanku having dropped it in utter shock. Then from the small torch in the middle of the room, the flames took on the form of a humanoid woman, her 'hair' cascading down the sides of her 'head' and ending in flickering orange flames. The Pyro who resided in Dashiell's den and helped with the cooking of the food and providing the den with warmth, named Emberflame, had emerged from the fire lamp to investigate all the arguing but she, too, had stopped dead as she gazed at Kushanku. Shadewing the Bat and Kushanku's oldest brother Nyarth, however, were still in the sleeping quarters and thus did not hear what came out of Kushanku's mouth.

When Kushanku's brain registered the sheer silence surrounding him, as well as all the flabbergasted gazes converging on him, the Nekomata realised that he must have said something utterly out-of-order during his excitement and because he had said it out loud, and that his voice must have carried across the room and had been picked up by the ears of the other family members, frightful realisation seized the Nekomata like the jaws of a Wolf, and his paws went to his mouth.

"Oops, sorry," he timidly spoke to a still-flabbergasted Dashiell, "D-d-d-did I say something in-in-in-inappropriate?"

Dashiell continued to stare at Kushanku in utter flabbergast for a few more seconds until finally, his shocked face melted to one of utter outrage, and Kushanku knew what that meant.

"Sleeping quarters, NOW!" barked the Cheetah and with that, his paw shot out into a point in the direction of the corridor leading to said quarters like a speedy fly. Kushanku shuddered.

"B-b-b-but…" he began but Honeycomb came forward to reinforce her mate's command.

"Do as YOUR ADOPTED FATHER SAYS," she yelled, jolting Kushanku into standing.

"Yes, I will not, repeat: NOT… have ANY CHILD of MINE," barked Dashiell in addition, "Whether BIOLOGICAL or ADOPTED… use ANY WORD that is UTTERLY PROFANE and ENDANGERING in OUR DEN… much less THE WORST WORD that is most ESPECIALLY FORBIDDEN!"

Kushanku flinched again.

"Now GO TO THE SLEEPING QUARTERS, NOW!" barked Dashiell in a loud voice, finally frightening Kushanku into bolting and rushing off in the direction of the connecting corridor, kicking aside some of the colourful pebbles and animal carvings on the way and messing up the picture. Then as soon as he was at the mouth of the corridor, the terrified Nekomata disappeared like a rat up a frozen tree. After he had gone, Dashiell and Honeycomb then began to shudder violently and lose control of their breathing as Rosebush, Rubyfeather and Rosemary came in to help calm them down. While they did that, Thorn, Quill, Spikeball, Mensa, Hopper, Daisytail and Chiseltooth turned to command the other kids to remain calm. Then Dashiell buried his face in his front paws.

"I just cannot BELIEVE that one of our own adopted sons… ADOPTED SONS…" muttered he timidly, "would blurt out that FORBIDDEN WORD…"

"I sure hope any hearing ears belonging to any of Her Majesty's watchers outside hadn't heard it," said Honeycomb and with that, she shot terrified gazes on the small windows partially covered by the ragged cloth curtains as though she expected any of the Queen's creatures to enter the den and slaughter everyone within like a bunch of dumb antelopes. Then a fiery humanoid glided in and hovered upright before the pair of distressed Cheetahs and their comforters, the Monkey, the Parrot and the Hedgehog.

"Let me talk to Kushanku," said the fire woman, Emberflame. At this, regret at shouting at the young, timid Nekomata then took hold of Dashiell and he began to weep, so Rosemary the Monkey spoke to the Pyro.

"Okay," she said, before pointing in the direction in which Kushanku bolted, "He's rushed off to the sleeping quarters."

At this, Emberflame glided off like a living fireball to find Kushanku, leaving Rosemary and the others to comfort and quell Dashiell and Honeycomb's jolted nerves while Thorn and the others continued to command the kids to forget what Kushanku said.

As the adults began to restore order, Satoshi and Akira gazed at Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia.

"That actually sounds familiar, you know," said Satoshi in a low voice.

"Shush!" hissed Sandstorm, "You don't wanna face the same fate as Kushanku, do ya?"

"Yeah, you know what Mr Dashiell is like when he's angry," squeaked Dahlia with a slight shudder.

"Yes, very, very scary," put in Snowwing.

"But I daren't think what Her Majesty's temper would be like if she were to hear that," added Crystal. At this, the Parrot chick flinched when the other seven's glares converged on her.

"Absolutely not," growled Sandstorm, "We may never know of the consequences until we're older but I think it's best if we didn't know at all and watch our tongues."

The others nodded in agreement. Then Amberpaw glared scornfully in the direction in which Kushanku had bolted when Dashiell, her father, had shouted at him.

"Huh, if he thinks the world of Narnia came in to being by some creator or something," she muttered, "He's got it AALL wrong."

"Yeah, he has absolutely no understanding of science whatsoever," put in Gingerfur. Just then the eight heard Rubyfeather's voice call them.

"Alright, let's return to our lesson, the rest of you," called the red Parrot as she and the other adults gathered around the kids, "Emberflame's got Kushanku covered, so let's not worry about him for now."

"As for what he said, forget it and we'll talk about it after our prehistory lesson," added Rosemary. Then as the class's order was restored, Akira and Satoshi gave Gingerfur an offended look each but the oldest Cheetah cub only returned the two Nekomata with a look of condescension before sitting back down in his spot. A small wave of offense pulsed through the two siblings of Kushanku again and they stole a gaze at each other as they also resumed their spots.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6- a miasma of fear**

As soon as the lesson on Narnia's 'prehistory' was finished, Rosemary the Monkey then ordered Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing together and began to have a serious talk with them about the dangers of the 'A' word and believing in the story of Narnia being spoken, or sung into existence. As she did that, Rosebush the Hedgehog and her three cousins Thorn, Spikeball and Quill, and Rubyfeather, Hopper, Daisytail, Chiseltooth and Mensa talked with Honeycomb and Dashiell as the two adult Cheetahs tried to take control of their breathing and calm their nerves which had been badly perturbed after Kushanku's utterance of the forbidden 'A' word.

Ever since Jadis, known as the Queen of Narnia, had taken control of the lands and had locked it in the perpetual winter, she had decreed an EXTREMELY strict law that forbade even the mentioning of the 'A' word (you probably already know what that is), as well as the prohibition of the teaching of Narnia's coming into existence via creation through speaking or song, and any discussions on the Great Lion, but most in particular of the latter, under the heavy threat of the most severe punishment possible. Since then, many of the creatures of Narnia had become very afraid to even mention these subjects, much less bring them up into a conversation, and even if they had the guts to do so, any conversation is immediately ground to a halt by the brakes of fear. However, a few of the creatures were still either unaware of this or did not fully understand these laws and their consequences, particularly young ones, and Kushanku appeared to be one of them, but not very many creatures understood why Jadis had passed this law around at all. And because this law forbade any discussion of Narnia's creation by the Great Lion and also because many of the creatures don't know it to be true, or even if a Creator had existed at all, they had created a new (but wrong and incorrect) story about Narnia's history and how it came to be, WITHOUT any supernatural forces involved, and that story was the story you've just read with Amberpaw in the previous chapter before Kushanku's utterance of the 'A' word.

As soon as Dashiell and Honeycomb had calmed down, along with the other adults with them, the sound of membranous wings reached their ears as a large Bat flew in from the corridor to the sleeping quarters and touched down before them.

"What has Kushanku done wrong?" asked Shadewing, "Just as I was finishing the lesson with Nyarth, his youngest brother came barging in before throwing himself facedown onto his bed and sobbing his heart out."

"Oh, don't worry about it;" said Dashiell with a frown, "We've sorted it."

"He's said a very BAD word," added Honeycomb before Shadewing could ask.

"Oh, no, don't tell me he's said that…" said the Bat fearfully.

"Look, it's sorted, okay?" snapped an irritated Dashiell, "Let's just focus on what we've gotta do now that we're into the next phase of our kids' lesson time."

Shadewing opened his mouth to speak but then changed his mind and nodded. As the Bat did so, a fireball glided across the large room and stopped before the group. As it hovered, the flames morphed into the shape of a humanoid woman, the 'hair' of flames sweeping out and upwards from the head.

"Is everything alright?" spoke the being of fire, which was the Pyro that lived with Dashiell and his family, "I thought I heard shouting and yelling while I was searching for some wood for the fire oven before dinnertime…"

"Oh, one of the kids just said a bad word, Emberflame, that's all," said Honeycomb, "Nothing to worry about."

Then Emberflame heard the sounds of wailing and crying travelling through the corridor from the sleeping quarters. The ears of the adults including Dashiell and Honeycomb also picked this up.

"That sounds like Kushanku in the sleeping quarters," said Chiseltooth the Beaver, "He must be crying very loudly after you had sent him to the sleeping quarters."

At this, Dashiell put on a regretful look. Maybe he had gone a bit too harsh on Kushanku for mentioning the 'bad' word, but he wanted to make his point clear for his safety and the safety of the others in the household, especially if there were the Queen's watchers patrolling around the snowy landscape outside, their eyes and ears fully cocked to pick up any suspicious conversations on the forbidden subjects, and Honeycomb and Dashiell were still flashing timid glances at the windows as though expecting these creatures to come barging in and arresting the group. Then Emberflame, her 'hair' sweeping outward and upward in a web of fire, breathed a sigh.

"I'll speak to him," she said and before anyone could protest, the Pyro morphed into a humanoid fireball and glided off for the corridor's entrance and down it in the direction of the sleeping quarters. After Emberflame had gone, Rubyfeather flashed Honeycomb and Dashiell a frown.

"You ought to teach that Nekomata a lesson, you two," said the Parrot firmly, "To make sure that he does not even say that word again."

At this, Dashiell's paw went up and his eyes closed.

"Don't worry, Rubyfeather, I already have a penalty in mind for him, and also Nyarth for his temper tantrum over the sorting of our food delivery a while ago," he replied. As he said this, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing turned in the Cheetah's direction seconds after Rosemary had finished explaining the seriousness of using the 'A' word to them. Satoshi and Akira threw on concerned looks but Gingerfur and Amberpaw just flashed these two Nekomata with a smug look each.

"It seems that these rules are getting tighter and tighter as we get older," whispered Snowwing the young Skvader kit despairingly to a rather worried and unnerved Satoshi and Akira.

"We've never been allowed to discuss _anything_ that contradicts what we've just learned in our lesson anyway," replied Dahlia.

"Well at least we know truly know how Narnia came to be," replied Amberpaw with a small smile with Gingerfur nodding in agreement. Much like some of the other young creatures in the land of Narnia, Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Sandstorm had not heard of Narnia's true origins, and the former two thought of that chapter as something silly, childish and mythical, and a fairy tale invented to fascinate naïve young animals, something Amberpaw and Gingerfur often found very irritating, and it was a trait young Kushanku often displayed. Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi also displayed this trait but to a lesser extent, and they, too were curious about the creation of Narnia. However, they were strictly forbidden in bringing up that subject as well as doubting the storyline of Narnia's history we have just read with Amberpaw in the previous chapter, and if they were to bring that subject up, along with the Great Lion and the 'A' word, they would likely face serious punishment from the adults similar to how Kushanku would eventually. As for Sandstorm and also Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing, were simply uncertain about Narnia's creation being true.

 **Meanwhile, in the sleeping quarters**

Kushanku lay face down on his bed; his arms wrapped over his head and muffled sobs exploding from his buried mouth. Nearby, Nyarth was sitting on his sleeping spot, looking on confused as he watched his youngest brother sob and emit loud and muffled wails, his body rocking to each sob. Nyarth wanted to go over to Kushanku to comfort him and ask him why he was so upset but he felt reluctant, and also because Shadewing told him not to leave his spot, so Nyarth just sat there, a sympathetic gaze on his face as he watched Kushanku continue to sob aloud. As the oldest Nekomata kit continued to watch the youngest one continue to cry aloud, a humanoid fireball glided gently through the door and floated over to Kushanku. At first, Nyarth was startled but when he saw that it was only the house Pyro Emberflame, he calmed his nerves. Emberflame then took on her woman-like form with her fire-hair sweeping out behind her 'head' and gently placed a fire-hand onto Kushanku's facedown head. Pyros had the ability to control their flames and prevent them from kindling organic beings whenever they touched them, thus Emberflame was able to place her hands on her organic housemates without setting them alight. As she gently nudged Kushanku's head, Emberflame whispered the Nekomata's name. At first, she got no response for the sobbing Nekopmata was far too swamped with distress to hear her, so Emberflame repeated Kushanku's name in a louder voice.

"Kushanku," she said. At first, still no answer; but then Kushanku, still sobbing with his eyes spewing rivers of tears down his cheeks, slowly lifted his head and placed his tearful gaze on the hovering fire woman near him. Then the metallic icy blue, light grey and white Nekomata rose and sat on his backside to face the Pyro, his eyes still weeping the river of tears.

"Pops and Mother treat us like stupid little kits over the slightest things," he muttered in a disgruntled, fragile voice. As he said this, Nyarth threw his paws into a disgruntled fold and put on a scowl on his face.

"I know the feeling," he muttered, "I'm still angry at Mother and Father for sending me to the sleeping quarters for taking a bite out of one of those fruits during the food sorting process."

"Well, it's because your adopted Cheetah parents want to ensure your safety, you two," said Emberflame as she hovered near Kushanku in her fiery humanoid form, "As do the other adults in this den," the Pyro's gaze then hardened slightly, "The topic on the Great Lion is an extremely, _extremely_ offensive subject, you know, especially to our Queen…"

Kushanku then tearfully placed his chin on his paw and continued to weep.

"Boy, it's… been a bad… day," he continued, his urge to sob breaking up his voice, "First Pops scolds me for begging those Queen's food collectors to return some of Mr Hopper and his Jackalope's family's fruit tree crop to give us some more food, and then this with my curiosity of the Great Lion…"

"Why is the subject on the Great Lion forbidden anyway?" asked Nyarth in a slightly bitter voice. Emberflame turned her face of flames toward him.

"It's because it very GREATLY offends our Queen," she replied, "She's the one to be revered and respected," the Pyro then paused and lowered her fiery head, "But as for the deeper reason why she has forbidden any talk on the subject, I don't know," she then raised her head towards Kushanku and Nyarth again, "But all we know is that if you EVER discuss ANYTHING to do with the Great Lion, at all, you'll end up facing some very SERIOUS consequences."

"And what consequences are those?" asked Nyarth. However, to the oldest Nekomata's frustration, the Pyro shrugged her shoulders of flames.

"I don't know about that either," replied Emberflame, "but all you two need to know is that you are to NEVER, EVER talk about that subject or even mention it," Kushanku just lowered his head and ears in despair, "It greatly offends and disrespects our Queen and she will absolutely NOT tolerate a very great insult like that subject."

"This is just like complaining about our food sorting and our giving to the Queen the ninety percent of our delivery and crops," muttered Nyarth. Emberflame nodded.

"Our preparation for the Fighting League is also extremely strictly compulsory," the Pyro added. However, under the explanation, Emberflame felt a wave of fear threatening to spill over, "Now that Romulus, the head of Her Majesty's Police Wolves, has broadcasted the introduction to the League, we now await for which household will be selected and which member of those households will be selected for the League…"

This sent chilly shivers down the spines of Kushanku and Nyarth and they actually trembled at the thought of Dashiell's family being one of those families and one of the members of this family being chosen to be sent into the Fighting League alongside, and against dozens and dozens of other selected creatures from other selected families. However, the brothers, along with Gingerfur and the other kids had not yet seen what the Fighting League looked like but a few of them seemed to have had some idea of how it played out, but they had absolutely no idea of the horrors involved in the League; horrors they will soon be witnessing, or even worse for one of them if Dashiell's family is selected from the lottery, facing in person when the tournament gets set in motion.

The Decadal Fighting League was a special tournament the Queen had put forth as explained in one of the previous chapters when Romulus had broadcasted the announcement of the event. Once all the randomly selected creatures from the selected families are collected, they will be taken to the Queen and her followers' palace and eventually sent into a vast arena where they are pitted in a fight to the death against each other with no rules or restrictions, rather like the gladiators who fought against each other in the Colosseum in Rome in our world. Because it was a fight to the death until one was left standing, the fights between the competitors was very often extremely gory and bloody, but when we come to see this event when it happens when Dashiell and company watch it on their magical TV, alongside countless other Narnian creatures, I will not be showing too much of the graphic horrors that take place in the arena, but the creatures' reaction to it happening will give you some idea of how HORRIBLE the tournament was. Furthermore, there were some Narnian creatures who are badly traumatised by this decadal event as they may have lost a loved one to this horrible, horrible event in the previous two tournaments. And to make matters even worse, more disturbing and nausea-inducing, the Queen and her followers absolutely loved such extreme violence and found it very entertaining, and there was a very sinister reason under why the Queen had really put forth such a savage event once every ten years since her conquering of Narnia and locking it in a wintery curse, but we will get to this later.

As she continued to talk to Kushanku and Nyarth, Emberflame began to feel weakness take hold of her. It was clear that the frigid air flowing in from the snowy outside and into the den was beginning to weaken the Pyro and she needed to return to her source of heat: the den fire lamp. When a Pyro was weakening, their flames shrank in size, and Emberflame was beginning to see the flames on her 'arms' and 'hair' get smaller.

"I'd better head back to my lamp," she told the two Nekomata, "the cold's weakening my system and if I stay out too long, I could eventually end up extinguished, and that would be very bad for a Pyro like me."

And with that, Nyarth and Kushanku watched on as the shrinking Pyro glided for the door and entered the corridor, her contracting flames sweeping out behind her. Before leaving, Emberflame turned to the two Nekomata.

"Remember what I said during our talk, you two," she said, "Don't EVER discuss ANYTHING about the Great Lion, the creation of Narnia or complain about the food delivery sorting," her flaming facial expression then hardened, "If any of the Queen's watchers hear you mention anything to do with the Lion subject, you could face serious consequences, and I do mean serious, okay, and do as you adopted father Dashiell says, especially as he bestows his punishments upon you."

Kushanku and Nyarth just sat there as the Pyro then resumed her flight to the lamp to escape the cold air as it continued to weaken her. Kushanku then slowly turned to Nyarth and said, "I think she really means it, Nyarth, don't you agree."

"Huh, every SUBJECT seems to be lined with pitfalls, even the tiniest of things like the food delivery," muttered Nyarth, before the very disgruntled oldest brother of the Nekomata quads turned round and pulled his legs to his stomach and wrapped his arms around them, "Let's just wait here for Father to come along and tell us to leave the sleeping quarters."

Kushanku continued to gaze at his older brother and lowered his ears slightly in sadness.

"Do you think our biological parents would bestow us with such harsh punishments such as shovelling snow for ages?" he asked. At this, Nyarth turned sadly to him and said nothing to this question. Kushanku, Nyarth and also Satoshi and Akira did not remember much of their biological parents and their demise, but something inside these four Nekomata kits told them that they may have met their end for the last time they remembered seeing their faces was ten years ago, and Dashiell and Honeycomb had told them that they will tell them of their parents' demise when they were old enough to understand. With sad sighs leaving their mouths, Kushanku and Nyarth fell into silence with the former laying down and the latter remaining in his huddled position with his legs against his body and arms wrapped around them.

Everything certainly seemed unfair and frightening, didn't it, but most especially the Fighting League whose occurrence was imminent… along with who was going to be selected from what family, and Kushanku and Nyarth in particular feared that Dashiel's family, the family they were a part of, would be one of them, and that miasma of fear will soon thicken and grip not only Kushanku and Nyarth, but the rest of the family, including Dashiell and Honeycomb, as well, and a certain member of the family will especially be most affected…


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7- a horrible mockery of the Great Lion from Gingerfur and Amberpaw, a severe temper outburst**

 **Five Narnian days later**

Dashiell and his entire family, excluding Emberflame the Pyro, were outside the den in the snowy outdoors. All were dressed in thick coats and Shadewing was wearing some wing coats to keep his membranous wings warm. Membrane wings were sites for rapid heat loss in weather like this and Bats and Pterosaurs and other creatures with such wings had to protect them from the cold or they may suffer wing frost bite or even hypothermia. At the door to the den, Honeycomb was sweeping away some of the snow that had accumulated at the entrance while Mensa the Skvader, Shadewing the Bat, Rosebush, Thorn, Spikeball and Quill the Hedgehogs, Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes, Rubyfeather the Parrot, Chiseltooth the Beaver, and Rosemary the Monkey were up to a variety of things. The Hedgehogs, Shadewing, Chiseltooth and Rosemary were cutting down branches from the nearby trees, those that did not belong to the Dryads and Hamadryads, nature beings who were sprites like the air Sylphs and fire Pyros but dwelt within plants, namely trees, using tools such as saws and axes. Rosemary was in one of the trees using a bladed saw to cut off hunks of branches (being careful not to be on the wrong side of her point of cutting on the wooden arm, or you would know what would happen!) and passing them down to Shadewing who then gave them to the Hedgehogs and Chiseltooth to further proves into smaller pieces for firewood. The four Hedgehogs also used saws to cut up the branches into smaller pieces while Chiseltooth wielded his own, inbuilt natural tool: his teeth. Like our world's beavers, Narnian Beavers used their teeth to chew through wood to cut it up into smaller, more manageable chunks. However, while our world's dumb beavers used their wooden chunks to build dams and dens, Narnian Beavers also used them to make firewood and other wooden tools, like tables and chairs, though they also built dams and dens as well. And because Dashiell's family and household had a Beaver, Chiseltooth, in their group who was very good at shaping wooden chunks into useable items, Chiseltooth was indeed a very big help. Chiseltooth longed to use his inbuilt chiselling talent to make wooden carvings to sell to other creatures in order to buy some more food and other items for the family and community but with the current conditions, it was extremely difficult, even impossible. Despite this, Dashiell and company were grateful to have a Beaver living with them.

While Rosemary's team were working away making firewood, Dashiell was standing close by watching the young kids. His cubs Gingerfur, Amberpaw and Sandstorm, Hopper and Daisytail's daughter Dahlia; Mensa's son Snowwing, Rubyfeather's daughter Crystal, and the Nekomata kits Nyarth, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira were either playing or working. Nyarth and Kushanku were working away shifting snow using makeshift shovels while the other kids either played in the snow or were helping the adults. Dahlia had offered to help Rosemary's team make firewood and bring it into Dashiell's den while Crystal was assisting her mother Rubyfeather in helping other members of the community as they also shifted snow, made firewood or did other tasks.

Dashiell's den was amongst a small number of other dens and hollows which together, formed a village. A number of families, many with adopted members or members who had joined those families, were quite large, numbering in the teens and twenties for a few, such as Dashiell's family, while the smaller families only consisted of less than ten members. The larger families with more than ten members often consisted of a number of various creatures; the odd ones either adopted, like Kushanku and his siblings, or joined like Shadewing the Bat. These joiners and adoptees, much like some of Dashiell's family members, had been forced to join with other families due to the harsh winter that had plagued Narnia for the past few decades due to the food shortages and other difficulties it caused, and some of the young adoptees were either orphaned, like Kushanku and his siblings Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, or were given to these families because their parents could not afford to look after them, or lacked the ability to raise them in these harsh, wintery conditions. Because of these factors, Dashiell's community consisted of a wide variety of animals living together in this village.

Nyarth grunted bitterly as he heaved a shovelful of the white stuff and tossed it aside. The cold white pile flew off the metal wedge and almost showered Snowwing as it landed near him while he was carrying a branch to Rosemary's team with two Squirrels helping him.

"Hey, watch it!" snapped the Skvader kit as he and the Squirrel pair continued to carry the log.

"Nyarth, do it properly," barked Dashiell angrily, making Nyarth flinch and let loose a grumble under his breath, "And stop grumbling as well. You too, Kushanku," he directed his stern glare at the other Nekomata as he also uttered a disgruntled grunt as he tossed aside another shovelful of snow. Snowwing then flashed the two Squirrels a look and shrugged, before the three resumed carrying the log to Rosemary and company to be chopped up into firewood. Kushanku then stopped by placing the shovel upside down at his feet and sucked in some deep breaths as his muscles were fatigued but Dashiell barked at him to keep going, forcing him to give up the breather and resume his hefty work. As the two Nekomata continued heaving snow, Gingerfur and Amberpaw were playing nearby with some of the young animals from another family, a friend of Dashiell and company. This family was a family of Narnian Dogs and they lived in a kennel-like construction that was large enough to house themselves and several other animals. Their adopted or joined animals included a Pig, two Goats, a Griffin chick and an adolescent Hippogriff. The latter two had been orphaned at a young age, much like Kushanku and his three older siblings but their parents had died from the severe cold of the constant winter or from starvation and were taken in by the Dogs to be raised as two of their own. One of the younger Dogs, a male named Soran, was close friends with Gingerfur and Amberpaw and often chatted with them. Soran was doing just that with Dashiell and Honeycomb's two older cubs while Kushanku and Nyarth continued to work away at the hefty task of shifting snow under the constant nagging from their adopted Cheetah father. As the two Nekomata kits did that, Soran flashed the pair a curious look.

"Why are those two shifting snow?" he asked Gingerfur and Amberpaw, "Have they been misbehaving or something?"

"Kushanku said the forbidden 'A' word while Nyarth threw a temper tantrum about the food sorting," replied Gingerfur, a smirk at the two straining and snow-shovelling Nekomata. As he said this, another Dog, a female and Soren's sister, came in.

"Oh, he shouldn't have, it's our duty to give the Queen ninety percent of our food delivery and crops," she said, "While the 'A' word is extremely profane and could land you in some very DEEP water."

Her gaze then travelled to some forms nearby as they walked past the community, their gazes scouring the animals as they continued to talk, play or work, "Especially if those Queen's watchers pick up that word. They will not hesitate to report you to Her Majesty if they catch you uttering it."

Gingerfur and Amberpaw gazed at the forms as they slowly walked past not too far away. One of the patrollers appeared to be a Wolf, similar to Romulus, the head of the Wolf police, but two others appeared humanoid, almost Hag-like. When Gingerfur and Amberpaw gazed closer at the faces of the two creatures as they continued to watch the animal community with their Wolf comrade, they realised that their faces had mouths, but no eyes. However, the two Cheetah cubs then noticed one of the Hag-like creatures raised its hands and as it did so, the two cubs noticed that the creatures' eyes were not on their faces, but their _hands_.

"Those three are one of the Wolves and two of the Tenome from Her Majesty's patrol group," explained Soran as Gingerfur and Amberpaw's eyes widened in utter, fearful awe, "They have come by to check on us to make sure that everything is in order and that none of us steps out of line."

"Like peacekeepers?" asked Amberpaw as she continued to gaze at the trio of ugly creatures, which were indeed a Wolf and two Tenome. Tenome bore a resemblance to Hags but did not have eyes on their faces, but their hands. However, they were just as hideous as the true Hags. Their eyeless faces resembled a mangled potato with mouths, the area where the eyes would normally be on a Hag being replaced by a very ugly, unsightly fold of skin. Tenome wore shaggy coats just like Hags, and some of them were hunched. Because of this, they were often mistaken by some creatures who had not seen a Tenome before as eyeless hags until they notice that their eyes are actually on their hands, which can be a very frightening revelation. As Soran, his sister, Gingerfur and Amberpaw continued to gaze at the two Tenome and their Wolf colleague, Kushanku also stopped shifting snow and flashed the trio a gaze, his chest heaving the frigid air in and out of his lungs as his muscles cried for more oxygen for the work.

"Oi, get back to work," barked Dashiell when he saw the Nekomata stop, forcing Kushanku to return to his task.

"What are those three, Pops?" asked Kushanku. At this, Dashiell hardened his glare and let loose a loud, squeaky mew (cheetahs make this sound rather than roaring, unlike other big cats and Narnian Cheetahs are no different), jolting the Nekomata and forcing him to resume his task. Dashiell then laid a timid, wary look on the two Tenome and their Wolf comrade and shuddered. He was clearly aware of these three being three of the Queen's watchers and did not want any of his kids, much less Kushanku and Nyarth, to misbehave again.

"Careful, Honeycomb, guys," called the Cheetah to the other animals as many of them, including an adult male Dog, Soran and his sister's father, also noticed the patrollers, "That Wolf and those two Tenome are watching us."

Honeycomb and Rosemary, together with her firewood-making team consisting of Mensa, Skvader, Shadewing, Rosebush, Thorn, Spikeball, Quill, Hopper, Daisytail, Rubyfeather and Chiseltooth as they carried the chopped up logs, now small enough to be used as firewood, over to Dashiell's den. Nearby, Rubyfeather, her daughter Crystal and some of her friends also flashed a wary glance on the three ugly watchers as they continued to shift snow and chat. The Pig, two Goats, the Hippogriff and the Griffin, as they stood near Soran's father, mother and a few other puppies, also gazed at the trio of watchers, and a few of them actually shuddered as the two Tenome's hand-eyes raked their glare over them. Kushanku and Nyarth, again, flashed a glance at the two Tenome and the Wolf as they continued to glare at the animals of the village. Dashiell then came in. However; he had something to tell the two Nekomata, something very important.

"You see why you should especially watch what you say, you two?" he whispered seriously, his mouth close to the two Nekomata's ears, "especially about the Queen?"

Kushanku flinched as one of the Tenome's hand-eye glares scoured over him and Nyarth.

"They look so severe and stern, Pops," whispered the Nekomata.

"It's because those three are some of the Queen's patrollers," replied Dashiell in a low voice, "They help keep and maintain order in the animal communities around here and make sure that none of us step out of line. If they see any signs of any of us, at _all_ , doing that, they will report it straight away to the Queen."

Kushanku and Nyarth did not reply to this and continued to fearfully and silently gaze at the two Tenome and Wolf as they continued to scour the animals of the community.

The Queen had given some of her followers a very important job in reinforcing her laws and her tyranny over Narnia, and those followers had become patrollers, sent out to patrol the animal villages and towns to keep an eye on things and maintain order (or rather, fear and submission of the creatures). However, the mobile creatures who followed Jadis were not the only creatures given this job. Some of the tree sprites, called Dryads, who had chosen to follow Jadis were also given this task, though their job was to hide in plain sight and keep a close eye on the oppressed animals. Furthermore, the patrollers were not only reinforces of Jadis's dictatorial laws, but also spies as well. Due to the constant presence of these spies/patrollers, the treading of the oppressed animals was reduced to that of delicate eggshells such that even the slightest stepping out of line would potentially put them in grave danger of the consequences the Queen had ordered in her laws. Kushanku continued gazing timidly at the two Tenome and the Wolf as they continued to scour the animals for any suspicious behaviour when out the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of shimmering fur. At this, the young Nekomata kit snapped his gaze from the three watchers to the shimmering object but when his eyes landed on the object, he realised that the sparkles belonged to one of the animals. This animal was a bipedal, bifurcated tailed cat much like Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira and based on its features, the Nekomata was a female. She was about Kushanku and his three siblings' age and had metallic sea-green, cerulean and red-purple fur with patches of white, shaggy fur strewn through her pelage, especially on her head. These features gave the Nekomata a strong resemblance to a Persian cat of our world with beautifully coloured metallic fur splashed over its coat. And based on the two Goats and the Pig standing around her, Kushanku deduced that she must be part of Soran the Dog's family.

"Wow," said the kit in a low, awed voice. At this, the female Nekomata turned her gaze to Kushanku and locked it with his gaze. Her eyes were a vivid cyan, like the Narnian skies overhead on a clear day but towards the centre marked by her slitted pupils, that cyan faded to sea-green, giving the Nekomata's eyes the resemblance to a gemstone in our world called turquoise. Among the miasma of unease, wariness and fear caused by the presence of the two Tenome and the Wolf, Kushanku found himself lost in the crystalline waters of the Nekomata's eyes.

Kushanku and the female Nekomata continued to gaze at each other for a few more stunned moments but then Soran's father's voice rang out.

"Trotterhoof, Goats, Alexandrite, can you come and help us with this firewood please?" called the Dog. At this, the quartet turned their gazes in the Dog's direction and began to walk over to him. Kushanku continued gazing at the beautiful female Nekomata, who he assumed was named Alexandrite, as she followed the Pig and the two Goats in the direction of Soran's father. The Nekomata returned Kushanku's gaze but then her face morphed into a frown and her paw rose and pointed to something behind Kushanku as if to say, "Someone wants you to return to work".

"Kushanku, back to work," said a familiar voice, whom Kushanku recognised was Dashiell's. At this, the Nekomata kit slowly turned and found himself gazing into the stern glare of his adopted Cheetah father. Kushanku breathed a sad sigh and resumed shifting snow with Nyarth. As he did so, he flashed one final gaze at the female Nekomata as she set to helping Soran's father with the Pig and the two Goats. A few minutes later, the animals' activities had resumed for the two Tenome and their Wolf comrade, satisfaction that things were in order in this community, had moved on with their patrol.

The animal community continued to work. However, although the two Tenome and the Wolf had moved on, there was still a small mist of fear drifting through the air. That mist is visible in the eyes of some of the animals and the reason for this was not because they had just had the usual 'check-up' by three of the Queen's patrollers, but because there was something else on the creatures' minds: the Decadal Fighting League. It had been five days since Romulus the head of the Wolf police had broadcasted the announcement throughout Narnia via the magical TV screens and by now, many of the animal communities up and down the frozen land of Narnia will have had a visit from the collectors sent by the Queen to pick up the selected individuals from selected families and households, and Dashiell's community was yet to receive that visit. Worry plagued the creatures but some of them looked especially troubled. Kushanku and Nyarth continued to clear one of the paths of snow with their shovels when Nyarth stopped to examine Shadewing.

"Hey, little brother," said Nyarth, stopping Kushanku from working and putting his shovel down.

"Yes, Nyarth?" asked Kushanku.

"Do you suppose Mr Shadewing is alright?" asked Nyarth, a nod to the Bat across the snowy clearing as he continued to watch some of the kids, among them Dahlia and Sandstorm, play with the other kids, among them a young Goat kid, "He looks horribly troubled and fearful."

At this, Kushanku hardened his concentration on the Bat and saw that the flying mammal had worry saturating his gaze, proving Nyarth's point. Suddenly, Dashiell's voice pierced through the two Nekomata's concern for Shadewing.

"Oi, you, two, back to work!" barked the adult male Cheetah. At this, Nyarth and Kushanku immediately resumed shovelling snow. Satisfied that the two Nekomata were continuing their job as ordered, Dashiell smiled and moved on to speak to one of the other animals. As the two brothers continued to heave snow from the path and toss it aside, Satoshi and Akira came by. A pang of pity laced the faces of these two siblings of Kushanku and Nyarth.

"Still shifting that cold stuff, eh, you two?" asked Satoshi. At this, Nyarth flashed him a disgruntled glare.

"It's _tiring!"_ he snapped as he tossed another shovelful of snow aside, "You oughta try it yourself."

Then Kushanku's face twisted into a look of pain and his paw went to his aching back. Then his paw went to his belly which had begun to rumble. Already, for it had only been an hour after the group had had breakfast.

"I'm hungry as well," muttered the youngest Nekomata of the quads as he rubbed his growling tummy, "Those small breakfast portions are not helping at all."

"Huh, tell me about it," muttered Nyarth as he tossed another shovelful of snow aside, "We just never have enough food on our plates at all," however, he flinched as his eyes landed on Dashiell not too far away as he talked with one of the animals, a Stag (male deer) who was the head of another family in the community and remembered his reaction to his (Nyarth's) complaints about the meagre remainder of food each of the Narnian creature families always had during the separation of their ninety percent 'offering' to the Queen and her followers from the rest of their deliveries and crops, the part the animals were allowed to eat. Complaining about the food shortage was a big no-no in this community and the other communities outside, especially with the Queen's patrollers around, for sometimes they may even stop by and check the activities of the creatures in their own homes every now and then besides watching them while they were outside. Warily, Nyarth continued to shovel snow, occasionally flashing glances at Akira and Satoshi every now and then as they continued to speak.

"Neither do the other animals," said Akira as she gazed at the other animals on the field as they continued to talk, work or play, before her gaze landed on the Griffin chick, "I was just speaking with Desdemona over there and she said that because the food shortages were so severe, especially due to the fact that we must give ninety percent of our deliveries and crops to our Queen and her followers, she had tried to improvise to help increase the amount of food on her family's plates…"

"And how did… Desdemona improvise?" asked Kushanku, half-talking and half-concentrating on shovelling the snow, another powdery lump of cold stuff flying over his shoulder, a grunt of effort escaping his mouth and a paw going to his back as it ached from the effort of shoving the shovel into the white stuff and lifting it. Kushanku then uttered a complaint under his breath about the pain in his back and put on a tired face, much to the pang of pity from Akira and Satoshi.

"She tried to hide some of the delivered food from the rest of the family during the sorting stage, taking some of the best fruit and supplies, in a trapdoor under her nest," said Satoshi, "and she hoped that she would be able to sneakily distribute it amongst the other animals to help with the hunger that keeps gripping us."

As he said this, Kushanku gazed at him as he continued for it reminded of his suggestion to Hopper and Daisytail that they use their indoor fruit tree crop to help with the food shortages both for Dashiell's family and the other animals in the community, only for them to refuse at the visiting Hag and her group's orders that ninety percent of that crop be collected by them to be taken to the Queen and her followers, leaving only a small fraction of the crop behind. Satoshi and Akira's faces then fell.

"It worked well at first but then one of the puppies discovered the hidden compartment under Desdemona's nest," continued Akira, "And when Soran's father and his mate went to check that trapdoor, the stock of food was discovered and Desdemona was severely punished."

"The food she had stocked under her nest was collected by a visiting patrolling Tenome and a Dryad who was loyal to the Queen, both who had overheard the commotion to be taken to Her Majesty," added Satoshi. Kushanku and Nyarth, at this, flinched, before their saddened gazes travelled to the Griffin chick, Desdemona, whose eagle-like head, front legs, wings and upper body plumage were an auburn colour and her lion-like hindquarters and tail were burgundy, her front leg talons and beak a golden yellow colour and her eyes like massive onyxes, piercing and fierce. Griffins, also called Gryphons, were winged four-footed creatures whose heads, forelimbs and wings were like those of an eagle and their hind legs and tail like those of a lion, except that their lion-like tail had a fan of feathers on the end, rather like an Archaeobird. Hippogriffs were similar but instead of lion-like hind legs and tail, their hind parts were those of a horse. Both species possessed cruel, lethal looking talons on their front feet, hooked beaks, a pair of ears like a horse and a piercing pair of large onyxes that sometimes made them look intimidating. Desdemona had been trying to hoard some of the food intended for the Queen in the hopes of secretly distributing it amongst some of the animals of the community as well as increase the supply of food in the home of her family, headed by Soran the Dog's father, but her hoarding was discovered and she was punished for it. It was totally unfair, but these poor, poor creatures had no choice but to abide to the strict rule that ninety-percent of it is to be given to the Queen and her followers without question, regardless of whether they risked facing starvation or not, and any who object or complain must be punished, or the Queen's watches would do it for them.

As Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth continued talking, Gingerfur, Amberpaw and two of their Dog friends, Soran and one of his sisters named Zira, came by. Zira, the female Dog then smirked at the two forked-tailed cats and moved her muzzle to Amberpaw's ear to whisper something into it. Amberpaw's mouth widened into a smile and her eyes lit up, before she turned to Zira and nodded. Soran and Gingerfur also formed smirks on their faces. After this, the quartet approached the Nekomata siblings, prompting Kushanku and Nyarth to resume shovelling snow and Satoshi and Akira to back off. However, the latter two stopped when the Cheetah and Dog quartet were not here to check on them and their two brothers on Dashiell's behalf, for he was still talking with the Stag, but they were here for a different reason entirely, especially based on the mocking smirks lacing the faces of all four of them.

"Hey, Kushanku," said Amberpaw in a low voice, a brief glance on Dashiell not too far away, "Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, you four remember five days ago when we were studying Narnia's prehistory?"

"What about it?" asked Kushanku rather disgruntledly.

"It was before you blurted out that stupid 'A' word," said Gingerfur with narrowed eyes and a widened smirk. The two Dogs, Soran and Zira, also widened their smirks.

"Your adopted brother and sister were just talking about it with us," said Soran, "and we are wondering if you still believe in that fairy tale about Narnia being sung into existence."

This sent chills down Kushanku and his three older siblings' spines and made wary looks appear on their faces. Talking about the creation of Narnia was strictly forbidden and the eight of them could get into serious trouble if any of the adults caught them discussing it, and Kushanku and Nyarth could potentially face even greater punishment from Dashiell and Honeycomb while the other six could be penalised but with a penalty of a lesser severity. However, because the eight were out of the earshot of the adults including Dashiell, Honeycomb and also Soran and Zira's parents, who were busily talking with the other animals or watching over the other kids, this had opened an opportunity for Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Zira and Soran to tease the four Nekomata about their beliefs in Narnia's creation.

"Do you think this world was sung into existence by some… tiny, puny lickle pussycat?" crooned Soran in a mocking voice, a paw gesturing to Narnia's landscape and sky. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira did not reply to this. Then Gingerfur's smirk widened.

"Sounds awesome, though," said the oldest son of Dashiell and Honeycomb, "that a cute lil' _puddy-tat_ could _me-e-e-ew_ the vast expanses of Narnia into existence when in fact the lands formed all by themselves out of that disc of molten rock with the sun that formed it so dangerously close to it."

The four Nekomata still didn't reply but continued to gaze at the Dog and Cheetah quartet. However, a frown began to form on Kushanku's face. Then Amberpaw's head tipped to one side.

"Which do you think is most awesome, naïve lil' adopted bro?" she crooned mockingly, a hint of condescension in her voice, "Narnia's formation out of that molten disc with that meteor bringing in the seeds of life… OR… that cutesy lickle ickle pussycat mewin' the lands and life into existence?"

"Maybe that little pussycat sung the disc of Narnia into existence as a flat pancake of molten rock close to its sun and let nature take its course," cooed Soran, ending his sentence with a slight titter. At this, Kushanku shot the Dog and his adopted Cheetah sister a look.

"I don't recall the Creator of Narnia being some cute cat OR do I recall him making Narnia as a molten rock disc near its sun and then having nature finish the job with that meteor bringing in the microbial seeds of life to evolve over millions of years into the creatures that inhabit Narnia today."

"I find it difficult to understand this evolutionary process thing anyway," said Satoshi.

"That's right," put in Akira, "How can a bunch of microbes survive a catastrophic explosion like that meteor blowing up and then just suddenly mutate and develop into more complex creatures such as us?"

"Or how can they even form from non-living chemicals on that meteor in the firs place for that matter?" added Nyarth. At this, the mocking gazes of Soran, Zira, Amberpaw and Gingerfur hardened.

"It's obvious that your puny little Nekomata minds are too small to understand the _a-maaa-zing_ power of evolutionary processes, especially over millions of years," crooned Soran in a gravelly voice, hoping to belittle the four forked-tailed cats. Then Gingerfur sat on his hind legs in the snow and crossed his front ones, his eyelids half covering his eyes and a mocking smile stretching his mouth across his face.

"Yes, _fa-a-a-ar_ more amazing than a scrawny little puddy-tat with a brain the size of a pea mewing and howling Narnia into existence," he crooned. At this, Kushanku felt a flash of anger spark through him and the white sheet of his head hair suddenly rose.

"Knock it _off!"_ he hissed and raised a paw but felt it get caught in something. At this, the little metallic icy blue, pale grey and white Nekomata shot his paw a surprised gaze and saw that Akira had seized his paw.

"Don't… even think about it," she hissed in rebuke. Kushanku, at this, lowered his paw and returned his gaze to the sneering Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira as the four Cheetahs and Dogs then attempted to push Kushanku's other sensitive buttons in an attempt to wind him up. Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira didn't seem to react much to Gingerfur's quartet's mockery but that mockery certainly was stinging Kushanku, and they could see that. Then Zira decided to attempt to poke at the youngest Nekomata's nerves.

"Maybe that cute little cat was so mournful," she crooned, " _soooo…_ lonely amongst that big black void, that he decided to wail and howl and POOF, unexpectedly, the scenery of Narnia popped into existence…"

" _Stop it!"_ hissed Kushanku in an angrier, low-voice growl and a lurch towards Zira but Nyarth and Akria restrained him while Satoshi flinched. Suddenly, a voice spoke nearby.

"Oi, you eight, take it easy," it said. At this, the heads of all eight of the youngsters turned to the speaker, which was Trotterfoot the Pig who was glaring sternly at the group with a Doe (female deer) and another animal in the community, a large featherless bird-like creature with wings like a bat but wearing a coat over its wings and body to protect it from the cold; a Pterosaur, also wearing stern glares directed at Amberpaw and the other seven.

"Yes," said the latter creature, "we don't want your parents Dashiell, Honeycomb, Growler and Silver-Ears losing their tempers with you eight for fighting."

Amberpaw, Soran, Zira, Gingerfur, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira just returned the gaze of the three adult animals as they mentioned the parents of the former four (Growler and Silver-Ears being Soran and Zira's parents) and shuddered slightly at what penalty they would face if said four adults were told of their messing around. Then the Pig, the Pterosaur and the Doe resumed chatting.

"We'd better return to shifting snow," said Nyarth disgruntledly, "C'mon, Kushanku."

Kushanku was about to do so while Satoshi and Akira were about to depart but Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira remained, a mocking and scornful look plastering each of their faces, and those glares were directed at one certain Nekomata as he was about to resume shovelling snow.

"We know you believe in that… oversized, overgrown, mutated feline with that flea-saturated messy mass of hair all over his head," hissed Soran in a more acidified whisper. Gingerfur, Amberpaw and Zira nodded in agreement. Kushanku then began to tremble as his anger began to boil.

"You're just talking a load of gibberish," he hissed in retort as he shoved his shovel into more snow and heaved the load over his shoulder. Nyarth looked on while he continued to shovel snow as well, wary of the situation's potential escalating into fierier temperatures. He wondered whether he should fetch Dashiell over but then he feared that Dashiell might just bark at him to return to work or else he would just face even bigger punishment. Not to mention the likelihood of Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira denying any teasing of Kushanku being high. Poor Nyarth was torn between one option and the other. Then the eyebrow above Amberpaw's left eye rose in a sneering manner.

"Oh, really, Twin-Tails?" she crooned, "Do you wanna hear what happened to that poor, poor puddy-tat?"

"If it existed at all," added Zira mockingly.

"Stop it!" hissed Kushanku in a harsher whisper and raised a paw to swipe the scornful smirks off of his teasers' faces but Nyarth jumped in and stopped him by grabbing his arm. Nyarth then turned to Amberpaw and her quartet.

"Stop this at once, you four, that's enough. Can't you see he's wound up enough as it is?" he rebuked the two Dogs and Cheetahs but to his dismay, the quartet continued pushing Kushanku's buttons and further pressurising his anger.

"Oh, listen to what Zira here has to say about this 'Great Lion', Nyarth, you're sure to find it hilarious," replied Gingerfur with a smirking smile, before he nodded to Soran's sister. Then Zira's smirk widened all the more until it practically bulged out the Dog's cheeks, especially as her mocking eyes relished Kushanku's boiling anger as it reached breaking point.

"Her Majesty the Queen has tamed that cute pussycat and now keeps him as a cutesy lickle, ickle pet in her back palace garden," continued the Dog, especially as she watched the anger shake Kushanku like how the frigid Narnian air would make you shiver with cold if you did not have sufficient insulator clothing. Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Soran smiled on while Nyarth looked on with an increasingly horrified look as Zira then began to enter a dangerous minefield, "and then when that pussycat refused to obey the Queen's commands, the Queen SLAUGHTERED that cat and had him for dinner…"

At this, the fire in Kushanku's amber eyes continued to rage higher and the Nekomata's white head fur really spiked out. The metallic ice blue and grey fur on his head and body also puffed out and his teeth gritted together. Nyarth then began to back away, knowing the inevitable. To make matters worse, Zira was deliberately not aware of the building pressure that was about to explode in her face any moment now.

"And that's about it," said the Dog to an ever increasingly-livid Kushanku, "You see how WEAK and USELESS that puny cat is compared to our MIGHTY Queen?" she turned to Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Soran for agreement who gave it to her in the form of nods and mocking stares. Then Zira returned her gaze to Kushanku, "He's as pathetic as a…"

Then an absolutely _disgusting_ description came out of her mouth. That did it, Kushanku's pressurised anger finally burst through its confinements. With an enraged cat screech, the Nekomata threw down his shovel and leaped at the Dog.

"KUSHANKU!" barked Nyarth as he watched his younger brother leap at Zira. Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Soran also backed away as Kushanku and Zira spun in a barrel roll through the snow and began fighting and attracting an audience, but not a pleasant one.

As the brawling Nekomata and Dog continued struggling against each other with showers of white snow flying everywhere, screeches of acidic words exploding from their mouths in an attempt to verbally stab each other and their teeth and claws threatening to inflict scratches; a stampede of various animal feet (hooves, talons, etc.) erupted into the eternally wintery air as a variety of animals charged in to break apart the fight before it escalated into wound-opening territory. Growler, the father of Zira and Soran, rushed in and hooked his front paws onto Zira and yanked her away from Kushanku while the latter was pulled away by Rosemary the Monkey who had managed to reach the fight first. Kushanku kept screaming and squirming in Rosemary's grasp, volcanic threats flying from his mouth like lightning bolts at Zira as she also pulled away and screaming hateful remarks at the Nekomata at the same time. Not too far away, some of the other kids, among them Snowwing, Dahlia, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Crystal, looked on in utter astonishment as they watched the brawlers get pulled apart by the intervening adults.

"Alright, that's ENOUGH, both of you," snarled the Pterosaur as the squirming and screeching/barking Zira and Kushanku were pulled further away from each other, the urge to tear each other's fur out still erupting within them.

"Zira, you STOP THIS at ONCE!" barked Growler to his daughter but Zira continued to bark and holw at her enemy.

"I hope THE QUEEN has selected BOTH ME AND YOU for the FIGHTING LEAGUE, you FLEA-BITTEN, TWO-TAILED RAT-FACE," bellowed Zira at Kushanku, "Because if we ARE, I'm gonna KILL YA IN THE ARENA FIRST!"

Kushanku in Rosemary's grasp just released a volcanic hiss through his teeth, a few flecks of saliva flying from his mouth but then a large spotted cat came in.

"KUSHANKU!" barked Honeycomb furiously. Around the commotion, the onlookers continued to watch on and Nyarth, badly shaken by the whole scene, backed away towards an equally shaken and horrified Desdemona and Alexandrite, the colourful Nekomata living in Soran's family. Then Kushanku yanked himself out of Rosemary's grasp. Rosemary let loose a horrified gasp and prepared to seize Kushanku again but to her surprise, the Nekomata did not lunge at Zira. Then Kushanku, his anger and rage still boiling within him and making him shake violently, raked his furious glare over Rosemary, Honeycomb, Dashiell, Soran and his family (some of them looking on with smug looks on their faces, especially Soran and a furious Zira), and the other onlookers.

"I just WANT THINGS to be BETTER!" he barked in a fractured, livid voice, his eyes beginning to ooze tears, "FAIRER, PEACEFUL… NOT with this FEAR, STARVATION AND UNFAIRNESS causing ALL THESE PROBLEMS for ALL OF US…" the Nekomata then began to shake all the more as extreme sadness came over him, "AND YOU KNOW WHAT!? I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE the QUEEN! I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE WHAT SHE IS PUTTING US ALL THROUGH! I WISH she NEVER WAS THE QUEEN OF NARNIA IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"KUSHANKU, watch your TONGUE THIS MINUTE!" bellowed Dashiell at the top of his voice. However, Kushanku just darted off towards Dashiell's den in a shower of snow and disappeared inside it through the door, loud wails of distress escaping his mouth. Dashiell barked Kushanku's name and charged off after him but four prickly balls appeared and blocked his way. At this, Dashiel flashed the four balls a furious look but the four balls of thorns, which were Rosebush, Thorn, Quill and Spikeball the Hedgehogs, stood their ground and gently shook their heads as if to say, 'Let him go'. At this, Dashiell reluctantly relented and gazed at the entrance to his den and cooled his anger. Then Trotterfoot the Pig came in, his gaze also on Dashiell's front door.

"You know what, you lot," he said, "I second that Nekomata's remarks."

"Let's just resume our activities," said Dashiell in a quitter voice and with that, now that the fires had been quelled, the animals resumed their activities. Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, as well as Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia and also some of the other animals such as Desdemona the Griffin and Alexandrite the colourful Nekomata, flashed Dashiell's den a sympathetic look as they listened to Kushanku's loud wails emanating from the inside but eventually they pulled their gazes from the den and resumed their activities. However, under their nonchalant demeanour, agreement with Kushanku on the Queen's ruling over Narnia was also manifesting. The amount of food the animals are forced to give her and her followers, the Fighting League and its fear and uncertainty it was having on the creatures and the wintery curse were indeed making them question the Queen's role as ruler over Narnia.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- the first sign of the big decadal event… and the damage it will soon bring**

A few minutes after Kushanku's fiery outburst, the activities of the animal community had resumed. Nyarth was ordered by Dashiell to continue shifting snow but since he was now on his own, the oldest brother of Kushanku had no choice but to take up the slack left behind by his youngest brother. The tabby cat-like Nekomata with smatters of metallic grey decorating his black, orange and ginger-striped fur grunted and gasped as he continued to heave shovelfuls of snow and toss it aside, streams of water vapour escaping his motif each time he exhaled, and sometimes his face twisted with effort as he rammed the shovel into more snow or lifted a lump of the white stuff, and his forked tail swished at the air every now and then. As Nyarth continued to shift snow, Dashiell continued to watch him, a very stern look on his face intently fixed on his adopted son to make sure that he did not stop or complain, and Nyarth felt completely and utterly exasperated. However, he daren't flash his adopted Cheetah father a disgruntled look for he feared that Dashiell might bestow upon him a harsher punishment or making him shift even more snow. Around Dashiell and Nyarth, the other animals had resumed their activities, or at least most of them had. Some had some confrontation to do with a group of certain animals that had ignited the brawl between Kushanku and Zira, Soran's sister.

While Dashiell continued to watch Nyarth shift snow, Honeycomb stood with Growler, Silver-Ears, Rosemary and several other adult animals, their angry glares converging on Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Soran and Zira who stood there, nonchalant looks on their faces.

"Alright, you four," said Honeycomb in a low voice, "Tell us; have you been discussing anything about the Great Lion?"

No reply, much to the disapproval of the adults.

"Oh, don't pretend that nothing has happened, you four," growled Growler angrily, "Because you know how SERIOUS this is, especially in regards to our Queen and how offensive the subject is to her."

Still the two Cheetah cubs and Dog puppies remained quiet. Finally, Gingerfur raised his head and spoke.

"It seems that Kushanku believes in this flea-bitten pussycat and that it created Narnia by mewing it into existence, Mother, Father, Mr Growler and Mrs Silver-Ears," he said. He hoped that by saying this he would get Kushanku into deeper trouble. However, it only transformed the faces of the adults into angry looks.

"Look, there's no SUCH THING as a cat mewing Narnia into existence, Gingerfur," snapped Growler angrily, "That's a total MYTH!"

"Yes, and it goes against the evidence the biologists and scientists had found about Narnia's history as well," put in Silver-Ears, "the evidence which points to the fact that everything in Narnia had evolved over millions of years, both on this land and on the sun, and that the disc of Narnia itself had formed from a flat molten circle of rock close to the sun before the ball of fire, which eventually evolved into a landscape with an ecosystem of its own, receded to its current position over millions of years, allowing the disc of proto-Narnia to cool and form the circle of rock it is today."

"Kushanku told us that he doesn't believe in that fact, Mrs Silver-Ears," said Amberpaw.

"Well, he's gonna have to learn that it's true then, isn't he, whether he likes it or not," said Honeycomb with a stern look, "I just hope it's all a phase since he, along with his three older siblings are still young and that he'll grow out of it and start seeing that this Narnia creation story is a complete fairy tale."

"It's also a forbidden subject like the Great Lion, anyway," put in Rosemary. As she said this, a young reddish eagle with the hindquarters of a lion but with a fan of feathers on the end of its tail walked past with another, similar-aged eagle with grey and aqua blue feathers and white underside and belly with the hindquarters of a horse, the fur and tail hair also grey and aqua blue with some blotches of white. Most Griffins had brown plumage and fur, but a few of them also came in a few shades of red and orange and even the metallic version of these colours, but these were rarer, whilst Hippogriffs came in a wider variety of colours in their feathers and fur, ranging from drab colours like brown and red to the more exotic colours like aqua blue and even pure white. As the pair heard Rosemary speak about the Great Lion, the two turned their piercing stares in Honeycomb and her group's direction.

"My late Mom and Dad never believed Narnia to have evolved over millions of years from a flat disc of molten rock and we creatures to have evolved from microbes, and the sun starting out as a fiery ball very near to that disc and receded into the dome sky to evolve into an ecosystem land of its own," whispered the Hippogriff to the Griffin, Desdemona, "Neither did my five siblings."

"To be honest, Cyril, I don't believe in this evolution story myself either," replied Desdemona, before beckoning Cyril to lower his eared eagle's head within range of the Griffin's beak.

"Largely because it omits Aslan out of the picture," she whispered into Cyril's ear, a talon cupping her beak to prevent the 'A' word from leaking out and reaching the ears of the other animals. She actually flashed a wary glance at some of the nearby animals said this and hoped that they hadn't heard her say that word. Luckily, none of them heard her mention it, much to her relief. Cyril, at this, gazed at Desdemona and nodded in agreement.

"It basically puts natural processes in place of the true Creator and if they really are the ones that brought Narnia and everything in it into existence," said the Hippogriff, "Then that would make those processes, which cannot plan ahead and think; a potential object of worship and praise-giving rather than the Creator himself."

"True," said Desdemona, "And to add, the idea of millions of years of death and the struggle to survive in a purposeless world, which is essentially what this story teaches, is horribly depressing," the Griffin shook her head, "The Great Lion would never evolve life over millions of years using those processes including bloody death and struggle because what sort of creator would he be if he used all THAT to bring everything in Narnia into the picture?"

"One, it would make him to be a horribly cruel ogre and two, it would make little of his creative power," replied Cyril with a frown, before his whisper morphed into a hiss of distaste, "I believe this evolution story is a _mockery_ to the Great Lion, a story that…"

Suddenly, a sharp "OI!" jabbed into the conversation between the two, snapping the eagles' heads of the pair in the direction of the speaker, which was one of the Deer, a Doe.

"Don't make me come over there and discipline you both," said the Doe, her suspicious glare on the Griffin and Hippogriff chicks. At this, Desdemona immediately thought of an excuse to cover up the conversation.

"W-w-we were just talking the amazing diversity of creatures and plants that had evolved in Narnia, Ma'am, both here on this land and on the sun," stammered the Griffin. However, a hot flush of regret flashed through her as she said this and she felt like a hypocrite, but she wanted to escape punishment. Cyril then reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Um… yes, we're just going over what we've learned in today's lesson," he added. The Doe then formed a smile and nodded, much to the duo's relief.

"That's okay, but as long as you're not discussing anything that is STRICTLY forbidden," she said. Her gaze then darted timidly this way and that as though she expected some of the Queen's watchers, or the two Tenome and the Wolf from earlier, to return and shoot suspicious glares at the group, and Desdemona and Cyril did the same. Living in these conditions always brought uncertainty because you never know when the Queen's watchers were about to enter the scene or where they were, and one wrong word said at the wrong time could land you in very deep waters… FREEZING COLD waters, in fact.

As Desdemona and Cyril continued to talk, Honeycomb and Growler stepped forward towards Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira, angry looks on their faces.

"Well, that calls for punishment for you four," growled Honeycomb angrily, much to the flinching of the four youngsters, "We have explained to you before, any talks on the Great Lion and Narnia's creation is STRICTLY forbidden."

"That's right," put in Silver-Ears to the shuddering quartet in agreement, before her glare turned to Nyarth as he continued to shift snow, grumbling as he did only to be rebuked by Dashiell, "and that punishment shall be… shifting snow with Nyarth."

At this, protest and grumbling tore through Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira.

"Awww!" muttered the first one, "But it was Kushanku who started it."

"Yes, he's the one who believes in this fairy tale trash," said the second. However, the adults were adamant, and Rosemary stepped in, a stern look on her face.

"No excuses, Cheetah cubs," she told Amberpaw and Gingerfur, "They won't wash. If those two Tenome and that Wolf were still here, they'd have reported you to the Queen there and then."

"And we ALL would have landed in trouble with Her Majesty," added Growler, a hint of timidity at the Queen's fierce wrath in his voice. Then Silver-Ears turned to a group of Deer and Goats nearby and nodded to them to bring out four shovels for Amberpaw and the other three. Then Soran and Zira began to protest.

"We didn't do ANYTHING, honestly!" said the two Dog siblings together but the adults adamantly shook their heads.

"Enough with your attempts to get out of trouble as well, my son and daughter," replied Growler, "You both are gonna be shovelling snow with Nyarth regardless."

A few minutes later, Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran and Zira were equipped with a shovel each and heaving snow and throwing it aside alongside Nyarth and under the watchful eyes of Dashiell and Growler. Very disgruntled scowls plastered the faces of the quartet as they indignantly worked.

"Do we HAVE to work with NYARTH, of ALL CREATURES!?" snarled Soran as he rammed his shovel into the snow. Zira also shot Nyarth a hateful look but Nyarth was too busy shovelling snow.

"Less chat, more work," shouted Dashiell, making the four flinch. Grumbles filtering through their gritted teeth and muscles tensing in their forelimbs and shoulders, the quartet continued to shift snow, sending lumps of the white stuff flying aside. Around them, the animals had resumed their tasks, play and chatting. However, another interruption was about to pierce the activities and bring them to another standstill again. While everyone was up to their activities, a swoop tore through the freezing air, along with a shout as one of the community members able to fly rocketed in.

"GUYS!" the creature, a Parrot like Rubyfeather but with aqua blue and darker blue feathers, shouted as he rocketed towards the animals and attracting their attention to himself. In his talons, a piece of paper was clutched, and based on his facial expression and rush; it appeared that the piece of paper was an urgent message. The animals turned their gazes on the incoming Parrot as he crash-landed into a mound of snow, sending a shower of fluffy cold powder flying from his point of impact.

"What is it, Cloudwing?" asked the leader of the village, one of the Stags as he and the other animals hurried towards the blue Parrot as he shook the white snow from his wings before raising the piece of paper in his talons to read it. Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Soran, Nyarth and Zira stopped shovelling snow and gazed at the Parrot as well as he began to deliver an urgent announcement.

"I've just received this message from a Dryad about the selection of the participants for the Decadal Fighting League," said the blue Parrot named Cloudwing as many of the community animals gathered around him, "and she told me to take it to you guys urgently."

"What's the message say, Cloudwing?" asked one of the elder birds, an Eagle. At this, Cloudwing turned his beak to the piece of paper in his talon and began to read it. Then after a few seconds, he raised his gaze and fixed it on the gathering of the animals, an alarmed look on his face.

"Our village is going to be visited by a group of Dwarves and Wolves who will be selecting a single member, chosen randomly from each family chosen by the Queen in a random selection at her palace, and collect them and take to the Queen's palace," he said, "and they're going to come here, in a sleigh, later this afternoon."

This plunged the entire gathering of animals into complete silence, and some even began to shudder with fear and nervousness. A few of them, such as Shadewing and Cyril the Hippogriff, began to shudder more violently as the intensity of their fear burned higher than the other animals' fear, but for some of the animals, a hint of hope and excitement was igniting within them. From one of the windows of the sleeping quarters to Dashiell's den, Kushanku peered out at the gathering animals, having heard Cloudwing's frantic shouts for everyone to gather around him to hear the message.

"Go on," called Dashiell. Cloudwing resumed reading the sheet of paper given to him by one of the Dryads who was loyal to the Queen, "Every single member of the community MUST attend the event. The lead Dwarf is named Gollum and he will be performing the random selection and will call the selected to come to him and his group…"

"So that means we must get ready for him and his group's arrival later this afternoon?" asked Growler as he stood with Silver-Ears and some of their puppies flanking him. Murmurs also emanated from the other animals as some of them exchanged glances.

"Yes," said Cloudwing, "I don't know how long Gollum and his group are going to turn up but I assume it to be about a few hours based on this message saying that the group will be arriving this afternoon."

At first, silence hung over the gathering of animals but then Dashiell broke it.

"Alright, then let's get ready for Gollum's arrival as soon as possible," said the Cheetah. As he said this, the Stag who was the leader of the community turned to the other animals and barked orders for all of them to put aside their activities and prepare for Gollum's arrival. After this, the gathering of animals scattered as everyone rushed off, some of them slowly for they were reluctant, for their homes to make themselves look smart and return for Gollum and his group and their arrival, and parents ordered and herded the younger ones inside. As the animals dispersed, Honeycomb turned to Dashiell while Rosemary the Monkey and Rosebush, Thorn, Quill and Spikeball the Hedgehogs ordered Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal to return to Dashiell's den.

"What shall we do with Kushanku?" asked Honeycomb as she and Dashiell rushed towards the door of their den with Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes and Mensa the Skvader not far behind them.

"He's gonna have to attend the event as well," said Dashiell, "Cloudwing did say that EVERYONE in the community should attend according to the message he got from the Dryad, so that means he should prepare for it too."

"But he's been VERY naughty today," said Hopper as he hopped alongside the Cheetahs, "He's thrown a paddy, insulted our Queen and behaved like a little baby Nekomata."

"He should be punished," added Daisytail.

"We'll have to leave it until after the event, you two," said Dashiell, "But in the meantime, get your daughter Dahlia prepared for Gollum's arrival."

The two Jackalopes nodded and darted off to find Dahlia while Mensa left to find her son Snowwing.

Soon, everyone was in their homes preparing for the event. Parents were brushing the heads of their young to tidy up any hair or feather that stuck out of place and made the rest of their head hair or feathers look messy, so that they looked smart, while the other adults were also preparing themselves by brushing their hair and feathers, as well as wash themselves with the only sources of water they had, such as very simple sinks, and for the few that had a bathtub in their households, they took a bath but it was a very cold bath for warm water was not an accessible resource in this village nor in any of the other towns and villages that was severely stricken and restricted by the Eternal Winter and possibly by the Queen's dictatorial rule as well, much like how food was affected. The bathtub owning families, therefore rarely took baths because of cold water being the only thing they had: not a good mix with the freezing temperatures that often plunged below freezing point, especially at night.

In Dashiell's den, Kushanku flinched harshly as the door to the sleeping quarters was flung open.

"OUT you COME!" shouted Dashiell angrily, "Join the others and BRUSH YOUR HAIR WITHOUT COMPLAINTS!"

"What's going on, Pops?" asked Kushanku. However, the only answer he got was a massive squeaky mew and a fierce hiss from his furious adopted Cheetah father, alongside a pair of loud slaps on the floor by the Cheetah's front paws. Kushanku, seeing that Dashiell was meaning business, immediately bolted from his bed and darted out of the sleeping Quarters, through the door and past his enraged adopted dad. Dashiell followed and closed the door. Within moments, Kushanku, along with Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Amberpaw, Gingerfur, Sandstorm, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal, were having their head hair and feathers brushed by Honeycomb, Daisytail, Rosebush, Rosemary, Chseiltooth and Rubyfeather.

"Keep still," ordered Rubyfeather to Nyarth as he swung his head, while she was trying to comb his head hair with a comb in one of her talons, to face Kushanku as Dashiell dragged him towards Honeycomb and firmly sat him down before his adopted mother. As Kushanku was placed before Honeycomb, a pair of smug glares was directed at him. Nyarth then swung his head to direct his gaze from his youngest brother to a pair of certain Cheetah cubs, Amberpaw and Gingerfur, much to Rubyfeather's annoyed hisses, and saw that the two were tittering quietly at Kushanku as Honeycomb began to angrily brush the Nekomata kit's sheet of white hair.

"He's really lost in the darkest of woods now," whispered Rubyfeather's daughter Crystal as Rosemary brushed her head feathers, "I can see the looks on Mr Dashiell and Mrs Honeycomb's faces…"

"Oi, focus on preparing for Her Majesty's collectors' arrival," ordered Rosemary, jolting the Parrot chick into snapping her gaze back to the Monkey, along her to resume brushing her head feathers. Nyarth did the same and returned his gaze on Rubyfeather as she continued to comb his head hair. While the combing and brushing of the kids' hair and feathers was in progress, the adults were also preparing themselves. Thorn, Quill and Spikeball, Rosebush's cousins, were sorting out any hardened hair on their heads that seemed out of place while Hopper was cleaning his antlers and brushing his own hair, using a mirror to help see his progress. While all this went on, Sandstorm, after Rosebush had told him that she had finished and that he was free to go, heard the sounds of rapid breathing emanate from someone nearby. That breathing frequency was indicative of someone who was highly nervous and very frightened. At this, the youngest Cheetah cub turned round and saw the source of the sound, the Bat of the family and he looked absolutely flustered and panicked. At this, Sandstorm left to check on Shadewing.

"Are you alright, Mr Shadewing?" asked the Cheetah cub. At this, the Bat, who was shivering as though cold, breathing as though he had flown a mile, and was feeling weak in the legs, turned his gaze in a concerned Sandstorm's direction.

"I-I-I'm fine, Sandy, thanks," he replied, but Sandstorm could clearly tell that the Bat was not at all fine. Then Satoshi, after his hair had been done by Daisytail, came over, the same concerned look on his face.

"You look like you've been in a rush to get back here," said Kushanku's brother, "Either that or you're extremely nervous about the imminent arrival of Gollurk the Dwarf or whatever his name is."

"His name's Gollum," snapped Shadewing as his fluster continued to grip him hard. The coat hiding his membranous wings then went to his head as the Bat suddenly felt very dizzy and unstable, and Satoshi and Sandstorm could tell he was feeling sick.

"You don't look very well at all," said Satoshi with even greater concern.

"Look, just prepare for the event, okay!?" snapped Shadewing as he sat wearily down, "It's just that… it's just because this event has come suddenly, that's all."

At this, the Nekomata and his adopted Cheetah brother gave each other a confused glance before complying with Shadewing's command to leave him alone. As the pair left, Sandstorm flashed a glance back at the Bat as he continued to breathe rapidly, shudder, and complain of a stomach ache and dizziness.

"The event's sudden appearance?" he said to Satoshi, "I don't think it's got something to do with that, eh, Satoshi?"

"I've noticed several other animals, such as Cyril the Hippogriff, also exhibit nervousness in the form of shaking and rapid breathing as well," said Satoshi. Sandstorm just replied with a silent gaze of concern. However, the pair was unaware that this type of nervousness was not rare amongst the animals; it was in fact very common and there was a deeper reason under this behaviour, a reason that Satoshi and Sandstorm did not want to find out. Then a few moments later, all ten kids of Dashiell's family were smartened up and were prepared for Gollum's arrival, as were the adult members. As Kushanku and the other nine kids with him walked out of the door with the grownups, a fiery humanoid emerged from the house lamp and watched the group exit the den and join the other community members outside.

Emberflame looked on with a very fearful and very disturbed and troubled look on her face, especially at Shadewing as he staggered out after the others, the nervousness clearly making it difficult for him to walk properly with its making his body shake, his legs weak, his head feeling super light and his stomach feeling like it was being squeezed. The Pyro was clearly aware that what was making the Bat tremble like that, as well as the very frightened looks on the faces of some of the other animals' faces, such as Rubyfeather, regarding the imminent arrival of some of the Queen's followers was something far more ominous than a mere event; it was the first stage of the time of the Narnian decade that brought with it a massive bag of sharp objects ready to inflict severe internal damage on a vast number of the oppressed creatures… and it was Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and the other six kids' first time in going through such an event.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9- the selection of the participants from the village begins**

 **Later**

Kushanku stood with his siblings Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, adopted Cheetah siblings Gingerfur, Amberpaw and Sandstorm, and Dahlia the Jackalope, Snowwing the Skvader and Crystal the Parrot chick. With them stood Dashiell, Honeycomb, Snowwing's mother Mensa, Rosebush and her cousins Spikeball, Quill and Thorn, Crystal's mother Rubyfeather, Dahlia's parents Daisytail and Hopper, and Shadewing, Chiseltooth and Rosemary. Surrounding Dashiell's family were the animals of their community with Soran the Dog and his family not too far away from Dashiell's location. Soran stood with his siblings including Zira, their parents Silver-Ears and Growler, Cyril the Hippogriff, Desdemona the Griffin, Trotterhoof the Pig, the two Goats, and Alexandrite the Nekomata, as well as the rest of the animals adopted into part of Soran's family. The community had gathered outside the entrance to their village just before a path that was completely blanketed by thick snow. This path led to a forest nearby and the trees there resembled leafless, skeletal forms with icy claws hanging off their pointy branches, giving the frozen forest a rather intimidating appearance. There was a miasma of fear, nervousness and uncertainty as frightening as this forest hanging over the community members like a thick snow cloud, and some of them felt it more intensely than others, especially Shadewing and Cyril. Some were talking amongst themselves about who will be lucky enough (or should that be UN-lucky) to be selected for the dreaded Fighting League by Gollum and his gang once the selection gets underway. The atmosphere above the villagers was indeed buzzing with anticipation as they continued to wait for Gollum's arrival with his group, and they already know, based on the message Cloudwing the blue Parrot had received from the Queen-loyal Dryad that some of the other villages and towns will have been visited and the selected members from the randomly-selected families already collected and taken to the Queen's palace, and the arena where the Fighting League will take place.

Kushanku and company, and the other animals their age, had never experienced the process of being selected for the Fighting League, and neither have they actually seen it but since this will be their first time in seeing it, they will have the chance to see how the decadal event went. However, they were unaware of the horrors that awaited them in the event and based on how some of the animals in the community shuddered with extreme fear, such as Shadewing the Bat, Kushanku and company daren't question why. As the community of the village continued to wait, one of the members, a bird-humanoid called a Harpy who was essentially a human-like creature with the wings, talons and tail of a bird, sat perched on the roof of the nearest shack, obviously keeping an eye out for Gollum's arrival. As they continued to wait, Nyarth turned to look at Dashiell.

"What is the Fighting League like?" he asked. However, Dashiell did not reply but then Nyarth noticed a hint of nervousness and fear in his eyes. Next to him, Crystal spoke.

"Apparently, it's a league in which the selected participants fight to the death in the arena, until the final one standing is bestowed with riches and a better life," a sigh left her beak, "I suppose we could do with a lifeline like that," her gaze then turned to her rather empty stomach under her coat and one of the wings went to it, "I'm getting sick and tired of all this constant hunger, lack of heating and ramshackle housing…"

As she said this, Kushanku just gazed at the Parrot chick. Like Crystal and many of the other animals, Kushanku wished for better shelter, plenty of food to combat the constant hunger troubling the community, and warmth from the frigid, seemingly everlasting winter. However, under that agreement, a spark of outrage at the way things were, such as the compulsory rule to give the Queen and her followers ninety-percent of their delivered food and crops, leaving barely little left for the animals to eat, as well as the fear of the Fighting League was apparently causing some of the community members, such as Shadewing who was especially trembling and feeling weak, was flashing. Although he was only young, Kushanku could feel the unfairness that dominated the community, but that anger at the unfairness will grow larger within him as time goes by, as we'll see later.

Dashiell continued to stand with his family and the other animals around him. As Nyarth had noticed, there was indeed fear and worry in the Cheetah's eyes, and that troublesome glint was also replicated in the eyes of Honeycomb, Rosemary, the four Hedgehogs, Rubyfeather, Chiseltooth, Hopper and Daisytail and Mensa. Especially those that had young in their care, and Nyarth could see the eyes of the adult Parrot, Jackalopes, Cheetahs and Skvader constantly flicker back and forth from the forest to them. Furthermore, Shadewing was trembling like a severely cold animal and was breathing heavily. These two behaviours were mirrored in the faces and in the body language of many of the other animals as well, especially those with young, such as Growler and Silver-Ears with their puppies. Nyarth tipped his head to one side. Why were so many of the members so frightened? Were they worried for each other and their kids? However, Nyarth himself also felt frightened for his friends and siblings, including Gingerfur and Amberpaw despite his anger towards them for winding up Kushanku a while ago. They were his adopted siblings after all and Nyarth, along with Satoshi, Kushanku and Akira saw these two cubs and their younger brother Sandstorm as actual biological siblings than adopted, even though they may not get along at times, such as Gingerfur and Amberpaw and their attitude towards Kushanku for his beliefs in Narnia's creation. It truly was a worrisome and nerve-wracking time for everyone. Just then, the Harpy lookout shouted, "Here they come!"

At this, everyone's lines of sight all turned to the forest as their ears picked up the sounds of swooshing and pattering as something glided over the snow with some feet pounding it at the front. Accompanying the pounding and slicing noises of the snow, a loud whipping noise sounded followed by a, 'HAAAAH!" and soon, a large form, a type of vehicle pulled by some four-footed creatures appeared and slowed to a halt. On the vehicle were a group of small humanoids accompanied by a variety of ugly-looking animals, and Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Gingerfur, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal, managed to get a glimpse of the humanoids' hair and facial fur called beards. The hair spouting from both the tops of the humanoids' heads and their faces were ashen grey-black, like the remains of burned wood, and some of them were chubby and stocky. These creatures were Black Dwarfs, and they were a subset of Dwarfs distinguished by their ashen black hair and beards. Most of these dwarfs were fiercely loyal to the Queen. Kushanku then remembered that there were several other types of Dwarfs that lived in Narnia, another one being the Red Dwarfs whose hair and beards were reddish in colour, and there was a family of these living in this village. That family was standing with the other community members, somewhere at the back. Female and kid dwarfs, however, did not have beards.

The vehicle driven by the group of Black Dwarfs, one of whom was named Gollum, was called a sleigh, and Kushanku and the other kids had never seen one of these before. The Queen and her highest ranking followers owned sleighs and used it as their preferred method of transport through the snowy landscapes of Narnia. Most of the sleighs were ashen black, like Gollum's one but the Queen's one was also decorated with icy blue and crystalline adornments that were partially transparent like the icicles hanging off the branches of the leafless trees, a trait that the other sleighs owned by her followers did not have. Sleighs were often pulled by non-talking reindeer and a type of goat called a yule goat. Gollum's sleigh was pulled by the latter animals and they stood ahead of the ashen black vehicle, grunting and shaking. The reigns attaching them to the sleigh snaked from their harnesses and into the hand of one of Gollum's comrades, the driver of the sleigh. Yule goats resembled goats but were stockier, charcoal black and had thick, curly horns curving from their heads and ending in a sharp point by their ears. The yule goats Gollum used for his sleigh were very frightening looking. Their faces were bony, ridged and resembled the skull of a goat. Their eyes were also vivid red and they were very aggressive. Their very appearance ignited fear within some of the animals and humanoids, including Kushanku and company and Crystal actually shuddered, whimpered and ducked behind Snowwing. Although sleighs were commonly owned by the Queen and her highest ranking followers, few of the creatures not loyal to the Queen also had sleighs, but this was exceedingly rare. One such figure who used to drive about Narnia during a certain time of year before the Queen's coming to power was one of them but he hadn't been seen since the Queen put a wintery curse on the Narnian land to lock it in the Eternal Winter where it was always winter and never Christmas. Kushanku and company had never heard of him or seen him at all, but he was a figure familiar to many of the older generation including Dashiell and Honeycomb when they were very young cubs. Christmas's fading into becoming obsolete had only added to the misery of the Eternal Winter for the oppressed creatures, and its very concept was foreign to Kushanku and company and their generation for they had never, ever had a Christmas all their lives, similar to how they had never experienced spring, summer and autumn which had also faded into extinction with the Eternal Winter.

As Gollum prepared to dismount the sleigh while some of the Black Dwarfs and a few Wolves sought to the aggressive yule goats to calm them, several more, smaller sleighs appeared, also pulled by yule goats but one goat per small sleigh, turned up and also pulled up in front of the gathering of creatures. These smaller sleighs will be for the selected individuals to be taken to the Queen's palace and they were mostly driven by Black Dwarves, Wolves, Hags, or very ugly looking, bipedal, skeletal deer-like figures called Wendigoes. Wendigoes resembled a goat-like creature called a Satyr but they were lankier and far more grotesque, and had antlers like a stag instead of curly horns. Their chests had bony parts resembling ribcages, their arms were long and lanky, ending in clawed hands almost lacking muscle anatomy such that they were bony structures, and their eyes shone in a menacing grey-white sheen, rather like how the eyes of cats would shine in the dark but the Wendigoes' grey-white eyes were far uglier. Accompanying Gollum and company were floating, black creatures with ragged cloaks, like the one Kushanku and the others saw in the previous food collectors, and they flew in and slowed to a hover behind their sleigh riding comrades, and there were also jet black dog-like creatures with fiery red eyes amongst Gollum's group: Hellhounds, who, despite their association with fire, were fiercely loyal to the Queen. Then as soon as all the yule goats had been calmed and the sleighs were stationary, Gollum clapped his hands together to alert his fellow Black Dwarfs, Wendigoes, Wolves, Hellhounds and Hags as the community of animals and the Dwarfs living with them, many of them shuddering at the sight of the very ugly creatures, looked on. In Dashiell's family, Shadewing began to shudder more intensely, especially as the Bat's eyes were glued to the very ugly deer-antler bearing bipedal skin-and-bony creatures with the gleaming white cataract-like eyes as they talked with their comrades, and as the floating black ghost-like creatures glided over the gathered creatures to check on them. At this, a Jacaklope paw landed on one of his coated membrane wings.

"Don't worry, it'll soon be over," said Hopper comfortingly, hoping to calm the shivering Bat's nerves. However, Shadewing continue to shudder and Kushanku flashed him a concerned and curious look. Why was he trembling so violently with Gollum and his group present? Was it because of the fear of getting selected for the Foighting League? Or was it something else? Kushanku wished to know but he knew the Bat was very stonewalling towards anyone who proposed the question of his intense fear of the Fighting League, as well as the Queen's ugly followers. Suddenly, Gollum's voice pulled the young Nekomata back to the Black Dwarf and his gang as the leading Black Dwarf greeted the community.

"GREEETINGS, villagers of Green Leaf Village," called the Black Dwarf. Gollum's voice sounded gravelly and hoarse, as though he had been choked by smoke, but the texture of his voice was enough to make the skins of some of the animals and creatures' skins crawl and Crystal the Parrot chick actually flinched. She had obviously taken an immediate disliking towards the Dwarf, especially his chubby appearance and ugly-looking face which was also chubby and dotted with large pimples. His nose was crooked, like a Hag's and his eyes were large and bulging, like a frog's. Gollum continued the greeting, "Happy Decadal Fighting League, and I sure hope that this will be your lucky ticket to a better life as offered by Her Majesty the Queen."

Murmurs rolled through the villagers of the small village, named Green Leaf Village, and some of them continued to tremble fearfully, especially Shadewing. Gollum's face then changed expression to one that was serious, more dramatic.

"However," he continued, "That ticket is only offered to ONE, and I do mean ONE… individual participant of the League and his or her family," Kushanku frowned as he listened to this rule, and Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth looked uncertain. Gingerfur and several others, however, looked excited, though they were also fearful as well.

"And that is…" continued Gollum, his bulging eyes narrowed, "the victor of the League. That is, the last one standing. I suppose you lot have been payin' attention to Romulus's announcement a few days ago, have you?"

At first, there was no reply from the listeners but then some of the floating black ghost-like creatures put on stern looks on their hooded faces and pulled out sticks with one end sharpened to a tip, giving them the appearance of spears, and pointed the sharpened tips at the gathered animals while some of the Hellhounds flared their fiery red eyes, bared their teeth and let loose fierce growls prompting the majority of the gathered villagers to nod. Gollum smiled.

"Good," said the Black Dwarf, "it is vitally important that you have seen Romulus's announcement, have heeded its warnings and have obeyed its commands to prepare for the Fighting League…"

The listeners said nothing and some of them exchanged glances and shrugged. Gollum continued.

"Right, onto the main part of our meeting with you Green Leaf Villagers and that is, the proper introduction to the Fighting League and who will be selected to be participants in our very special event like how the other collectors dispatched by Her Majesty the Queen will be doing in the other towns and villages even as we speak," the Black Dwarf's bug-eyed gaze then turned to some black floating cloaked creatures next to him as they pulled out some sheets of paper and metallic cylindrical objects from their black cloaks, "but first, I'm gonna give you villagers a recap of the prize for the lone victor of the League while some of our Shadow friends here will be gliding above you, pick out the families chosen randomly by the Queen and take your names to put into those tins for the random individual participant selection from those families after the intro…"

At this, Kushanku gazed worriedly at the black ghost-like cloaked figures which were called Shadows, as they prepared for this task by sorting the paper sheets and the cylindrical tins whose surfaces glinted in the snowy sun's rays. Then his gaze turned to Shadewing as the Bat began to shudder all the more and breathe in and out faster.

"I hope we're not one of those unlucky families chosen by the Queen," murmured Satoshi standing nearby, especially as his gaze turned to Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing as they huddled against their respective parents Rubyfeather, Daisytail and Hopper and Mensa respectively. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm also shuddered at the thought of getting selected and sent into an arena against hundreds of other animals to fight to the death for a prize as well, as were the majority of the other creatures including Dashiell and Honeycomb, and those two Cheetahs wore very fearful looks. Then after he had finished giving his intro speech, Gollum nodded to the Shadows tasked with the job of jotting the names of the members of the selected families for the participant selection before turning to one of the ugly, skeletal, satyr-like creatures with deer antlers and menacing, shiny, white pupil-less eyes and nodded. The Wendigo nodded in return and stepped towards Gollum and handed the Dwarf something it had been carrying in its bony, three-fingered hands. Sandstorm tried to get a glimpse of the object but couldn't quite see due to the tangled screen of Wendigo fingers masking it as it was transferred to the Dwarf. However, he will soon have his question answered as Gollum took the object and faced the crowd once again.

"Right, on to the prize recap," he said, "which this crystalline screen will show you villagers once more…"

And with that, Gollum raised the object into the air, revealing the object to be a sparkly octahedron, much to Sandstorm and some of the other creatures' surprise for they had never seen one of these objects before. The octahedron then ascended out of Gollum's hands and rose into the air. As it did so, a white light brightened within it and shone brighter and brighter. The villagers looked on as the vividly glowing octahedron then began to change shape. The octahedron flattened into a flat, vertical rhomboid sheet which shone like a very well-polished mirror. This sheet grew in size until finally, it was large enough for all the villagers to see, and once the rhomboid 'mirror' was full size, it began to play whatever was programmed into it, much like one of the magical TV screens a few of the Narnian creatures had ion their homes. As the short 'video' opened up, a narrator began to speak.

"The Decadal Fighting League is a very special event held once every ten years to honour Her Majesty Queen Jadis for rescuing us from the war ignited against us by a group of evil creatures known as humans, and it is vitally important that we honour our mighty Queen by obeying her rules in sending one member selected from each family chosen randomly and specially by her and her followers to participate in this awesome battle to the death…"

As the rhomboid screen continued to play the Fighting League recap with images of the Queen and the arena in which the Fighting League will take place, Kushanku tipped his head to one side.

"This doesn't make any sense…" he whispered but was cut off by a "Shush!" command from Rubyfeather nearby. Kushanku, at this, shot the adult red Parrot a look but he also saw that Shadewing was trembling and shuddering with severe anxiety as he also watched the video. Some of the other creatures in the crowd, including one of the Red Dwarfs at the back and Cyril the Hippogriff in Soran the Dog's family were also shaking violently.

"Then after the Fighting League is complete and one is left standing, that lone victor will be bestowed with the most special prize from our Queen, a prize of a lifetime…"

The rhomboid screen then began to display a series of images showing better housing, plenty of food and other things.

"The victor and their family will be given a house for life, a house that provide them with shelter from the freezing cold of the winter spell the Queen had to put on Narnia to do away with the war against those horrible humans, and will come complete with the best furniture, heating, plentiful food and clean water, and other awesome luxuries they have been wishing for all their lives in this difficult environment…"

As the narration continued and the images of good food and other luxuries continued to play on the rhomboid screen, the desire for these things began to ignite within the majority of the creatures, especially Soren, Gingerfur and even Nyarth, and their eyes actually inflated covetously at the images shown on the rhomboid screen. Kushanku also felt longing for these things ignite within him as well. However, he also had other aims form within him.

"If I could win those if I was selected for the League, I'd like to distribute that food to the starving creatures throughout Narnia," he said in a low voice.

However, he flinched as he said this as he remembered that in order to access these things; he must compete and fight against hundreds of other creatures to the death. This idea made him flinch, especially when he heard the narration turn serious.

"But in order to get these luxuries and improved items, which are only available to only ONE victor and ONE ONLY, you must fight for it first. You must fight against hundreds of other competitors in order to gain access to these items…"

This killed the desire in many of the animals for they knew that would mean fighting against even their friends, but in some of the others, the desire for these things burned ever higher, and the determination to get it also ignited. While the audience was distracted by the rhomboid screen, the Shadows were in the process of forming the selection tins by jotting down the names of the selected families on the pieces of paper, cutting those paper pieces up and placing them into the metallic tins, one for each of the selected families. Akira slowly retracted towards her brothers, clinging especially onto Nyarth who was utterly horrified at the idea of fighting against so many other animals just for a lifetime of luxuries.

"This doesn't seem right," whispered the female Nekomata despairingly. Near the four Nekomata siblings, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia and Sandstorm also looked on worriedly.

"I don't wanna be selected to fight against hundreds of other creatures," murmured Crystal.

"And certainly not kill anyone for them," put in Sandstorm. Then Dahlia shot Soran's family a worried look.

"I certainly do NOT want to compete against any of them for that prize," said the Jackalope kit, especially as her eyes landed on the trembling Cyril and Desdemona as they also looked on with timid eyes, "I would rather DIE out here with my friends than in that arena place. And I certainly do NOT want to leave my friends to starve in these horrid conditions…"

Then Snowwing noticed his mother Mensa shoot concerned gazes at the other creatures. It was clear that she could sense something sinister about the Fighting League, especially as her gaze landed on the trembling Shadewing. Some of the other creatures were also firing timid gazes at the other community members as well but then Snowwing noticed that some of the creatures bore extreme covetousness in their gazes as they were fixed on the rhomboid screen.

"The Fighting League will finish once there is one left, the victor, standing. Once the Fighting League is finished, he or she will be celebrated and will have the AWESOME honour of riding on the Queen's very own sleigh, which she will use to return to the victor's village and collect the victor's family to take to her palace so that they will be taken to their new home. As for the families of the deceased participants, I'm afraid you're out of luck and will have to wait another ten years till the next Fighting League before you could throw in your luck to receive favour from our mighty Queen…"

This sent a shockwave of despair flashing through much of the audience, but Gollum and his group, wide smiles on their faces, nodded in agreement to this point. Then the narration began to close with these words:

"And this is where the recap ends. We wish you creatures a very happy Decadal Fighting League and we sure hope that luck will be on your side all the way, from your selection to your emergence as victor. HAPPY DECADAL FIGHTING LEAGUE and LONG LIVE QUEEN JADIS OF NARNIA!"

After this, the rhomboid screen faded to its original silvery sheet of light and began to shrink and collapse back into its original octahedral form. At the same time, the Shadows returned to Gollum and company with the tins as Gollum held out his hands and caught the slowly descending octahedron. Then after the Black Dwarf had handed the device to one of the Wendigoes to put away, Gollum turned back to the audience and let loose a small laugh.

"That sure was moving, very moving indeed," he cooed, his bulging eyes narrowed with emotion. The animals said nothing as Gollum then resumed his usual mood and task. Then one of the Shadows, the ringleader, approached him.

"The selection tins of the chosen families are finished, Gollum," said the floating black cloaked creature.

"Oh, brilliant," said Gollum with a smile, "Then that means we can move on to the next step: the selection of the participants from this village."

As these words reached the ears of Dashiell's family, the animals of that family began to cringe, but Sahdewing began to shake even more. Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia huddled against their respective mothers Rubyfeather, Mensa and Daaisytail while Honeycomb swept up Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira, Satoshi, Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw fearfully. Rosebush also huddled with her three cousins Thorn, Spikeball and Quill hoping that Dashiell's family hadn't been chosen to have one of their family members selected for the horrible competition and Rosemary, Chiseltooth and Dashiell tried to calm the violently trembling Shadewing as the Bat's anxiety began to erupt like a volcano now, characterised by his very rapid breathing, nausea and unstable legs. Around Dashiell's family, the other families of animals were doing the same. Kids huddled against their parents or adopted parents, some trembled violently and the rest looked on fearfully as Gollum called forth the first metal cylinder containing the slips with the names of the first selected family. The crowd brazed themselves for the calling out of the first family from which the first member will be selected foe the Fighting League.

"Right, the first family who MUST offer one of their members to the Fighting League is…" said Gollum and with that, he took a look at the piece of paper one of the Shadows had stuck to the side of the tin to indicate that family's name. Dashiell nervously looked on while the ten kids, including Kushanku huddled against their mothers. Nearby, Soran and his family looked on fearfully as well and Desdemona, Cyril and Alexandrite gazed at Dashiell's family, fearing for their possibility of getting selected for the horrible event. Then Gollum shouts out the name, bringing the extreme fears of one certain family to reality.

"Dashiell's family," shouted the Black Dwarf. All eyes turned and converged on the family of the adult Cheetah as immense fear… fear as black as the Shadows' cloak-like 'garments' and as ugly as the Wendigoes and Hellhounds present, consumed them like a whirlwind. Desdemona, Cyril and Alexandrite, as well as some of the other members of Soran's family, began to shudder while some of the other creatures looked on fearfully, but their concern was nothing compared to the extreme fear wrapping the family of poor Dashiell. Shadewing practically fainted and flumped down into Rosemary's arms; Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia were cowering all the more in Rubyfeather, Mensa, Daisytail and Hopper's arms, and Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Gingerfur, Amberpaw and Sandstorm were wailing in the front paws of a very frightened Honeycomb, and Chiseltooth, Rosebush, Spikeball, Quill and Thorn were weeping, great tears of extreme terror oozing from the Beaver and the four Hedgehogs' eyes and running down their cheeks as they also huddled together and shuddered. Gollum gazed at the family lead by the adult male Cheetah.

"C'mon, you lot, you should be happy that you've got the Queen's honour in potentially winning a better life," he said. Dashiell and his family, however, said nothing, neither did any of their community members. Not even Growler, Soran, Silver-Ears, Zira and their family members, both biological (puppies) and adopted (such as Desdemona the Griffin) could form any words to comfort the terror-stricken family. Gollum then smiled and inserted his hand into the tin marked with the piece of paper with 'Dashiell's family' written on it.

"Now for you to send in the family member I pick out of your tin, Dashiell's family," said the Dwarf as he placed his hand into the tin, "And when I call out that name, you MUST send that member over to me WITHOUT QUESTION or ANY RELUCTANCE OR HESITATION."

Dashiell and company continued to weep, shiver and whimper at the Black Dwarf as he wrapped his fingers around the first piece of paper in the tin he had laid his hand on. Kushanku timidly looked up at Honeycomb.

"What are we gonna do, Mother?" he murmured timidly. Honeycomb gazed down at him. It was clear that she had nothing to say. Flooded with extreme despair, Kushanku timidly returned his gaze to Gollum as the Black Dwarf lifted out his chosen piece of paper, unfolded it and gazed at the name written on it. At this, the young Nekomata huddled against his adopted Cheetah mother's chest fur with Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw as Gollum prepared to call out the name.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10- the selection process from the village and a failed chase**

Dashiell and Honeycomb, together with their cubs Gingerfur, Sandstorm and Amberpaw and adopted Nekomata sons and daughters Nyarth, Satoshi, Kushanku and Akira; Mensa the Skvader and her son Snowwing; Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes and their daughter Dahlia; Rubyfeather the Parrot and her daughter Crystal; Rosebush the Hedgehog and her cousins Spikeball, Quill and Thorn; Chiseltooth the Beaver, Rosemary the Monkey, and Shadewing the Bat (who had managed to wake up from his fainting), felt like they were enveloped in a massive whirlwind of black fear, and that was especially obvious in the eyes of the ten kids as they continued to timidly gaze at Gollum as he prepared to read out the name on the slip of paper he had drawn from the tin marked with their name, Dashiell's family, on it. Around the petrified group of animals, the other community members, silence like that of death also enveloping them like a massive snow cloud, looked on sympathetically and fearfully, and they knew that there was nothing that they could do. They could not step in to intervene or they would face serious consequences, and they all knew that some of Gollum's comrades, most of them Wendigoes, Hellhounds and the ghastly, floating black, nightmarish, cloak ghost-like Shadows, had their gleaming white, glowing red, and penetrating grey or white eyes piercing them intently, making sure that no-one stepped out of line. Even Dashiell himself could do nothing, and the despair was clearly saturating the Cheetah's terrified gaze. He and his family had been chosen by the Queen to send one of their individual members into the horrible Fighting League, WITHOUT question and WITHOUT protest. But the black fear was having the most profound effect on Shadewing. The Bat was practically shaking as though he was extremely cold and his stomach felt very sick. His breathing was very rapid and he felt very weak, both mentally and physically. Then the Bat began to experience images flashing in his head: flashbacks. Nearby, Alexandrite who stood with Soran and company looked on worriedly.

"Something tells me that Bat's been through this before…" she murmured but was immediately silenced by a "Shush!" from Growler, making the colourful female Nekomata flinch and shoot the Dog a frightened gaze. Desdemona then turned her Eagle-like gaze in Gollum's direction.

"Here comes the name of who will be sent into the Fighting League from Mr Dashiell's family," she said in a hushed voice. The name then rings out as Gollum read that name on the slip of paper.

"Gingerfur," called the Black Dwarf. This stabbed Dashiell, Honeycomb, Amberpaw, Sandstorm and Gingerfur, but most especially the latter, right in the heart like a sharp icicle. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira also felt the ice-cold icicle-like blade penetrate deep within them as well, as did Rosemary and the other members who had joined Dashiell's family, but most especially Shadewing as he shuddered all the more and moved his coated wings to his mouth in extreme horror. Then there was complete silence, except for the sobbing of a certain Cheetah mother as she watched Gingerfur slowly step away from her protection and that of his younger brother and sister and four adopted Nekomata siblings, complete stun and despair gripping him like frostbite.

"Are you gonna come up, my little Cheetah cub?" called Gollum, "You've been selected, so by orders of the Queen, you MUST come up."

However, Gingerfur only turned his head and placed his terrified gaze on the Black Dwarf. He was clearly reluctant to leave his family's side, and Dashiell and company, whose eyes were now weeping rivers of tears, were reluctant to allow Gingerfur to leave them as well. Nyarth especially looked on. Despite the older Cheetah cub's occasional obnoxious attitude, especially towards Kushanku, Nyarth still saw Gingerfur as a close adopted brother, and Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira bore that same bond with the Cheetah cub. They, along with Sandstorm, Amberpaw and the other members of Dashiell's family, as well as some of the community members surrounding them, among them Desdemona, Cyril and Alexandrite, wanted to intervene but could not, and many of them were shedding tears for the Cheetah cub as well. Then Gingerfur turned his terrified gaze to his dad Dashiell, pleading for his intervention and rescue from this grim situation boiling within him but then the Cheetah cub heard fierce growls emanate from nearby. At this, the Cheetah cub snapped his gaze back around and found himself on the receiving end of around six blood-red eyed glares and bared teeth. Six Hellhounds had come to force the Cheetah cub to leave his family's side and move to Gollum and his comrades. Then a couple of ghost-like black figures floated in, both of them armed with spear-like sticks (branches with one end sharpened to a tip) and pointed those sharp points at the terrified Gingerfur.

"Come along, Cheetah cub, NOW!" growled one of the Shadows.

"Yes, Gollum has to select an individual from dozens of other families and he hasn't got time for delays like this," said the other, "Now to the front, MOVE!"

And with that, the Shadow gently jabbed the tip of its spear-stick into Gingerfur's side, sending sharp pain coursing through the Cheetah cub and making him flinch. Gingerfur then realised he had no choice but to go to Gollum's side. Tearfully and timidly, he obeyed the two Shadow's commands and walked with the Shadows and the six Hellhounds through the animal crowd and towards Gollum and his group. As the distance between him and his family grew, Dashiell looked on; tears streaming down his face, and Honeycomb continued to weep hysterically.

"No," whispered Kushanku despairingly.

"This isn't fair," murmured Satoshi tearfully, his eyes completely flooded with tears.

"Dad, do something!" cried Akira to Dashiell. However, Dashiell stood there and only returned his tearful gaze to the Nekomata, and Akira knew that facial expression read, "I can't". At this, Akira felt her stomach lurch and returned her gaze back to Gingerfur as the Hellhounds and spear-stick armed Shadows finally reached Gollum and his group with him in tow. Gollum put on a wide smile.

"Excellent," he said, "We have our first participant for the Fighting League from Green Leaf Village. Hopefully Dashiell's family will find favour with Her Majesty the Queen through this selected participant who should be honoured to be sent into the very special decadal event," the Black Dwarf clasped his hands together and let loose a snigger as he rubbed together his hands gleefully, "Now on to the next participant from the next family…"

And with that, he called for another Shadow holding another tin over and took it, read the family name written on a piece of paper stuck to it and selected a piece of paper from that tin. Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth flinched as the name rang out and soon, they saw the next unfortunately selected creature, an adult Hedgehog, get guided (ore rather frogmarched) to the front by two Hags. The four Nekomata, together with Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal, shuddered as they watched the poor fellow leave his family's side, wails of despair erupting from a female Hedgehog who the nine kids assumed to be his mate and the cries of two Hedgehog pups as they watched their father get torn away from them, and those wails were having a devastating impact on Shadewing. The Bat uttered something under his breath but it was too quiet for the nine kids to pick it up. The chosen Hedgehog wore a solemn-looking face for the dread of his fate was clearly present in his eyes, especially as his gaze remained locked onto his distraught family as he went towards Gollum and stood near Gingerfur. After this, Gollum moved onto the next tin of the selected family to choose a name from that family.

Time went by and Gollum continued to repeat the cycle of calling forward the next tin, calling out the family's name written on that tin and then sticking his arm in and withdrawing a piece of paper and calling then name of the individual, forcing the individual to go to the front despite the extreme heartbreak of that family member and his relatives and friends. However, some of the selected participants-to-be wore determined looking faces, and it was clear that they were hoping to emerge from the Fighting League victoriously and win the prize for their family, the prize shown to the audience by Gollum before the selection process. As Kushanku observed the facial expressions of these participants-to-be, he flinched. There were going to be several hundred participants selected from various villages around Narnia… but there was only one prize and there can only be one victor. It was obvious that the determination-saturated individuals were hoping to throw a lifeline for their desperate families and haul them out of the extreme poverty and the problems it caused, alongside the frigid conditions of the Eternal Winter. With this deduction, along with what was to come in the Fighting League Arena at the Queen's palace grounds, in his mind, Kushanku shuddered. The Nekomata then saw Soran's family get called with Soran subsequently selected and guided towards Gollum and his comrades standing with the other participants-to-be, including Gingerfur, by some Hags. Much like some of the other participants, Soran wore a determined facial look, but his family, among them Growler, Silver-Ears and Zira, looked on distraught and frightened for him but Soran flashed them an assured look that things will be all right. At this, Kushanku felt hot rage ignite within him again.

"This isn't right," hissed the young Nekomata under his breath. He then turned to Growler and tried to get his attention.

"Mr Growler," he called, "Hey, Mr Growler."

"Kushanku, SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" hissed a rebuking voice. At this, Kushanku flinched and snapped his gaze to the speaker, which was Honeycomb as she glared at him with a stern look.

"B-b-but Mother," said Kushanku, agitation for the participants, especially his older adopted brother Gingerfur, standing at the front of the audience with Gollum and his group as they continued to call out more families and select from their tins held by the Shadows, "Th-that lot is gonna be led into a potential death trap by being thrown into an arena to fight like wild beasts against other participants just for some 'better life'. Aren't you terrified for them, especially for Gingerfur?"

"Shut up," hissed Rosemary. Silver-Ears near her mate Growler also turned round and issued Kushanku a fierce "Shhhh!" but Kushanku continued to sweep on. Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi watched their younger brother as he continued to utter protests for the participants while Sandstorm turned and watched Shadewing continue to shake violently. Amberpaw, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia, however, said nothing. Then Honeycomb decided to take drastic action when she saw that verbal commands to snap Kushanku back into line were going nowhere. The female Cheetah stormed forward and seized the Nekomata under her front paws.

"Look, if you cannot shut your mouth, I'm gonna have to do it for you!" hissed Honeycomb and with that, she dragged Kushanku towards his siblings and placed him there. As she did that, Rosebush, Thorn, Quill and Spikeball flashed a wary glance at some of Gollum's comrades as they directed suspicious glares in Dashiell's family's direction.

"Quickly, silence that Nekomata," said Thorn.

"Some of the Hellhounds and Hags are getting suspicious," added Spikeball. Honeycomb did so and slammed Kushanku hard into the snow next to Satoshi.

"Now keep quiet. You're rousing suspicion and drawing attention to yourself," commanded the adult female Cheetah. However, Kushanku did not want to become quiet. The concerns for the chosen participants standing at the front of the audience with Gollum and company were boiling too much within him and were making him very restless. However, under the attempts to keep Kushanku in line or they would face severe punishment from Gollum and company, Dashiell and Honeycomb and the other adults with them such as Rosebush and her three cousins, were indeed terrified for the participants, most especially Gingerfur, one of Dashiell and his mate's sons who had been unfortunate enough to be selected to participate in the Fighting League. However, because of the tight rules that no-one should interfere put in place by the tyrant and her followers under the threat of serious consequences, they were too afraid to do anything, not even complain. That meant that Dashiell and Honeycomb were in a dilemma, the same applying to every other animal and creature under the Queen's oppression. It was either obey the Queen's orders and rules, regardless of how unfair, unjust and wicked they were, or end up in deep freezing ice of they didn't, but because of the deep fear set in place by the dictatorial Queen's extremely strict rules, all the oppressed Narnians were stuck. But that was not all regarding the Queen's fiendish tactics in striking fear into the oppressed Narnians. The Fighting League was not only a dictatorial tool used in keeping the oppressed Narnians in line, but it was also designed to ignite coveting within the desperately hungry, freezing and struggling creatures as you readers will have seen in the prize recap before the participant selection. And this was to serve as the main fuel to the fire of the animals' urge to fight for it in the Fighting League, as we will see later.

Gollum soon reached the last tin of the selected family and had drawn a piece of paper with the name of the final participant from Green Leaf Village written on it. After calling forth that final participant, who was a young female adolescent Harpy (bird-person) who was forced to leave her family side and join the other participants, Gollum prepared the closing speech while his comrades prepared the sleighs, ordered the participants into those vehicles and prepared the yule goats for travel to the next village.

"Well, I'd like to thank you all for your obligatory attendance, my Green Leaf Village friends," said the Black Dwarf as the remaining villagers looked on, especially at the participants-to-be as Gollum's comrades ordered them into the sleighs, "I hope you are looking forward to seein' your lucky family members participate in the most important event of the decade where they will have the possibility of emerging victorious and lifting you out of your unfortunately desperate situation of your poverty…"

None of the creatures, many of them severely distraught and weeping, gave a reply. However, a few of them were simmering with anger in silence, among them Nyarth, Satoshi, Kushanku and Akira as they glared at the comrades of Gollum as they ordered the selected creatures into the sleighs, especially Gingerfur as a Hellhound ordered him to sit in one of the seats. Gollum prepared to climb into the driver's seat of the main sleigh once one of the Wendigoes had noted to him that everyone was on board and ready to leave. The Black Dwarf flashed the extremely ugly deer-like creature with a ribcage-like part on its chest, lanky limbs and menacing misty white eyes and nodded.

"Right, now it's time for me and my comrades to leave for the next village," said Gollum and with that, he turned round, latched onto the sleigh and climbed into the driver's seat. Before departing, Gollum gave the villager crowd one last segment of speech.

"We wish you all the best of luck and may Her Majesty the Queen's favour shine on you after the Fighting League is finished," he called, "And make sure to continue to give to her and her followers ninety percent of your crops and delivered food, revere her, keep an eye out for any of those rotten two-legged creatures known as humans, and most of all, forbid ANY talk of the subject on the Great Lion for that is a total anathema to our mighty Queen, and obey ALL her rules and laws, as well as report ANYONE who wishes to disobey them…"

Kushanku, at this, uttered a hiss under his breath while the other villagers said nothing with the only sounds being the wailing of some of the families who had been selected to give one of their members to the Fighting League. Gollum then formed a smile across his chubby face.

"And that's about it," said the Dwarf, "And I think it's time we were off. I hope you lot are looking forward to the Fighting League and seein' your lucky family members participate in the league of a lifetime. Until then, see y'all. LONG LIVE QUEEN JADIS OF NARNIA."

Then with a thwack of the reigns to get the yule goats running and a loud, "HAAAAH!", the sleigh was off. The other drivers of the smaller sleighs also commanded the yule goats pulling them to get moving and within moments, all the sleighs, together with their load including the selected participants of Green Leaf Village, rushed off in a shower of snow. The villagers looked on as the sleighs disappeared into the forest, a trail of tracks left behind in the snow in their wake. However, the sleighs had not gone far when some of the participants began to struggle on the sleighs and cry out to their families as the gaps between them and the villagers widened. Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi's insides jolted violently as the frigid air was suddenly shattered by distraught wails and the pounding of hooves, paws and talons in snow. Kushanku jumped aside to avoid a Cat, a regular Cat that walked on all fours and had a single tail, unlike a Nekomata that walked on two legs and had a forked tail, rushed by, screams for someone in Gollum's sleighs exploding from its mouth and tears streaming down its face. Satoshi then snapped his gaze over to Shadewing and he was trembling even more violently than before. The poor Bat was, by now, in hysterics and he was experiencing flashbacks that added to his boiling panic attack. He was also hyperventilating, staggering and the threat of fainting loomed over him once again.

"Mr Shadewing's gonna collapse any moment," said a very concerned Satoshi. However, his three siblings were too engrossed in taking in the distraught wails and screams of distressed villagers (parents, siblings, etc. of the participants) as they watched their loved ones get taken away by Gollum and company further into the forest. Then Nyarth noticed some of the floating shadowy figures as they glided from Gollum's sleighs and began to order the chasers, among them Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Honeycomb and Zira as they cried out for Gingerfur and Soran among the selected individuals for the Fighting League, back. At this, a flash of outrage ignited within the oldest Nekomata and he darted off.

"All this stupid stuff about this Fighting League is tearing countless hearts into pieces," he snarled and with that, he began to try and chase down the sleighs.

"Nyarth!" called Satoshi, Kushanku and Akira all at the same time and with that, they gave chase. As the crowd of devastated villagers were driven back by the Shadows sent by Gollum to stop them from chasing the sleighs, spear-like sticks pointed at them and "Back, back, all of ya!" flying from their dark mouths at the crowd, Dashiell saw his four adopted Nekomata kits rush after the sleighs by the hysterical crowd.

"Nyarth, Kushanku, Akira!" he barked, "Satoshi!"

As he cried out the names of the quads, Rosemary, Rubyfeather and Chiseltooth came in while Mensa, Hopper and Daisytail left with Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal and also sought to the hysterical Shadewing who had, by now, fainted again.

"Get BACK HERE!" screeched Rubyfeather and with that, she handed her daughter Crystal over to Rosemary, spread her wings and took off after the four Nekomata in a shower of snow as she ran into flight. Nyarth and his three siblings, however, were too blinded by rage to hear the adults' shouts and continued to try and chase down Gollum and company. However, due to the deep snow, they were having great difficulty and soon, they were overcome with fatigue and puffing and panting and were forced to stop.

"How are we gonna run after those sleigh things in THIS!?" shouted Akira in frustration and with that, she forced a kick into the white stuff and sent a small shower of it flying ahead of her. Nyarth gazed after Gollum and his group with the selected villagers, among them Gingerfur, in their sleighs as they receded further into the forest, then to the Shadows as they continued to order the devastated would-be chasers back with their spear-sticks and angry faces before flying off after them once they were satisfied that the chasers had admitted defeat, and then snapped his gaze onto some tree trunks on the edge of the forest. At this, Nyarth rushed towards these trunks and as he did so, he felt an instinctive ability within himself manifest, especially as hot rage continued to blaze within him like a bird called a Phoenix on fire. Without thinking and despite the fact that he did not have any training, Nyarth suddenly ran up the tree trunk and jumped off it, sending himself flying towards another tree trunk. Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira all stopped and looked on in utter astonishment as they watched their older brother land on a second tree trunk and take off in the direction of another, before he was eventually jumping from tree to tree. Nearby, Dashiell, Rosemary, Rubyfeather, Honeycomb and Chiseltooth rushed in and abruptly braked to a halt in a snow shower when astonishment tool hold when they saw Nyarth jumping from one tree trunk to the next and began to pursue Gollum and his group. Then Kushanku, Akira and Satoshi rushed over to another tree trunk, scrabbled up the bark and began to rush through the trees by jumping between branches. Rubyfeather continued to hover there before charging off after Nyarth.

"I'll see to Nyarth while you see to the other three," she told Dashiell, Rosemary, Honeycomb and Chiseltooth as she rocketed off. At this, the other four adults turned their furious glares on Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira as they ran through the branches in Nyarth's direction and began to give chase, Rosemary also rushing for another tree trunk, scrabbling up it and beginning to pursue the three Nekomata through the trees. As the Monkey began to pursue the three Nekomata while the two Cheetahs and the Beaver gave chase on the ground, Desdemona came in with Alexandrite, worried looks on their faces.

"Those four have lost their minds _completely_ ," cried the Griffin in utter horror as she watched Kushanku and two of his siblings rush like squirrels along the branches.

"And extremely dangerous and reckless," put in Alexandrite.

"Look, just join the other villagers, will you!?" called Silver-Ears as she helped herd the other kids to their parents and adopted parents, despite the devastation of having Soran taken from her, "and let Dashiell and his group deal with those four stupid Nekomata kits."

At this, Alexandrite and Desdemona hesitated before obeying their adopted Dog mother's commands and darted off after her.

Meanwhile, Nyarth continued to jump from tree to tree by landing on one tree trunk, launching himself into a straight flight towards another tree trunk to land on that and push himself into another trajectory again. His eyes were ablaze with fury as they were fixated on the sleighs holding the selected and devastated villagers, among them Soran and Gingerfur, and their choosers as they continued to glide over the snow with the yule goats rushing ahead. Gingerfur was crying his eyes out hysterically and was desperate to return to his mother, father and siblings' sides, and that same devastation was written all over the faces of the other selected villagers for the dreaded Fighting League as well. All of them were going to be forced into an arena where they will all fight against each other and several hundred other creatures chosen from other villages and towns in a bloody and gruesome fight to the death for the prize of a better life and freedom from poverty offered by the Queen, and it was clear that the vast majority of them would rather die of starvation, from the frigid snowy conditions or by other means brought upon them by the wintery curse than be thrown against hundreds of other creatures in a gruesome fight just for a change of lifestyle, but Gollum and company weren't going to allow them to return to their families. A few of them, however, were hopeful but the rest of them continued to wail in heartbreak and devastation, and some of Gollum's comrades were trying to comfort them and assure them that it was for the better. Just then, one of the wailing creatures, an adult male Hedgehog (not Thorn, Quill or Spikeball but another Hedgehog) who was forced from his family's side during the selection, noticed a streak of drab colour fly from one tree trunk to another.

"Look!" he cried out in alarm. The other selected villagers, including Soran and Gingerfur, all converged their gazes on the leaping fork-tailed cat as he continued to leap between tree trunks in pursuit of Gollum and company.

"Isn't that…" said one of the other selected villagers, a Rabbit.

"NYARTH!" cried Gingerfur. The leaping cat, which was indeed Nyarth, continued to leap between the tree trunks, closing in on Gollum and company's sleighs and within moments, he was within range of the vehicles. However, his presence had not gone unnoticed by the creatures that had selected Gingerfur and the others to participate in the Fighting League.

"Nyarth, what are you DOING!?" called Gingerfur as he watched his adopted Nekomata brother then attempt to close in on the sleigh during his jumping between tree trunks, "You're gonna get yourself KILLED!"

Nyarth, however, was too blinded by pure rage to listen and began to hone in on the sleigh, the biggest one holding most of the selected villagers, and then rescue them. However, Gollum's grating voice rang out.

"Shadows, will you deal with that Nekomata please? He's not been selected for the Fighting League," shouted the Black Dwarf. At this, Gingerfur, Soran and the other selected villagers all looked up and soon enough, a group of floating black cloaked creatures glided over their heads from the sleighs and began to intercept Nyarth to stop his pursuit, and Gingerfur could see that some of them were armed with the spear-sticks. This ignited alarm within the Cheetah cub, and he began to dissuade Narth from pursuing Gollum and his group.

"Nyarth, abort your pursuit!" cried the Cheetah as the furious Nekomata then began to dodge the Shadows' attempts to attack him, "You're PUTTING YOUR LIFE IN DANGER!"

However, Nyarth refused to listen and continued to jump between tree trunks, shooting past the Shadows so fast that he basically resembled an arrow after it had been shot by an archer from his bow. Furthermore, Nyarth even used some of the floating cloaked creatures as stepping stones between one or two trajectories.

"He's TOO FAST, GOLLUM!" cried one of the Shadows as Nyarth deftly jumped off its back and onto the next tree trunk. Not too far behind, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira had managed to catch up by running like squirrels between the branches with Rosemary and Rubyfeather not too far behind. When they saw the horrific scene, the three Nekomata drew in horrified gasps.

"NYARTH!" cried Kushanku when he saw Nyarth then jump from one Shadow to the next and then finally land in Gollum's sleigh, much to the sheer outrage of Gollum and company. Rubyfeather and Rosemary also saw the Nekomata in the sleigh and barked Nyarth's name volcanically. Then as soon as he was in Gollum's sleigh, which was still moving, Nyarth began to try and rescue the selected villagers, starting with Gingerfur.

"I'm NOT gonna allow you lot to be THROWN INTO AN ARENA to participate in a needless FIGHT…" shouted the Nekomata but before he could finish, a massively clawed hand appeared and seized him by the two tails, much to the horror of Gingerfur and the others and also Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Rubyfeather and Rosemary who continued to chase him and the sleighs through the trees with Rubyfeather flying. Nyarth let loose a surprised screech as one of the Wendigoes then carried him over to a certain individual and soon, Nyarth found himself on the receiving end of a pair of bulging eyes ablaze with utter fury.

"You're disrespecting Her Majesty the Queen by doing this," growled the face, which was Gollum and as the Black Dwarf spoke, Nyarth caught a wisp of the Dwarf's rancid breath which smelt like burnt wood. The Nekomata flinched and gagged in disgust. Around the confrontation, the selected villagers were kept in check by the Hags and Hellhounds so they could only watch in horror as Gollum then reached a decision on what to do with Nyarth.

"What shall we do with this fork-tailed cat, Gollum?" said the grotesque white-eyed Wendigo as it held Nekomata by the tails. Gollum then turned his ugly hag-like face away and thought.

"Throw him out of the sleigh," he said, before his ugly glare turned to Kushanku and his little group as they continued their pursuit through the branches, "and have the Dryads loyal to the Queen deal with those five over there."

The Wendigo nodded obediently and left for the back of the sleigh with Nyarth in its clutches. The terrified onlookers with the Hellhounds and Hags blocking their way looked on as Nyarth was carried by his two tails to the sleigh's rear.

"NYARTH!" cried Gingerfur as a Hag barked an order at him to stay back. Nyarth continued to screech and shout furious protests at the Wendigo as the ugly deer-like creature then prepared to carry out Gollum's orders. Before doing that, the disgusting, nightmarish creature gave Nyarth one final stern glare with its misty white eyes that gleamed menacingly like the foggy surface of a metal in moonlight.

"You oughta be thankful of how LUCKY you are to be alive, Nekomata," growled the Wendigo in a dangerously low voice, sending shivers down the dangling Nyarth's spine, "But the next time this happens again, you won't be so fortunate as Her Majesty WILL get involved."

Nyarth, however, shuddered but then his anger resurfaced and he began to tremble with fury once again. However, it was a very dangerous move but Nyarth was too furious to even care.

"The QUEEN!?" he spat in disgusted retort, "She's NO QUEEN! She's NOTHING BUT A GREEDY, GLUTTONOUS, BLOODTHIRSTY TYRANT, and a BEAST!"

That did it. With an extremely enraged screech at the insult that flew from Nyarth's mouth, the Wendigo raised its clawed hand gripping Nyarth's tail and without hesitation, flung the Nekomata like a wet sock out of the sleigh, deliberately aiming for one of the nearby tree trunks. Gingerfur and the other onlookers screamed in utter horror as they watched the screaming Nekomata fly towards the tree trunk as Gollum commanded the yule goats to travel faster in the form of a thwack with the reigns connecting them to the sleigh, and a shout. The drivers of the smaller sleighs did the same as Nyarth continued flying towards the tree, his body perpendicular to it. Behind, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Rosemary and Rubyfeather all let loose horrified screams and cried Nyarth's name. Then Rubyfeather sprang into action. Flapping her wings like mad, the ruby red Parrot charged towards Nyarth like a comet and just before the Nekomata could smash back-first against the tree trunk which would have seriously injured him or worse, Rubyfeather managed to seize the Nekomata in her talons and pluck him out of the trajectory, much to the relief of Rosemary and Nyarth's younger three siblings, especially as Rubyfeather rocketed upward with Nyarth in her talons to reduce momentum and then pull out of that path to safely lower Nyarth to the ground. However, their relief was immediately shattered when suddenly; one of the trees sprung into life and began to waver its branches as Rosemary, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira approached it. Rubyfeather turned just in time to see the action.

"ROSEMARY!" she squawked. At this, the Monkey and the three Nekomata looked up and saw the tree move its branch aside (many of the trees in Narnia could move by themselves in this manner, an ability our world's trees don't have. This is because these trees are home to Dryads) to create a gap to make the quartet fall out of the branches and stall their pursuit after Gollum and his group. This ignited alarm within Rosemary and she immediately braked before she could fall for the trap, stopping just inches from the end of the branch and the gap. Akira did the same but Kushanku and Satoshi were not so fortunate for they had been running so fast. To the alarm of Akira and Rosemary, the two Nekomata slipped off the branch near the moving tree and began to plummet chaotically towards the ground, right towards a massive snow-buried fallen log at the foot of the Dryad-inhabited tree. Satoshi slammed hard onto the log, his arm getting caught between his body and the hard surface, before he slumped down the log's curved surface and into the snow. Kushanku, meanwhile, suddenly screwed his eyes shut and to the astonishment of Rubyfeather, Rosemary, Akira and Nyarth, the young Nekomata twisted his tails and suddenly spun them like a small tornado, all without thinking and in the grip of his utter alarm.

Kushanku covered his eye-tight-shut face with his arms and braced for impact against the log… until he noticed that he did not feel a hard smack against a hard surface. At this, the Nekomata slowly opened his eyes and lowered his arms and peered out to gauge his position and to his astonishment, he found himself hovering in mid-air, his spinning tails keeping him aloft and suspending him like a bird hovering in the air. While he did that, Rubyfeather, after placing Nyarth onto the ground, hurried over to Satoshi while Rosemary and Akira scrambled down the trunk of the tree they were in and joined the Parrot as the fallen Nekomata stirred.

"Satoshi!" cried Rubyfeather. At this, Satoshi began to struggle and recover from his fall.

"Mrs Ruby…" he began but then he felt massive shooting pain surge through his right arm, the one he had caught between his own body and the log from the fall.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" screeched the Nekomata and sent his left arm to grasp his injured right.

"Don't move that arm!" cried Rosemary. Nearby, Kushanku descended from his spinning-tailed flight and touched down nearby. Rosemary hurried over to inspect him for any injuries. However, the Monkey was stricken with stun when she saw how the young Nekomata touch down.

'What did Kushanku just do?' thought Rosemary in astonishment. Kushanku, at this, only looked up and returned Rosemary's awed gaze with a curious one. However, Kushanku's curious gaze immediately flashed to one of horror when he saw Satoshi with his face in extreme pain and his left paw grasping his injured right.

"Satoshi!" cried the young Nekomata as he rushed to his brother's side. Akira and Nyarth did the same but then the group, together with Rosemary and Rubyfeather, suddenly found themselves cloaked in shadow. At this, all six creatures looked up and found themselves at the mercy of two looming Shadows as these ghostly creatures glared at them with outraged faces. In the distance, Gollum and his group on their sleighs and the selected participants from Green Leaf Village continued to recede into the distance through the trees.

"We bring you six a message from Gollum," said one of the hovering Shadows, "As soon as the Fighting League event is over and the Queen has collected the family of the winning victor, she's gonna decide on what to do with you and the rest of your family," its ugly, blank eyes then raked over Kushanku, the injured Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, making the four Nekomata flinch, "Especially THOSE four!"

At this, Rosemary stood up to defend the four Nekomata quads.

"Look, I promise we'll…" she began but the other Shadow cut the Monkey off.

"NONE OF YOUR EXCUSES, MONKEY!" snarled the floating ghost-like mass of ragged cloak and bony limbs, making Rosemary flinch hard, "Your Nekomata kits have OVERSTEPPED THE MARK this time."

"Yes, they've disrespected Her Majesty's food collectors the other day," said the first Shadow, "tried to interrupt our very important selection process for this extremely important decadal event, and now they have the AUDACITY to chase us down and try to cause trouble, especially THAT one…"

And with that, its piercing glare bore into Nyarth who flinched and his behind Rubyfeather. However, the Parrot shot the Nekomata a furious look. Then the two Shadows ascended into the air.

"We'd better be off anyway," said the first Shadow, its gaze after the receding Gollum and company on their sleighs, "We've still got a few more villages and towns to visit to select individuals from those selected families chosen by the Queen to participate in the Fighting League…"

"But mark our words," hissed the other Shadow, "We WILL report this to our Queen. Disobedience like this could mean standing in the blizzard of Her Majesty's WRATH!"

At this, Rosemary, Rubyfeather and the four Nekomata all flinched. Queen Jadis's temper!? That would be like standing directly before a massive avalanche. Then the two Shadows; satisfied that the six creatures had got the message, then ascended into the air.

"Nonetheless, we both wish you happy Decadal Fighting League," said the first Shadow in a low, calmer voice, "And we sure hope that your Cheetah cub will bring you out of the poverty you have been forced to face since the Queen had locked Narnia in this winter to keep the peace and those wretched humans away."

Rosemary and her little group said nothing as the two Shadows then rose into the air and rocketed off after Gollum and his group, but not before issuing the tree that had stopped Rosemary, Kushanku, Akira and Satoshi in their tracks, leading to Kushanku and Satoshi's subsequent fall and the latter's injury, a command.

"Keep an eye on those four Nekomata and report to us any suspicious activity," whispered the black ghost-like creature. The tree gently wavered its branches to confirm that it had got the message and with that, the Shadow followed its comrade and the two glided off after Gollum and company before they could be left further behind.

Rosemary, Rubyfeather, Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth were left alone, Satoshi laying in the snow with his badly injured arm, just as another sound, this time from some of their community friends, flooded their ears as their names were called. At this, Rosemary looked up and saw Dashiell and Honeycomb, together with a few more of the villagers, some riding on the flying members, among them a Harpy and two on a couple of Perytons, winged Deer possessing the talons of a bird in place of Deer forelimbs as well as the feathered wings and tail of a bird, much like the Rabbit-like Skvader, run or fly towards her and the other five, Mensa the Skvader accompanying the flyers and their riders.

"Rosemary, Rubyfeather!" called Dashiell as he ran in with Honeycomb, "Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth!"

As their adopted Cheetah parents and the other villagers with them approached them, the four Nekomata shuddered, for they knew they were in even deeper snow now. However, Nyarth and Kushanku flashed one final gaze each at the sleigh tracks and yule goat footprints left behind by Gollum and company's vehicles and yule goats. Their eyes began to ooze massive tears and chills made their bodies tremble as the thoughts for those collected participants-to-be, among them Gingerfur, Soran and the younger ones, flashed through their minds. It certainly wasn't going to end well for those selected villagers once they were sent into the arena of the Fighting League at the Queen's palace, except the victor, at all. However, the four Nekomata, together with the other villagers, were completely unaware that the Queen herself had one further devilishly sneaky trick up her sleeve that she was about to use on the participants to ensure that they all would DEFINITELY fight against each other in the arena, WITHOUT any second thought or hesitation, and it was related to the promise of the better life and the rescue from the severe poverty for the victor and his or her family, only it was imbued with a wicked, little spell bewitched to remove any common sense or any thought of the consequences the participants would otherwise sense if they competed against each other in the brutal League…


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11- extreme uncertainty and the usual fear**

 **Later**

It was now after dark for the sun had set, and it had begun to snow once again, the pieces of fluffy white stuff drifting and dancing chaotically through the night-shrouded village air, but like the snow shrouding the village, a thick cloud of heartbreak and devastation from Gollum's selection of the participants from them hours before still shrouded the villagers and the majority of them were still weeping for the ones that were forcibly taken from them by the wicked Queen and her cronies to be thrown like wild dumb beasts into the arena in a savage fight to the death, and because of this, it was highly likely that those selected family members would never return. One of the families suffering the loss of one of their members was the one headed by Dashiell. The adult male Cheetah, together with his mate, and remaining cubs Sandstorm and Amberpaw were still in a state of heavy grief over the loss of Gingerfur, as were Rosemary the Monkey, Chiseltooth the Beaver, Rosebush, Thorn, Quill and Spikeball the Hedgehogs; Hopper, Daisytail and Dahlia the Jackalopes; Rubyfeather and Crystal the Parrots; Mensa and Snowwing the Skvaders; and Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira the Nekomata kits, but most especially Shadewing the Bat who was still in a state of total hysteria and devastation, and Kushanku and the other kids could not understand why for the Bat was too stonewalling of his past. The only thing the kids knew, however, was that years ago Shadewing had once been a family Bat to a mate and pup, a young son and that they used to live with another family, which Emberflame had told them was a roost of other Bats, before Shadewing ended up on his own and found by Dashiell and company, but something awful had happened to Shadewing's mate and son, and it left the poor Bat devastated. Based on these facts and the way Shadewing behaved during the selection process hosted by Gollum the Black Dwarf and his comrades, a few of the kids, among them Kushanku, had drawn a deduction as to what could have happened to Shadewing's mate and son, but it was an idea they did not like. However, besides the loss of Gingerfur and the likelihood that he will not be returning home again, Dashiell's family had other matters to worry and deal with.

Satoshi lay in his bed in the sleeping quarters, his right arm bound in a sling for it had been diagnosed as a fracture by Green Leaf Village's local doctors and nurses, a group of Fairies and a couple of Red Dwarfs, who then set the Nekomata's arm into this cast made from interwoven sturdy branches coated with a magical green paste made from Fairy leaves the Fairies had managed to keep a stock of in their clinic in case it was needed for like every other plant, magical or ordinary, Fairy plants and flowers were extremely scarce due to the Eternal Winter and such plants could not grow in these conditions at all. As Satoshi gazed at his broken arm in its cast, Kushanku, Nyarth and Akira sat with Sandstorm, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing. Sandstorm and the three Nekomata were weeping and huddling together while Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing sat on their beds with their wings and forelimbs crossed and heads bowed, complete confusion, fear, disbelief, but also fury and hatred, gripping them like severe frostbite. The eight had been confined to the sleeping quarters by Dashiell once Kushanku and the other three Nekomata, Rosemary and Rubyfeather had returned from rescuing Nyarth from potential injury during his failed reckless chase after Gollum and his group to stop them from taking away Gingerfur, Soran and the other selected villagers chosen to participate in the Fighting League. Because of this, Nyarth, along with Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira, were now in an immeasurable depth of trouble, along with Snowwing, Crystal, Sandstorm and Dahlia who, while Nyarth was out chasing Gollum and the others until recently, had been throwing tantrums and badmouthing the Queen, to the point which Dahlia had even spitefully and furiously scrawled a caricature of the Queen's face on the wall of the living room compartment of the main room of Dashiell's den using crayons and then furiously scribbled the words 'Beast', 'Witch' and several bad words that are too profane to even write and words that she would be disciplined greatly for, under the drawing and then hurling globs of saliva at the picture in extreme hatred. This act had earned the Jackalope kit a MASSIVE volcanic eruption of shouting from her parents Daisytail and Hopper and they commanded her to clean the mess off at once. When Dahlia refused, Hopper had angrily dragged her by the ear to the sleeping quarters and tossed her in there with Kushanku and the others and told her that she was grounded for many months to come. However, Dahlia was too saturated with pure hatred and fury at the Queen to even care and continued to throw a massive tantrum that lasted about another hour with Kushanku and the other kids only looking on, too frightened to do anything. However, the Jackalope kit had eventually burned herself out and was forced to calm down but even so, she continued to simmer in silence bitterly.

"Guys, I don't know about you but I don't know what to say or think anymore," muttered Satoshi as he lay on his side with his broken arm in a cast as everything had calmed down, "How could those horrid creatures force us to give up Gingerfur in some silly gamble for a better life when we know how wrong this Fighting League thing is?"

"Well, if I were chosen," said Sandstorm as he wiped his tearstained eyes with a front paw from crying so much, "and then forcibly sent into the Fighting League arena with hundreds of other creatures also forcibly chosen, I would rather die on the spot than be forced to fight like savage dumb animals against the other participants, whether there is a prize of a better life or not."

"Same here," said Akira very bitterly.

"Though we have never experienced this Fighting League thing before," continued Crystal as she sat next to Sandstorm, "we seem to feel how wrong and unfair it is."

The others nodded in agreement. Just then, the sounds of mumbling and sobbing begun and filled the eight kids' ears.

"That's Mr Shadewing," said Snowwing, "and he sounds extremely upset."

As he spoke, Kushanku, Sandstorm and Crystal stood up and walked closer to the door as it opened, revealing a very depressed Bat as he opened the door and stepped into the sleeping quarters. The Bat's ears were drooping and his eyes were completely tearstained, and they continued to spew more tears. Sobs continued to escape his throat as the poor Bat trudged over to his sleeping spot, an overhang perch and prepared to climb up it to hang from it with his feet. (Like our world's bats, the Bats of Narnia also sleep by hanging from their feet). After Shadewing had dropped into his upside down position and wrapped his membranous wings around his body, he continued his tearful and heartbroken lamenting over some subject. Since he was now upside down, his tears, rather than running down his cheeks like they usually did when he stood upright, instead ran down over his forehead and dripped onto the floor below his head and ears.

"Oh, Firewing… Firewing… my son Firewing," whispered the tearful Bat under his breath, "Oh how I wish I could have…" his sentence was then blocked by a sobbing fit. At this, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Dahlia, Snowwing, Crystal and Sandstorm exchanged confused glances. Who was Firewing?

"'My son Firewing'?" said Nyarth, repeating what he had managed to pick up from the depressed Bat's lamenting.

"That must be the name of the son he apparently lost years and years ago before Mr Dashiell found him and took him in," said Satoshi as he struggled with his casted broken right arm.

"But what's his lost son got to do with this horrible event?" squeaked Crystal curiously. This question prompted more glances to be exchanged amongst the eight kids as an idea had formed in their heads, but they were wary of the possible reaction from Shadewing, especially based on the state he was in, if they went through with it.

"Satoshi, would you ask him?" asked Nyarth. Satoshi didn't reply due to the fear of Shadewing's reaction and so he turned his head to Akira and repeated the question. Akira also did not reply and passed the question onto Kushanku, who then passed it onto Sandstorm who then passed it onto Dahlia, who then passed it onto Snowwing who promptly passed it onto Crystal. The Parrot chick, at this, defiantly folded her wings and shook her head.

"Absolutely not!" she hissed, "I think it's best if we forsake that idea and leave Mr Shadewing be. He's had enough traumatising episodes with this Fighting League thing as it is."

The other seven then gazed back at the upside down Shadewing as he continued to sob, tremble and shed more tears and increase the size of the puddle below his ears and backed away. Crystal did the same and within moments, the kids returned to their beds.

"I saw Cyril the Hippogriff exhibit that sort of behaviour as well," said Snowwing with a nod to the sobbing and trembling Shadewing.

"Many of the other animals and creatures were also behaving like that too," added Satoshi, "I saw the Fairy family and the Red Dwarfs tremble violently when that Black Dwarf and his horrid cronies left with the selected individuals for the Fighting League…"

As he said this, a flash of outrage flared within Kushanku when the thought about Dashiell and Honeycomb, and Amberpaw as well, and their reaction to being forced to give up Gingerfur for the Fighting League appeared in his mind.

"I'm utterly surprised and furious that Amberpaw, Pops and Mother seem so indifferent to having poor Gingerfur taken to that ugly Gollum Dwarf who will then be subsequently forced into the arena with the other creatures," he muttered. At this, Sandstorm's ears drooped and the Cheetah cub's eyes began to ooze tears once again as the memory of seeing his older brother get forcibly separated from him and the others returned. Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth also trembled with rage.

"It's just not FAIR!" growled Akira bitterly, "How can the Queen do this to us and so many other families?"

"When the lot of us already have _starvation, struggles against the freezing cold and the constant fear of being watched all the time_ already hanging over us?" added Snowwing. The other kids said nothing. They could not understand the horrible conditions and the problems with the judicial system either. However, they knew that what was happening was totally wrong and unfair, but there were far worse things to be revealed to them later… FAR worse…

In the main living compartment of the den, Dashiell had been pacing back and forth, a scowl on his face and his mind churning over what punishment to bestow on Kushanku and the other seven kids for their behaviour. Nearby, Hopper, Rosebush and Daisytail continued to try and scrub the messy drawing of the Queen and the offensive words Dahlia had scribbled off the wall using makeshift scrubbing brushes and water. However, due to lack of and limited access to warm water and with their old bucket containing only cold water, the cleaning job was taking ages for the type of crayons Dahlia had used were quite strong adherents to any surface they were applied. The only progress the parents of the Jackalope kit and the Hedgehog had managed to make in cleaning the drawing and the words off the wall was a smear and it seemed as though the crayon material was stubbornly trying to resist the cleaners' effort.

"That daughter of ours really has CROSSED THE LINE THIS TIME!" shouted Hopper as he applied as much pressure into the wet scrubbing brush under his paws as possible and continued to move it back and forth over the drawing, the bristles of the brush making a scratching sound over the stony wall surface with each movement, "I cannot BELIEVE that she would go as far as to DEFACE OUR QUEEN with this DISGUSTING…" the male Jackalope and father of Dahlia then let loose a massive snarl or rage and frustration at the end of this sentence as he continued to scrub at the drawing for he could not formulate a suitable word to describe Dahlia's act.

"Huh, we've tried EVERYTHING to teach our kids a lesson," snapped Dashiell ass he continued to pace back and forth nearby, not looking at Hopper, his mate and Rosebush as they continued to scrub at the mess on the wall, "We've tried GROUNDING THEM, making them SHOVEL SNOW, sending them to BED EARLY WITH NO DINNER, punishing them by SPANKING THEM…"

"Take their favourite toys away from them," added Rosebush angrily, some of her hard quills bristled with rage. As the Hedgehog said this, an idea entered Hopper's head.

"That's it," he said, "I think this punishment would be very effective in teaching those eight kids a lesson about respecting our Queen," his face then formed a very stern look, "But it's not just taking away their privileged possessions."

At this, Dashiell stopped pacing and shot the male Jackalope a curious look while Daisytail and Rosebush also gazed at him.

"What do you mean by that, Hopper?" asked Dashiell. Hopper paused dramatically and narrowed his eyes before revealing his idea, "Taking their very favourite toys or drawings they are most attached to and DESTROYING THEM in front of their owners."

This brought the cleaning job to a halt as Daisytail and Rosebush stopped in shock. Dashiell also threw on an astonished face. Hopper continued.

"For example, our daughter Dahlia has a collection of animal figurines that she holds dearly," said the male Jackalope, "We could take those figurines and have Emberflame burn them in front of Dahlia to teach her a very important lesson about drawing on walls for one and disrespecting our Queen for another."

Dashiell frowned in disagreement. "H-Hopper, don't be daft."

"Yeah, that's going a bit too far, dear," said Daisytail, worried for the result.

"It'll only make things worse, especially based on the massive tantrum she had thrown that lasted for a full hour or more," put in Rosebush. However, Hopper had already made his decision.

"Fine, I will implement it myself," said the male Jackalope angrily and with that, he put the wet scrubbing brush down into the bucket and left to find Dahlia's collection of animal figurines. Dashiell then gazed at the two remaining mammals in utter disbelief.

"I think our kids have actually got enough punishment prepared for them, you two," he said, "after all, one of the Shadows said that the Queen herself would sort Kushanku and the others as soon as the Fighting League is finished and when she goes out to collect the victor's family to move them into their new home…"

This sent shivers coursing down the spines of Daisytail and Rosebush and made their fur stand on end, and they shot Dashiell a horrified look each. Jadis was very infamous for her violent, volcanic temper that always flared up at the slightest thing and often it took a long time for her to cool down; very ironic for such a cold ruler who had locked Narnia in a very cold Eternal Winter, and when she was angry, I do mean absolutely FURIOUS and she had been known to inflict serious, serious damage in her wrath. The thought also caused fear to boil within Dashiell himself and he shuddered at the thought of seeing Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira receive the full throttle of the Queen's volcanic wrath. But in addition to that, doubt was also boiling within him about serving the Queen, especially based on what Gingerfur will have to face in the bloody and brutal Fighting League arena, alongside several hundred other creatures chosen randomly by the Queen and her comrades, some of them merely KIDS, such as Gingerfur who was only a cub, and Dashiell seemed to agree with what Kushanku and the other kids had said about the Fighting League event, and that Nyarth did right in trying to rescue Gingerfur and the other selected participants from Gollum and his group's clutches. However, the Cheetah was too afraid to admit it out loud for he knew that he would be severely punished if he did. Despite this, the spotted Cat lowered his head and put on a saddened face.

'This is so _wrong and unfair'_ , thought the Cheetah, and this agreement was also replicated within the other adults of Dashiell's family including Hopper, Daisytail and Rosebush, but they, too, were too afraid to admit it out loud, much like Dashiell. However, pushing that thought aside, Dashiell returned to pacing around while Daisytail and Rosebush resumed trying to clean off Dahlia's messy drawing of the Queen and the insults she had scribbled underneath with their water and scrubbing brushes.

The Queen's brutal dictatorship's grip on the Narnians certainly was as bitter and as harsh as the Eternal Winter enveloping the land.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12- fiery outbursts and the flabbergast of the banquet at the Queen's palace on TV**

 **Three days later**

The day of the Decadal Fighting League had finally arrived for the participants up and down Narnia had finally been selected from the Queen's randomly chosen families in the towns and villagers. In Dashiell's den, Dashiell, Rosebush the Hedgehog and her cousins Thorn, Quill and Spikeball; Chiseltooth the Beaver, Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes, Mensa the Skvader, and Rubyfeather the Parrot sat before the magical crystalline TV as the Fighting League event opened. On the screen at the moment were a Wolf and a Tenome and these two were narrating the opening of the decadal event. Honeycomb and Rosemary were absent for they had left on a hunting and foraging trip with some other villagers to try and find food for the other villagers still struggling in this village. Amberpaw had also left with the Monkey and her mother to help while Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing remained in the sleeping quarters with Shadewing the Bat who, like before, was sobbing and weeping his heart out as he hang from his perch where he slept. As before, hunger was gripping the family and the other villagers for, as usual, the meals had been small and the variety of food served on the plates, only bruised fruit, very small amounts of meat, and very few nuts and vegetables that weren't of very good quality, and although Dashiell's family had just had breakfast, many of the members were still very hungry.

"When's lunch time?" growled a very impatient Nyarth as his stomach rumbled, "I'm still starvin'!"

"Yeah, my stomach wouldn't stop rumbling," put in Sandstorm as he placed a paw on his rumbling tummy as it growled for food.

"We never had much to eat for breakfast at all as usual," put in Crystal. Satoshi, his broken arm still in its cast, Akira, Dahlia and Snowwing also all let loose agreeing moans about their hunger too, their partially filled stomachs also making their demand for more food clear. Suddenly, Shadewing jolted from his perch, snapped his wings open and shot the seven complaining kids a very volcanic, upside-down look.

"Oh, will you SHUT UP ABOUT FOOD!?" snapped the Bat at the top of his voice, "WE'VE GOT ENOUGH PROBLEMS TO WORRY ABOUT AS IT IS!"

The Bat's screeching voice ignited extreme fear and fright in the seven kids and also Kushanku who had been standing in one corner trying to twist his tails to check to see if he could actually fly by spinning them, and all eight of them jumped about a metre into the air. Wailing hysterically, the four Nekomata kits, Cheetah cub, Parrot chick, and the Jackalope and Skvader kits then scrambled like terrified children towards the door, bumping into each other with Satoshi'as broken arm getting struck once or twice in the process, yanked it open and scurried out in a cloud of freezing dust. Shadewing, at this, felt a flash of regret at scaring the kids course through him, and he furled his wings around himself and entered another sobbing fit, his tears trickling down his forehead, past his ears and onto the floor below his head. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing exploded into the main compartment from the corridor and darted towards the table and chairs where the family always sat for meal times or for a meeting. The commotion roused the attention of some of Dashiell's group and they turned round and eyed the terrified eight kids as they hid under the table or behind the chairs, hysterical whimpers escaping their mouths, their faces twisted into extreme fright, bodies shaking and fur and feathers, especially Kushanku's mop of white hair, spiked out like a Hedgehog's spines.

"What is the matter with you lot!?" shouted Hopper angrily.

"Can't you see we're trying to watch this important show here!?" put in Dashiell.

"YOU lot should be in the sleeping quarters as punishment for your misbehaviour over the past few days," added Rosebush. However, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing were too consumed with utter fear to even move and began to shed hysterical tears. When he saw that the eight kids refused to move from the table and chairs, Hopper rose to his feet and hopped over to them, a furious scowl lacing his face. However, as the Jackalope approached them, the eight kids, especially Dahlia after Hopper had completely destroyed her prized collection of animal figurines the other day by smashing them up with a log when Emberflame the Pyro refused to burn them with her fire, trembled even more and backed away, the scowl on Dahlia's father's face, as well as how he approached them, adding fuel to the fire of their fear. However, Hopper was too consumed with anger to even notice the eight kids' terror and continued to approach them without hesitation.

"Oh, don't play stupid games with me, you eight," shouted Hopper as he continued to approach the cowering kids without stopping to think, "You shouldn't even be out here, now RETURN your NAUGHTY BACKSIDES TO the SLEEPING QUARTERS THIS MINUTE or I'll DO IT FOR YOU!"

As he yelled these words at the eight kids and made them tremble and whimper even more and back away, Chiseltooth and Mensa ran in from the side, their gazes on Kushanku and the other seven as concern boiling within them especially as they observed the kids' behaviour.

"Um… Hopper," said Mensa.

"Not now Mensa, these KIDS need DISCIPLINING!" snapped Hopper and as soon as he had approached the kids close enough, he lunged forward and seized the nearest one to him, Sandstorm, by the shoulders with his paws and began to fiercely drag the Cheetah cub back in the direction of the corridor leading to the sleeping quarters. Sandstorm then entered an outright eruption of screaming, crying and writhing as the angry Jackalope dragged him along. Nearby, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing backed away all the more and wailed as they watched Hopper drag the screaming Cheetah cub by the shoulders towards the corridor, not caring whether his grip on the cub's shoulders inflicted pain on him or not. Mensa and Chiseltooth looked on in horror as this act began to spiral out of control.

"Hopper!" shouted Chiseltooth as he watched Hopper yell and scream at the hysterically screaming and crying Sandstorm, whose eyes were sending tears flying everywhere, and continue to drag him brutally along the floor.

"SHUT UP AT ONCE, you STUPID, MISBEHAVING, CUB!" screeched Hopper and with that, he gave a fierce and rather painful tug on Sandstorm when the Cheetah cub tried to resist the furious Jackalope's attempts to drag him along. Nearby, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing watched on while Dashiell and Rosebush came running in, wary looks plastering their faces at the horrific scene.

"SERIOUSLY, HOPPER, you're HURTING HIM!" barked Chiseltooth but Hopper refused to listen to the Beaver's complaints and continued to angrily drag Sandstorm to the corridor. Then when the tearful Sandstorm managed to slip his shoulders out of Hopper's paws, Hopper finally snapped and lost control of his temper. Without thinking, the furious Jackalope let loose a loud scream and raised his paw when suddenly, a fiery comet appeared, darted in between him and the terrified Cheetah cub and stopped, dead, taking the form of a humanoid woman with her arms stretched protectively across Sandstorm.

"STOP IT, HOPPER!" barked Emberflame as the distressed, trembling, weeping and terrified Sandstorm fell silent when he saw the fire sprite hovering in a protective position before Hopper. Her face, made from flames, was creased into a very stern look as Hopper froze with his pas in the air. Around the scene, Dashiell, Chiseltooth, Mensa, Rosebush and her three cousins, Rubefeather, and Hopper's own mate Daisytail froze in stun while

Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing stopped crying but continued to tremble in fright. Hopper then returned to his senses when he found himself gazing into the stern look of the Pyro and began to examine his stance. To his horror, he realised that he had gone too far with his temper towards Sandstorm and could not believe that he had been about to hit the cub. Guilt flaring within him, the Jackalope uttered a, "excuse me," before darting away to give himself time to cool down, guilt at his treating of Sandstorm now taking hold. Emberflame looked on sternly. The animals looked on in stunned silence as the Pyro began to scour them with her stern glare.

"All this arguing, conflict and yelling at each other has gone far enough and for long enough, don't you think?" shouted Emberflame, "Seriously, I've had to put up with this CONSTANT CONFLICT and FIRESTORMS for SEVERAL DAYS since that BLACK DWARF had left with the selected villagers for the Fighting League in tow…" the animals said nothing as the Pyro continued, "But rather than arguing and fighting all the time amongst each other, can't you lot just stop and think how the other families, those that had been forced to give their selected members to that Gollum Dwarf and his horrid cronies, feel right now?" her glare then turned to the magical TV as the Fighting League opening continued, the Tenome and the Wolf continuing the narration and commentating, "especially watching that HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE event about to unfold?" still the animals said nothing and remained silent. Emberflame then rolled her fiery eyes and breathed a sigh.

"Look, let me take care of the kids, okay?" she muttered, before her gaze turned to the Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing as they continued to tremble from the shock of watching the confrontation between Sandstorm and Hopper, "while you lot take a break from having to deal with them."

At first, the adult animals did not move but at Mensa's agreeing persuasion, Dashiell and the others, excluding Hopper and Shadewing who were having some time to themselves, relented and returned to the TV. As the adults resumed to the TV, Kushanku and the others came in as Emberflame tended to the still-frightened and trembling Sandstorm.

"You're absolutely right, Miss Emberflame," muttered Nyarth timidly and tearfully, "We've done nothing other than argue and argue and fight with each other for the past _three days_ since Gingerfur had to leave with the other poor participants," a tear then ran down his cheek and he sniffled.

"And the slightest complaint, such as the sink stuffed with dirty plates, seems to set off a MASSIVE argument," put in Crystal.

"Not to mention this _raging hunger,_ " moaned Kushanku as he rubbed his still-rumbling and partly filled belly.

"Look, Kushanku, kids," said Emberflame firmly but gently as she continued to comfort the trembling and calming Sandstorm, "Swift the Falcon's hunting and vegetation foraging party, among them Rosemary the Monkey, and Honyecomb and Amberpaw will be back shortly with some dumb animal game and vegetable material any moment and hopefully, you'll have some more food in your stomachs," the Pyro hardened her firm gaze, "But in the meantime, let's take a moment to calm ourselves down…"

"And Mr Shadewing hadn't been exactly himself either," added Mensa's son Snowwing, "All he's ever done is weep and sob and cry his heart out."

"I'm not surprised," said Emberflame, a sympathetic gaze down the corridor to the sleeping quarters as though eying Shadewing directly, "This is an extremely difficult time for him and the other animals that had likely been traumatised from this horrific event in some way."

As she spoke, a large brown Bat with black membranous wings suddenly melted out of the shadows and appeared in the mouth to the corridor. His eyes were tearstained and he wore a very regretful expression on his face.

"Um, excuse me?" Shadewing asked in a very edgy voice. When Kushanku and the other kids including Sandstorm saw the Bat appear, fright took hold of them and they backed away.

"Whoa, whoa, it's okay, kids," said Shadewing when he saw the frightened kids move back, "It's alright, I've not come to yell at you again. I've come to apologise."

However, still the eight kids backed away, wary of the Bat's presence and expecting him to erupt again. Then Shadewing's ears fell and his head lowered as Emberflame hovered in flaming humanoid woman form before him.

"I shouldn't have yelled at them in the sleeping quarters a minute ago," the Bat said in a truly regretful voice, "it was well and truly out of order for me. It-it-it is just because of this… Fighting League and… but even that is inexcusable…" as he finished this sentence, a sob escaped his throat.

"So that was why these eight kids ran into here in a massive panic?" asked Emberflame, "no wonder they were so terrified…"

Shadewing did not answer and continued to keep his head bowed and ears lowered in shame. He wanted to apologise to the eight kids for screaming at them but he knew that they were still too scared of him for this to happen. However, Sandstorm, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing slowly approached the Bat and the Pyro, edgily prepared to jump back in case the Bat entered into another outburst and bellow at them again. Just then, Kushanku's ears picked up the sound of the narration on the magical TV. Turning his head in the TV's direction, the youngest Nekokmata quadruplet kit's eyes landed on the Fighting League show. Compelled by curiosity for he had never seen a Fighting League event before, Kushanku left the other seven kids and approached the TV, Dashiell and the other adult animals excluding Hopper continuing to have their eyes glued to the crystalline screen. Nyarth, Snowwing and Crystal followed, leaving Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia to stand before a very regretful Shadewing and Emberflame.

"I think it's time you came clean to the kids and explained what happened to your son, mate and Bat roost before you joined Dashiell's family, Shadewing," said the Pyro firmly, "I believe they are old enough to understand why you're so terrified at this time of the decade when the Fighting League's in progress…"

At this, Shadewing shot Emberflame a "What!?" look, and made Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia flinch, move back and whimper timidly, sensing another potential outburst from the Bat.

"But they CAN'T know," snapped Shadewing in anguish, his eyes oozing tears once again, "They'll NEVER understand what HEARTBREAK I had to face during the previous Fighting League event…"

This ignited curiosity within Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia and they exchanged glances. Could it be that Shadewing's son or mate had been selected for the previous Fighting League? Or could some close friend of Shadewing's deceased family have been unluckily selected? However, the two Nekomata, the Jackalope and the Cheetah youngsters backed away more as Shadewing entered another hysterical shudder and break down. His membranous wings went to his eyes and he began to sob hard.

"They CAN'T KNOW!" he cried, Emberflame putting a non-kindling fire hand onto his shoulders to comfort him, "They CANNOT know. THEY'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND! They're TOO YOUNG…"

"But they're gonna have to be told at some point, like how you've told Dashiell and the other adults about it," said Emberflame. As the Pyro said this, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia hardened their curious looks.

'WHAT is this 'it' you're on about?' thought Sandstorm. Then Satoshi opened his mouth to ask the question out loud but then changed his mind and closed his mouth. After all, he did not want to set Shadewing's severely damaged and wounded heart off into another explosion in the form of the Bat screaming and crying out loud again, especially as the Bat entered another sobbing fit. Then Shadewing fell to his knees, his face buried in his wings and sobs flooding the air around him. It was then that Sandstorm noticed Kushanku and the other three missing.

"Kushanku?" said the Cheetah cub, the dull pain in his shoulders where Hopper had fiercely grabbed him still present, "Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing?"

"They're over there," said Akira, a paw point in the direction of the four said kids. At this, the other three followed the Nekomata's point and found Kushanku, Nyarth, Snowwing and Crystal sitting not too far away from the tattered sofa on which Dashiell sat and left to join them, Akira also following.

As Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia approached Kushanku, Crystal, Snowwing and Nyarth, a flash of outrage and indignation tore through the fourth named one as his furious glare remained stuck to the magical TV screen.

"HEY, that's NOT FAIR!" he snarled, his fur bristling, "LOOK AT ALL THAT FOOD on the Queen's TABLE!"

"They've got MORE THAN ENOUGH food to feed an ENTIRE LARGE TOWN DOZENS OF TIMES OVER!" put in Crystal angrily, her metallic red and duller red feathers also bristling with outrage, "While WE poor and struggling creatures only have TINY SCRAPS of FOOD on THESE PATHETIC, SCANTY PIECES of old POTTERY that CANNOT be EVEN called plates!"

"Crystal!" snapped Rubyfeather but Thorn intervened and shook his head, prompting Crystal's mother to abandon the thought of yelling at her daughter. After all, the kids had received enough fiery yells from the adults for the past few days already and Thorn did not want the kids to be sent into another hysterical fright after Hopper's outburst. Rubyfeather, at this, had no choice but to allow the kids to complain as much as they want. Then Kushanku, Snowwing, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia felt a flash of sheer outrage and indignation tear through them as they glared at the amount of food served on the Queen and her followers' tables, feasting.

"The participants are just having a MASSIVE, celebratory feast with Her Majesty and her followers before the epic FIGHT of a LIFETIME," said the Tenome narrator enthusiastically on the right of the screen. A massive smile stretched the entire span of her eyeless face and her excitement-saturated hand-eyes gazed in utter awe at the massive banquet and its gathering of creatures, among them the Queen who sat at the far end of the middle table.

On the crystalline TV screen were three massively long tables and sat around the tables were a wide variety of hideous creatures, all followers and creatures fiercely loyal and devotional to Jadis. There were Hags, bat-winged Harpies (who, unlike the Harpies that were bird-humanoids, were extremely ugly, ravenous, bat-like creatures with hideous faces), Wolves, more Tenome, Hellhounds, Shadows, a few Black Dwarfs, Vampires, Adzes (a type of Vampire that resembled incredibly ugly firefly-like insectoid creatures with fangs), Werewolves, Nagual or Werejaguars (Were-creatures that resembled Werewolves but had the characteristics of Jaguars, and were normally very dark blue-purple in colour, their dark fur smattered with black blotches), humanoid Lizard-like creatures that were bipedal with a humanoid head and yellow, reptilian eyes, mouths filled with rows of teeth like a shark, massive claws on their hands and feet, prehensile tails and grey, scaly bodies; giant leech-like Death Worms, Ghouls, Kelpies (highly ugly water horse-like creatures with kelp-like manes and glowing red eyes), Gargoyles, spider-like Arachnes, Minotaurs, Chupacabra, Bunyips, Wendigoes, ugly Ogres, Hags, ferocious and beastly Wolpertingers (rabbit and hare-like creatures that had feathered wings and tail like a bird, similar to a Skvader, and also antlers like a Jackalope, but they also possessed sabre-tooth-like fangs that protruded from their mouths like bony knives), and countless other very ugly and hideous creatures but then Kushanku and some of the others noticed several of the creatures to be Fauns, Kitsune, Tigers, Sabre-Toothed Cats and Vultures amongst the crowd of feasting beastly creatures.

Fauns, Minotaurs, Kitsune, Tigers, Sabre-Toothed Cats and Vultures were some of the Narnians' species and the majority of them apposed the Queen. However, it had appeared that some of them, amongst several other Narnian species, had fallen to Jadis's side, either out of fear caused by the Queen's tyrannical and dictatorial rules she had passed upon the Narnian lands when she came to power; out of sheer fascination, enticement and/or awe of the evil Queen's charm and seemingly 'saving' ways, or out of desperation to escape the impoverished conditions inflicted on Narnia by the Queen's wintery curse, or a combination of the above. Amongst the followers of Jadis were the participants collected from the villages and towns by Gollum and the other collectors sent out by the Queen who had randomly chosen these families to have one of their members sent into the Fighting League with the offer of a better life and rescue from the extreme poverty (Sandstorm tried to find Gingerfur and Soran but could not due to the massive crowds around the table) and like the followers of the Queen, were eagerly gorging themselves on the massively abundant food on the tables. It was clear that after living their entire lives in severe poverty with a massive food shortage, that the participants were trying to make the most of the abundance served to them by the Queen's followers on the tables. The Queen herself sat on the far end of the middle table but her face was obscured by a massive cooked bird, presumably a turkey or a chicken, but a cluster of silvery, sparkly, crystalline spikes protruded from the top of the cooked bird, presumably the Queen's crown. However, what was most outrageously eye-catching of all in the banquet scene was the amount of the food served on the tables.

Unlike the mediocre meals Dashiell and his family and the other oppressed Narnians had on their tables in their snow-covered homes, the food displayed on the three massively long tables of the Queen and her followers were extravagant, incredibly lavish, stylish and absolutely rich and abundant with a massively wide variety and diversity of various fruits, meat, nuts, you name it. Compare THAT to the mediocre meals you saw during one breakfast session at Dashiell's den a few chapters back.

"So THAT'S where the ninety percent of the monthly delivered food meant for us, as well as any indoor grown crops, ends up," hissed Kushanku bitterly. Nyarth then began to tremble and grit his teeth with bitter jealousy and rage, while Sandstorm just looked on indignantly. Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Akira and Satoshi also glared bitterly at the abundance of food served on the Queen's tables, which were obviously located at her palace based on the background walls, which appeared to be made of shiny, crystalline ice. Dashiell and the other adults were also incredibly shocked and incredibly indignant but they managed to conceal it.

"So THAT lot has a MASSIVE abundance of food…" growled Sandstorm angrily, "While WE are left starving and struggling to find enough food to sustain ourselves out in this frozen WASTELAND!"

"Look how gluttonous those creatures are," muttered someone nearby. At this, Kushanku and the other seven turned their heads and gazed at Spikeball, who had spoken and who sat with Rosebush, Quill and Thorn near the sofa as he glared in utter shock and indignation at how the food was eaten, the indignation having battered a hole in his attempts to conceal it. The Queen's followers looked like they were essentially gorging themselves, like how vultures would stuff themselves on the plentiful meat of a carcass in our world. The Hellhounds, Wendigoes, Wolves and several other meat-eating creatures forced large chunks of meat into their mouths while the bat winged Harpies were greedily stuffing themselves on more meat and also some fruit and veg. Very loud and grotesque burps also erupted into the air from the disgusting creatures, and the table manners of the participants were no different. As Dashiell observed the eating behaviour of the participants who will soon be sent into the arena for the main Fighting League event, disgust made him flinch. He had never, ever taught his three cubs and four adopted Nekomata to eat like that, and Rubyfeather, Daisytail and Mensa would never have their respective kids Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing to shove large amounts of fruit down their throats at mealtimes either.

As Dashiell and company continued to observe the disgusting manners of the eaters at the tables, Akira noticed some of the creatures leave the tables and disappear from the dining area and from the screen of the magic TV. At first, the female Nekomata thought those creatures had left, having had enough to eat but then a while later, she saw those same creatures had returned into the dining area, returned to where they had sat at the tables and began to gorge themselves on more of the food.

"Hadn't those creatures had enough food already?" asked Akira, "Then why have they returned to foil their faces some more?"

"What do you mean, Akira?" asked Snowwing. Akira turned her gaze to the young Skvader and was about to reply. However, an idea as to why those creatures had left the dining area only to return a while later to resume stuffing themselves entered her head; an idea that sent revulsion tearing through her. However, Akira had not been the only observer of this behaviour.

"How WASTEFUL!" snarled a voice nearby, prompting Akira to snap her gaze to the speaker, who was Chiseltooth, and the Beaver's face was laced with utter disgust and flabbergast, "Those creatures that had left and then returned to gorge themselves on more food have probably had about FIVE or so helpings of the food on the tables before leaving and then returning to0 stuff themselves on more of that food…"

As the Beaver said this, Daisytail turned her glare of dread his way.

"Are you meaning to say that those creatures had likely…" she began but trailed off, not wanting to say it. Chiseltooth, who had already deduced the conclusion, the same one Akira had arrived, nodded, his face saturated with pure anger and disgust.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opened, rousing the attention of Dashiell and company and pulling their gazes from the TV showing the feasting followers of the Queen and the Fighting League participants-to-be to a trio of certain family members as they entered the den and shook off the snow from their feet after closing the door. Dashiell immediately jumped off the sofa and hurried over to greet the trio, which were Honeycomb, Amberpaw and Rosemary the Monkey who had been on the hunting and foraging trip with Swift the Falcon and some other villagers.

"Did you manage to hunt for anything?" asked Dashiell.

"As well as find any plant material?" added Chiseltooth as the Beaver hoped for some green stuff to sink his teeth into. Kushanku, Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Dahlia also gathered round Honeycomb and the other two, hoping for some good news while Rosebush and her cousins, Spikeball, Thorn and Quill, Mensa, Daisytail and Hopper (who had somewhat cooled off), Shadewing, Rubyfeather and Emberflame slowly gathered around the returned trio. Like the kids, the adult animals excluding Emberflame were also hungry and had partly filled stomachs and hoped for more food. However, as the group gathered around her, Amberpaw and Rosemary, Honeycomb returned the hopeful gazes of the group with not a cheerful look, but a sombre, disappointed one, and Kushanku and the other kids knew that meant only one conclusion.

"We couldn't find much edible plant material," replied the female Cheetah, "But we did manage to hunt and catch some dumb pigeons, a large dumb stag and find a dumb bird's nest where we took the bird and its eggs…"

In Narnia, it is only, and ONLY, the dumb animals that were hunted game. Talking Beasts were never, EVER killed for food for Talking Beasts, along with magical creatures such as Centaurs, Skvader, Jackalopes and Nekomata for instance, were classed as persons and it would be classed as _murder_ if an individual of these categories was killed, and it was also unethical to eat their meat as well. In our world it would be like killing and eating the meat of another human being, which was a very great evil indeed.

"But…" as Honeycomb trailed off and her ears and head lowered, alongside the ears and head of Amberpaw and Rosemary's head with their faces forming very disappointed looks with a hint of anger thrown in there, Dashiell said, "But what?"

The other members of the family including Emberflame looked on, the hope in their eyes for more food clearly dying like a weakening Pyro's fire when she was exposed to the freezing air of outside for too long. Then Amberpaw spoke next as Rosemary stepped forward.

"While we were butchering our hunted game for the meat to distribute and take home to our families, we were met by a passing patrol of three Banshees and a Kappa who demanded that we hand over our kills to them so that they could be taken to the Queen as it was the 35th anniversary of her taking over of Narnia, as well as the third Decadal Fighting League, and it was out of respect for her and part of her law that she and her followers get most of the meat harvested by the hunting parties."

This ignited immense disgust and anger within Dashiell and the others and Emberflame shuddered with rage, the flames forming her humanoid body shaking as the fire sprite shook with fury. Honeycomb continued, but as she did, her voice began to break as grief overtook her. "B-b-but when wee refused and Swift, our leading Falcon of the party explained that our families were in desperate need of food, one of the Banshees lashed forward and… and… and…"

The grief finally took hold of Dashiell's mate and she shakily broke down, prompting Dashiell and Sandstorm to come over to her and comfort her. Amberpaw then tearfully stepped in to finish the explanation while Rosemary tearfully gazed at something in her hands.

"What happened?" asked Chiseltooth.

"That Banshee slashed Swift's throat with a wooden blade while her three comrades demanded we hand ALL of our catch to them as punishment for refusing to obey the command," the Cheetah cub tearfully explained. Then Rosemary spoke as the listeners looked on in utter horror.

"We were forced to abort the harvesting of the meat of the dumb stag and birds and made a break for it, leaving the Banshees and the Kappa to take our kills, though we managed to make off with some of our catch," said the shaken and traumatised Monkey before raising her hand to reveal a single dumb pigeon, freshly killed and ready for butchering for its meat, "This is all Honyecomb, Amberpaw and I have managed to save…" a sniffle and a sob escaped the Monkey's nose and throat, "I'm not sure about the other members of the rest of the hunting/foraging party but I don't believe they managed to escape with anything from our seized catch at all…"

Then finally, Rosemary broke down and began to sob. Amberpaw also began to cry her heart out, prompting the other family members to comfort them by hugging them. As the trio broke down over the disappointment of their snatched hunt and Swift the Falcon's death at the hands of that savage Banshee, Kushanku gazed despairingly at the single pigeon in Rosemary's hands as she returned Chiseltooth's hug and sobbed. A single pigeon's meat obviously wasn't enough to feed all the meat eaters in the household, was it? Whereas there'd probably been enough meat on the other pigeons, the mother dumb bird and the dumb stag Swift's hunting party had managed to hunt and kill to feed all the meat-eaters in about half a dozen families, including Dashiell's one, but the majority of that had been forcibly taken from the hunting party by four of the Queen's cronies at the cost of an innocent life.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13- the Fighting League begins**

 **A few hours later**

The banquet had finally finished at the Queen's palace and now the participants, after they had been treated to a luxurious time of resting up before the big fight, were ready to be taken to the arena. Up and down the freezing land of Narnia, giant magical TV screens, as well as the smaller versions in the few homes that were lucky enough to have one, broadcasted the event. In one such home, Dashiell and the other adults in his household excluding Shadewing the Bat but now including Honeycomb and Rosemary who were still devastated over the death of their friend Swift the Falcon, one of the few skilled hunting and foraging party leaders in Green Leaf Village, were sat around their magic crystalline TV, watching the event in its unfolding process. It was now the time of the parade, the part where the several hundred selected participants from the Queen's selected families were shown off to the watchers one last time before they were sent into the arena for the main part of the Fighting League itself. The remaining nine kids Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth the Nekomata kits; Sandstorm and Amberpaw the brother and sister of Gingerfur, and Crystal the Parrot chick, Snowwing the Skvader kit and Dahlia the Jackalope kit were in the sleeping quarters with Shadewing once again, only this time Emberflame was babysitting them.

Shadewing hung from his perch once again, distress and distraught over the event still gripping him like the freezing weather outside, which was now snowing once again, and the nine kids, now including Amberpaw, sat on their beds, Satoshi with his injured right arm still in its cast. Emberflame was nearby, residing in the torch lamp to help provide heat for the members present in the sleeping quarters and to look after the kids and Shadewing and to keep them away from the disturbing Fighting League event about to unfold. Much like how depression of the event was still gripping Shadewing, the miasma of depression was also clamped on the nine kids and Emberflame like the jaws of a savage Hellhound. Sandstorm was distraught and clearly very worried for Gingerfur who was in the Parade with several hundred other creatures, as were Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira and also Amberpaw, though the female Cheetah cub had a glimmer of hope no thicker than a thin thread of spider silk glimmering within her, the hope for a better life for Dashiell and his family and escape from this decrepit way of life in the freezing, starving, miserable conditions if Gingerfur could win the League. After all, it was the Queen's promised prize for the family of the victor, wasn't it? The rest of the youngsters, however, weren't betting on it, especially since Gingerfur was only a cub who will be facing several hundred opponents for the prize in the arena and based on these facts, the odds of him winning the League and emerging victorious were extremely slim. Furthermore, none of the other eight kids trusted the Queen either, especially after so many negative things that had happened and were still going on, such as the law that ninety percent of the food delivered and the crop[s grown must be given to the Queen and her followers and seeing the wasteful behaviour of many of the Queen's cronies at the banquet with the MASSIVE supply of food they had on the three massive tables at the Queen's palace on the TV. Amberpaw, on the other paw still clung to the super-thin hope of the better life. However, like the other eight kids, she wasn't betting on it too much, but she had given the Queen one final chance in the Fighting League. After that, she was going to give up on her and her cronies… for good, if Gingerfur EVER died in the arena.

While Amberpaw sat by herself, trying to deal with the sheer grief of seeing Swift the Falcon get his throat slashed by that Banshee when she and her three comrades demanded that most of their kills be handed over, as well as hoping that Gingerfur would win the Fighting League, the other eight kids were talking to Emberflame as she tried to flood the freezing sleeping quarters with her heat, but it was proving a lot of effort for her due to the freezing winter being the result of a horrible spell.

"Are you alright, Miss Emberflame?" asked Crystal with concern, "Your flames look smaller than they usually are."

"Oh, it's just hard for me to keep this room warm because of the freezing cold air from outside," said Emberflame in a laboured voice as she continued to burn the fuel on the torch lamp. Her fiery head and hair of fire protruded from the top of the lamp so that she could talk to the kids while she tried to heat up the room. However, the poor Pyro knew that the statement she had given in reply to Crystal's question was not entirely true. The constant winter and its snow, freezing conditions and ice were not natural, but the result of a very powerful spell cast upon Narnia and locking it in the prison of these conditions. Because of how powerful the spell was, any magical creature associated with fire, such as Pyros, firebirds known as Phoenixes, Fire Bakeneko (which were like Nekomata but were essentially fire fork-tailed cats rather than flesh-and-blood fork-tailed cats like true Nekomata), and Fire Salamanders were struggling to keep their fires burning but the powerful winter spell was not only affecting these fire-based creatures living in Narnia. Weather birds that had the ability to control the weather and summon small thunderclouds on a very small scale, often to help with watering the crops, known as Thunderbirds, were also struggling. It seemed that the strength of the spell was very oppressing to the elemental creatures who were against the Queen and if any Pyro were to venture out into the cursed winter without any source of heat, they would weaken and eventually become extinguished. To a Pyro, the cursed winter was like a fish getting stranded in the hot sun far away from the refuge of water, and much like how the dry air and the hot sun was to fish, the cursed winter and its freezing air were fatal to Pyros and other fire-based creatures. The only fire-based creatures that don't seem to be affected were the Hellhounds, but they were fiercely loyal to Jadis so they were spared from the consequences of the winter spell.

"I suppose the freezing conditions of this horrible constant winter are restricting your ability to provide heat, like you say, but I also think the air is having a bad effect on you as a whole," said Snowwing who sat with Crystal. The other six kids nodded in agreement as they observed the rather weak flames of the Pyro's body. Emberflame emerged some more out of the lamp, formed fiery arms and folded them, before her melancholy gaze of flames rested on the Skvader kit.

"I think you could be right, my Skvader poppet," said the Pyro in a sad, struggling voice, "This winter has been going on for three decades straight now, and unlike the regular winters we've had before that Queen took over," Emberflame growled this sentence with bitter malice but she tried to conceal it, "where we Pyros and other fire-based creatures had been able to cope with the freezing air without too much trouble, even go out into it, the air of this constant winter seems to have a very negative affect on us in a way we Pyros had never expected. I mean, look at my flames, they seem to be getting smaller the more I try to keep myself burning."

Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira examined the size of the flames forming the Pyro's body and saw that she was right. Emberflame's fire was smaller than they had been several days before, and they were still shrinking in size. It was clear the constant winter was indeed having a negative and deteriorating effect on the Pyro and she was struggling to keep her flames burning. Sooner or later, Emberflame may have such small flames and be so weak that she may eventually be unable to provide sufficient heat for the den altogether. Even worse, Emberflame herself had no idea how long she could cope with the constant winter but it was likely for a few more weeks, perhaps months, before she eventually reached a point that she will stop burning altogether. It was a worrying sign indeed. Nearby, Kushanku was up to something.

"What are you doing, foster bro?" asked Sandstorm as he observed the youngest Nekomata kit stand with his upper body leaning forward and the two branches of his forked tail twisted up until the node, his head turned to it as he frowned with effort. The other kids and Emberflame also turned and watched Kushanku as he then spun his tail branches as fast as he could. However, to his dismay, he could not spin them fast enough to achieve lift-off.

"I'm trying to see if I can actually fly by spinning my forked tail branches," replied Kushanku as he re-twisted his forked tails' branches and tried again. Scepticism welled within the watchers.

"Fly?" repeated Emberflame with a frown, "But… you're a Nekomata. You cannot fly."

"Only Fire Bakeneko can, though they actually technically glide rather than fly," said Nyarth. Then Satoshi remembered the incident where he had smacked against the log and broke his arm when he pursued Nyarth with Rosemary, Rubyfeather, Kushanku and Akira when Nyarth tried to chase down Gollum and his group as they drove away with the selected participants, among them Gingerfur. It was when the Dryad who was loyal to Jadis had moved the branches of its tree to break the path of Rosemary, Kushanku, Akira and himself (Satoshi) to halt their pursuit of Gollum and his group.

"Um, actually," said Kushanku's brother as he sat up by using his left arm to lift his upper body, "Kushanku actually _did_ fly by spinning his tail branches when him and I fell out of the trees and I smashed into the log, breaking my right arm."

"Yeah, I saw it too," said Nyarth, "As did Akira, Miss Rosemary and Mrs Rubyfeather."

At this, Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia and Amberpaw threw on even more sceptical looks. They had obviously not been there when Kushanku's apparent first flight had happened, but Kushanku, who had obviously remembered himself hovering in mid-air by spinning his tails before hitting the log when he and Satoshi fell out of the trees, continued to try and lift off by spinning his tail branches. However, to his dismay once again, he could not get airborne. Giving up, the young Nekomata kit trudged towards the bed and sat down, a disappointed look on his face.

"Well, if he had managed to fly at all or not," said Sandstorm as he gazed at Kushanku as he breathed a sigh, "it sounds like a very farfetched thing to do."

"Us Nekomata have the ability to jump from branch to branch or between tree trunks agilely," said Nyarth, "I seemed to have learned to do that without any training whatsoever when I went to chase down that horrid Black Dwarf and his cronies and rescue those poor participants, among them Gingerfur," as he said the name of his older adopted Cheetah cub brother, a sad sigh escaped his mouth, especially at how terrified and homesick he must be by now. Emberflame then shot Nyarth a stern look.

"Well it was rather reckless of you at best, and utterly foolish at worst to try and chase down that Black Dwarf and his group, Nyarth," she said in a slightly rebuking voice, "You could have got seriously hurt," her face turned to Satoshi as he gazed at his casted right arm, "which unfortunately is the consequence your brother had suffered," she returned her fiery face back in Nyarth's direction and continued, "What's more, you could have got into serious trouble with Gollum himself and perhaps the Queen as well," Emberflame then shuddered for that was already the case now. The Pyro had heard of horrific stories of creatures trying to oppose the wicked snow woman and ended up meeting either a brutal demise or, according to some Dryads, Sylphs and a few other Pyros Emberflame knew, transformed into a stone cast of themselves. A Cockatrice (a reptilian creature that had a chicken-like face and legs and a thrashing, Dragon-like tail and Bat-like wings like a Wyvern) whom Emberflame once knew before meeting Dashiell and before the wintery curse was cast upon Narnia over thirty years ago was one such victim, but Emberflame had also heard of stories of other creatures, including nature spirits such as Dryads, Sylphs, the water Naiads and Nereids, and even the fiery Pyros, getting turned to stone as well for disobedience or even stepping only ever slightly out of line, despite these nature spirits not being organic bodied creatures in nature. Emberflame did not want Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira meeting the same fate. And although Emberflame was cross with Nyarth for risking perhaps his life to try and rescue Gingerfur and the other selected villagers from Gollum and his group's clutches, under the sternness, the Pyro actually believed that Nyarth did the right thing.

Suddenly, a few shadowy figures appeared in one of the open windows to the sleeping quarters, startling the group and making Emberflame jolt from her lamp and flare her flames in a threatening, defensive way.

"Whoa, don't worry, it's only us," said a familiar voice. At this, Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia all lowered their fright while Emberflame lowered her guard as the speaker, together with four other creatures, entered the room through the window. The speaker had been Alexandrite from Soran and Growler's house, and she had come to visit Kushanku and the others alongside Cyril the Hippogriff, Desdemona the Griffin and two more creatures also adopted by Growler into his family, another Nekomata named Padparadscha, or 'Paddy' for short and who was Alexandrite's younger sister, and a young Peryton named Link. Paddy was less colourful than her older sister Alexandrite. Her fur was a variety of shades of orange, pink and red with some parts of her pelage a metallic version of those colours, but the Nekomata's forked tail and head hair, which resembled an elegant curled lock on her head between her ears, were a very deep pink-red colour. Her eyes were amber, unlike Alexandrite's and like most Nekomata. Link the Peryton resembled a young grey-white stag, most of his fur a silvery-grey and white in colour. Because he was young, around Kushanku and company's age, he did not have his antlers yet. His feathered wings and tail were also grey-white with the flight feathers on his wings being a very dark grey colour. His hind feet which resembled the talons of a bird; a feature of all Peryton, were also grey in colour. Link, much like Desdemona, Cyril, Paddy and Alexandrite and several other non-Dog family members of Soran's family, was an orphan and was taken in by Growler when he had been a very young fawn.

As the five newcomers climbed through the window and entered the sleeping quarters, Emberflame put her fiery arms on her hips and frowned.

"What are you five doing here?" she asked, "You know you're not allowed in Dashiell's den without his permission."

"I know but we were so worried for you guys that we've decided to come check on you," said Desdemona. Then Link and Padparadscha stepped forward with a couple of grey-white bag-like cloths wrapping something in their mouth or paws. The pair then placed the cloths onto the floor and unwrapped them to reveal the contents inside. Shock and immense astonishment tore through Emberflame, Kushanku and the other kids when they saw that the contents revealed to be a bundle of apples and meat.

"Hey, where did you get those apples and that hunk of meat!?" blurted out Amberpaw and with that, she jumped down from the bed and rushed over to examine the food closer. Paddy stepped in the Cheetah cub's path.

"We received it from a group of Cockatrices, Chickens and a young Kitsune fox," the pink, orange and red Nekomata replied.

"Yes, while we were on our way to here, they dropped by and gave us those cloth-bags containing the apples and dumb chicken meat," continued Alexandrite.

"The Kitsune cub told us that she and her comrades had sneaked up on a group of patrolling Kappa while they were talking and had snaffled some of their bags of food they had had with them," continued Cyril with a small, smug smile on his Eagle-like beak.

"And now they are distributing it amongst the villagers," added Desdemona. Link the Peryton nodded in agreement. This was replied by a silent astonishment of Emberflame, Kushanku and the other kids, and also Shadewing who had dropped from his perch to gaze at the food Alexandrite and her group had brought in shock, his grief over the Fighting League briefly pushed aside. Then finally, Emberflame broke the silence.

"That patrol group of Kappa, and also the Queen herself, will NOT be pleased to hear that their food had been snaffled," muttered the Pyro.

"Yes, you could be SEVERELY punished for stealing food from the Queen's patrollers," put in Amberpaw. Kushanku, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira just exchanged glances and shrugged. However, due to their ravenous hunger, the nine kids went forward, took the apples and the meat from the bags and began to dig in. As they did that, the adamant and smug looks remained on the faces of Alexandrite and her four comrades.

"If that beastly MONSTER Witch of a Queen once to have us put to death or turned to stone, then so be it," growled Desdemona disdainfully, "We don't care what stupid laws regarding our food OR of the consequences she decides to throw at us."

"Yeah, especially with the amount of food those MONSTERS have served on their tables on the TV at our (Growler and Soran's) house and how they are gorging themselves on it," put in Alexandrite.

"As long as we try and keep as many individuals from death by starvation for as long as possible then we should be okay," added Cyril but Shadewing crossed his membranous wings and shook his head in utter disapproval.

"No, it is NOT okay, you five," he snapped, "That Kitsune and her cronies SHOULDN'T have snaffled that fruit and meat from the Kappa in the first place. It is THEIR food and we are to honour the Queen with our ninety percent sacrifices whether we like it or not…"

"And then what?" Paddy rhetorically interrupted, "Have us starve to death in this frigid, ongoing winter," she gestured with a paw to outside through the window which was now snowing once again, before her voice changed to a more disdainful and outraged tone, "A LOT of poor creatures are STARVING and STRUGGLING to SURVIVE in these HORRIBLE WINTERY CONDITIONS, and even as we speak, some of them are actually DYING from either the cold OR lack of food," then Padparadscha's ears lowered, as did Alexandrite's, "When Alexandrite and I were kits, our father eventually died from the cold and we were given to some forest Elves who then took us to Mr Growler and Mrs Silver-Ears to raise as part of their family."

The words that came out of the orange, pink and red Nekomata's mouth seemed to move Shadewing and made his eyes threaten to ooze more tears, as some of his closest friends in a roost of Bats he used to live with had suffered the same demise, either in a blizzard or just from the freezing cold itself.

"Yes, you don't know what heartbreak this winter is causing everyone," continued Alexandrite, before the colourfully green, sea green and pink and red Nekomata shook her head bitterly, "Not to mention this Fighting League that's going on, and I tell you something, hundreds MORE hearts are about to break once those poor selected creatures are savagely killed in the arena…"

As Alexandrite spoke these words, Shadewing began to shudder and whimper. Kushanku, as he munched on an apple, gazed at the Bat as he continued to tremble and breathe in and out rapidly.

"Mr Shadewing?" he asked with concern. Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona looked on with surprise as Emberflame left her lamp and put a fire hand on Shadewing's shoulder to try and quell his nerves and panic.

"Are you okay?" asked Crystal as she fed on another apple.

"Was it something I've said?" asked Alexcandrite as regret boiled within her. Emberflame shot the colourful Nekomata a glare.

"Look, just get outa here and return to Soran's house, will you!?" growled the Pyro as she tried to comfort the upset Shadewing as the Bat began to cry his heart out again, "You've landed yourself in enough trouble as it is already."

"Yeah, you're not welcome here, anyway," put in Amberpaw as she ate some of the meat.

"Thanks for the food, though," put in Nyarth as he shoved a piece of apple down his throat, much to Emberflame's disgust but not at his manners. Alexandrite then turned a disapproving eye to Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, "Well, if you think our Kitsune friend and her friends are reckless in stealing food from that so-called Queen's patrollers, what about that Nekomata over there," she nodded to Nyarth, "who tried chasing down that horrible Black Dwarf and his cronies when they were taking away the selected villagers, among them Soran and Gingerfur?"

"Pretty daring, if you ask me," said Desdemona, "I would have done that too to rescue Soran and the others."

Cyril and Link nodded in agreement while Alexandrite and Paddy just stood there, paws on their hips and a frown directed at Kushanku and his siblings. Then Emberflame decided that the presence of the Griffin, Hippogriff, the two Nekomata and the Peryton youngsters had gone on long enough. Leaving Shadewing's side to let him have another cry, the Pyro glided over to the five members from Soran's family and began to guide them through the corridor, through the main living quarters of Dashiell's den and straight out the front door so that Dashiell and the other adults in there could witness their disallowed presence and tell them off.

"Come on, you five," said Emberflame as she put a fire arm around Alexandrite's back and began to lead her towards the door and prompt Paddy, Cyril, Desdemona and Link to follow, "Out you go."

As the Pyro guided the five out of the door, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Dahlia and Snowwing, who were still eating, followed. Shadewing looked up tearfully and saw the nine kids follow Emberflame through the door.

"Oi, you nine!" said the Bat despite his wounded heart still bleeding, "Get back here!"

With that, he abandoned his spot and followed.

Meanwhile, in the living compartment of the main living quarters, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Rosemary the Monkey, Chiseltooth the Beaver, Rubyfeather the Parrot, Rosebush, Spikeball, Thorn and Quill the Hedgehogs, Mensa the Skvader and Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes were anticipating the start of the main part of the Fighting League. On the magical TV screen, the Tenome and the Wolf continued to narrate the scenes.

"We are now ready for the main part of the Fighting League," said the Tenome excitedly, her hand-eyes flashing between the 'camera' and the scene, which seemed to be some type of parade, "Our selected fighters are just being transported by sleighs to the arena now, and BOY, what a sight…"

"Indeed it is, Aku no," said the Wolf as he also gazed at the parade-like scene, "Her Majesty's followers are absolutely CHEERING and SCREAMING for the fighters as they pass by on their way to the arena…"

The scene consisted of a crowd of the Queen's cronies, and that crowd was divided into two with a gap slicing through them. In that gap were the sleighs, and on those sleighs being pulled by yule goats and reindeer, were the selected participants for the Fighting League. Dashiell then squinted to try and find Gingerfur as the Hedgehogs began to examine some of the faces of the creatures in the sleighs shown up close by the magical camera.

"Many of them look terrified and fearful," whispered Rosebush with sympathy.

"But some of them look determined," said Thorn as he examined the faces of some of the creatures.

"Aren't they even homesick or terrified?" asked Quill. Then Spikeball squinted at the faces of the creatures in the sleighs.

"From what I can tell," he told his two brothers and cousin, "All I seem to see is determination and aggression in the faces of quite a few of those creatures, rather than terror or fear."

The other three Hedgehogs shot Spikeball a disbelieving look. Rosemary, Mensa and Chiseltooth did the same.

"Are you meaning to say…?" began Rosemary but the Monkey trailed off as the look of dread formed on Spikeball's face. Then Rosemary felt the same feeling of dread well within her as a deduction of the apparent aggression in the eyes of some of the creatures also dawned within the Monkey, but it was a deduction she didn't like at all. Then soon, the magic camera, flanked by the Tenome named Aku no, and the Wolf, panned to the arena. At the entrance to the corridor, Emberflame continued to usher Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Desdemona and Link towards the door but the five members of Soran's family kept talking back. Honeycomb flashed a glance at the commotion and turned back to the magic TV.

"I think Alexandrite and the other four with her are in deep trouble," muttered the female Cheetah.

"Look at the arena!" gasped Hopper in astonishment.

The arena was an amazing sight. It was a massive, stretched rectangular construction but with rounded curves at its ends rather than straight with sharp corners as in a true rectangle. The walls of the construct were seats and it was filling up with the Queen's followers. Not too far away, Crystal happened to gaze in the direction of the TV and when she saw the construct, she saw that the walls formed stands for the spectators but the centre of the arena, the actual site for the main fight, was a complex construction with a variety of terrains. One part of the terrain was a flat clearing with nothing but snow with no obstacles in it whatsoever but the other sections contained vastly different terrains and obstacles. Another section resembled a small forest, or thicket, with a cluster of dead-looking, leafless trees growing within it but then Crystal noticed some spiky forms at the foot of the trees.

'Thorn-bushes,' thought the Parrot chick. Behind her, Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Nyarth, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia appeared and also gazed at the arena while nearby, Alexandrite and the other four with her continued to argue with Emberflame. Shadewing then emerged but the moment the Bat's eyes landed on the crystalline TV, panic began to take hold of him once again.

The other terrains of the arena consisted of another clearing but rather than solid ground blanketed with snow, this one was shiny ice and under that ice was a lake of water. There was also a rocky zone, similar to the rugged, mountain terrain our world's hikers would be familiar with; a zone dotted with very sharp, jagged rocks, and yet another zone with large block walls positioned at various points within it.

"So is THAT the arena in which the fighters have to fight?" asked Kushanku as he continued to eat an apple.

"It looks _dangerous_ ," murmured Sandstorm timidly. Behind Kushanku's group, Shadewing continued to shudder. His eyes were bulging out of their sockets and his teeth were gritted, and his fur was practically spiked out like a hedgehog's spines. Nearby Emberflame continued to argue with Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Desdemona and Link. The Pyro was unaware that the nine kids were about to watch the Fighting League unfold.

"The whole system is completely UNFAIR, Miss Emberflame," retorted Alexandrite angrily, "How is it that those GLUTTONOUS creatures of that so-called Queen have so much food while EVERYONE out here is starving and struggling to find enough to EAT!"

"Don't you DARE call the Queen the so-called Queen, young lady!" snapped Emberflame. However, the Pyro flinched with disgust as Alexandrite let loose a scoffing snort at the remark, as did Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona. Nearby, the adults continued to watch the opening events of the Fighting League.

"In they go," said Dashiell as the sleighs took the fighters in through the stand section of the arena. The Queen and her cronies also entered the arena but will be walking up to the stands, where they took their seats, the Queen in a large, most impressive seat made from pure crystalline ice that glinted in the wintery sun, but don't think of admiring the Queen's seat for its beauty! Then after another good while and with Emberflame STILL arguing with an incredibly stubborn Alexandrite and her four comrades and Kushanku and company including a very panic-stricken Shadewing watching, the Fighting League's main event was eventually set up and good to go. The several hundreds of fighters, among them Gingerfur and Soran whom Dashiell and the other adults still cannot find in the crowd, were set up and poised to be launched into the arena while the stands were finally full to capacity, the cheers of the Queen's cronies flooding the air, and various limbs from the crowd (arms, wings, cloaked arms as in the Shadows, etc) waving wildly.

"Okay, here we go!" cooed Gangyu the Tenome with angst, "I can't WAIT for the action to start!"

"Yes," said the Wolf, "The Bunyips, Manticores and the Bat-Harpies are now starting the countdown to the release of our awesome fighters' release into the arena now."

The camera then showed a group of Bat-Harpies, Manticores (lion-like creatures with a humanoid or ape-like face, a scorpion's tail and bat-like wings; the males possessing larger manes than the females) and the Bunyips (shaggy swamp creatures resembling a cross between a sloth and an otter and with massively clawed hands) then lifted another crystalline screen (the Bunyips being carried by either the Manticores or the Bat-Harpies and holding the crystal slab) showing the countdown numbers to release, starting from 20. Dashiell and his group, and countless other Narnian creatures either living in their homes or gathered outside watching the giant crystalline screens, watched with increasing nervousness as the countdown went from 19 down to 15. There was a deathly silence, both over the arena as the crowd of watchers fell silent, and in the air above the Narnians watching either from their own homes, such as Dashiell and his family's den, or the bigger crowds of Narnians gathered around the large crystalline screens up and down the country.

The countdown soon passed ten and was now in the single digits, and the anticipation was mounting within every watcher: excitement for the Queen and her cronies, immense nervousness or extreme fright for the participants and worry and fright for the Narnians watching either in the few homes that had a magical TV, or those that had gathered in bigger crowds around the larger screens. Then within moments, the countdown reached 0 and as soon as it did, a Manticore rose into the air and let loose a piercing scream to signal to the releasers, those that had been put in charge of the fighters' release, then lowered the barriers to the fighters, which had been set up to prevent the fighters from running out of the sleighs, and within moments, all the several hundred selected participants, among them Gingerfur and Soran, charged into the arena like an avalanche of snow.

The third Decadal Fighting League, which had been established during the Queen's fifth year of ruling Narnia, had begun.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14- the horrors of the Fighting League**

 **I must warn you; this chapter is quite dark and disturbing although the horrors and extreme violence of the Queen's Decadal Fighting League will only be touched upon**

The fighters continued to pour into the arena from the sleighs at the stands' base like flowing snow and soon, that avalanche consisting of fur, feathers, and scales either on legs or no legs at all, such as Snakes, then diverged and spread out into the clearing section of arena as the cheering watchers, the Queen and a vast majority of her cronies, watched on. In Dashiell's den, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Rosemary, Chiseltooth, Rubyfeather, Rosebush, Spikeball, Thorn, Quill, Mensa, Hopper and Daisytail watched on in angst and utter dread as the participants continued to diverge further out into the clearing region of the arena, the Tenome and the Wolf narrating and commentating the whole action as it happened. Nearby, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Sandstorm and Amberpaw also watched on with a constantly trembling and highly hysterical Shadewing. Close by this group, Emberflame continued to argue and quarrel with Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona and Cyril as the five continued to slander and even spew highly caustic, disparaging remarks about the Queen much to the Pyro's utter horror and outrage, but it was not outrage against the five's disrespect for the Queen, but out of fear for the five's safety and their very lives. If you slandered Jadis this way, you will surely find yourself in a life-threatening situation.

"And there they go," cried the Tenome named Aku no with a thrilled voice, her hand-eyes on the action of the fighters diverging more into the arena's clearing region, "Look at 'em pour into the battlefield where they will then turn on each other and then proceed in the fight of a lifetime…"

"That's right, and it WILL be an EPIC fight indeed, as it is the fight for the prize the Queen has promised them and their families," said the Wolf near Aku no in agreement and enthusiasm. From Kushanku's group, Amberpaw tried to find Gingerfur in the crowd on the magic TV.

"Where's our brother in that crowd?" she asked as she scanned the hundreds of various creatures as they continued to diverge out. However, due to the distance of the magic camera from the fighters, she was having trouble in picking out her brother.

"Well, he's in there somewhere," said Sandstorm in a concern and angst-laced voice. The various creatures continued to diverge more out into the arena's clearing section until they finally changed direction and charged towards each other. However, what happened next in the arena as the fighters prepared to battle against each other, threw everything into absolute chaos. Dashiell and his family, and all the other watchers in Narnia either watching in gatherings in front of giant magic TV screens or the smaller versions of the TV in the lucky few creatures' own homes, then watched the fighters as most of them continued to close in on each other while a few of them continued running towards the other terrain divisions of the arena, such as the forest and the mountain-like areas, and further away from the rest of the competitors. Then within moments, the fighters that ran towards each other clashed.

Dashiell and the others in the den flinched violently as the sounds of screeching, squawking, growls and shouts erupted into the air above the arena on the TV, which then exploded out of the screen, and the violent flinching and even cries of horror also erupted from the other crowds of watching Narnians standing before the giant screens as well. The screams were accompanied by the sounds of paws, hands clenched into fists, and hooves slamming brutally into bodies, claws slashing and raking over skin, teeth and beaks biting and much more. That was when the TRUE horrors of the Fighting League were unleashed, as on the screen, and the other screens set up around the frozen land of Narnia as well as the TV screens in the other homes that had one, the fighters began to gorily, brutally and bloodily bite, punch, kick, slash, scratch, and you name it at each other like wild, dumb beasts, most of them without a second thought for their actions. This resulted in blood, lots of it, flying everywhere on the arena, to the utter horror of Dashiell and the other watchers, including those up and down Narnia but to the immense cheers of the Queen's throng as they relished the savage, gory or, put in our world's words, gladiatorial, fight to the death. The fight was so violent that I will not go into details but to touch on it, it was extremely sanguinary and utterly graphic, much like a splatter horror film. This was one of the biggest reasons why so many Narnians dreaded the Queen's Decadal Fighting League, but the effects of seeing the sanguinary gore of the activity were especially devastating on the families whose members had been selected for this HORRIBLE, IMMORAL event. Honestly, you can't bear to imagine the sheer terror and anguish those poor Narnian families who had been unfortunate enough to have one of their members forcibly selected and entered into the arena of death by the Queen and her cronies in the past two Fighting Leagues watching the scenes, much less those loved members of theirs, be it a mate, a son, daughter, close friend, and so on, get gruesomely slaughtered in the dreadful place by the other competitors.

As the sanguinary fight continued to rage, Dashiell and the other adults had screened their faces with their front paws, hands or wings to avoid taking in the gory details, but the scenes had a particularly devastating effect on Kushanku and the others, especially a certain Bat that stood by. As they took in the sheer violence on the screen, Akira let loose an extremely piercing scream that was shrill enough to shatter our world's glass and dashed off into the sleeping quarters; Sandstorm's paw went to his mouth and the skin under his spotted golden facial fur faded to a deathly pale green colour. His cheeks puffed out and his stomach felt like it had taken a nasty punch. Then Sandstorm darted off as nausea reached critical. Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia also let loose piercing screams and darted for the corridor and the sleeping quarters after Akira; Satoshi and Amberpaw dashed after Sandstorm as nausea also gripped them, Nyarth ran off for the sleeping quarters as well but collapsed on the way as the overwhelming shock of the sanguinary violence from the fight on the screen overwhelmed him, and Kushanku, extreme shock, the biggest shock he had EVER experienced in his life, tearing through him like a massive electric current, made the branches of his forked tail twist and spin without him thinking about it. Then Kushanku jumped into the air with a massive cat screech of pure terror and entered a tail-spinning powered hover like he did before. This was noticed by Emberflame as she happened to turn her fiery face in his direction; a "Huh?" left her fire mouth and her fiery eyes flashed a look of surprise. However, that flash of surprise was immediately extinguished when the Pyro saw what Kushanku was gazing at.

"So THAT'S what the Fighting League is about!?" cried the Nekomata as he hovered in the air by his spinning split tail, "The participants literally and gorily slashing and beating each other to death and _spilling blood!?"_

Nearby, Shadewing's hysteria had finally reached critical and he was soon on the edge of a massive break down, the biggest he had ever entered since the Fighting League event had been announced and broadcasted by Romulus some days before. Nearby, Desdemona, Alexandrite, Cyril, Link and Paddy had also darted off into hiding, not wanting to see or hear the disturbingly gory fight, as well as the fighters practically tearing each other apart resulting in blood flying everywhere, on the TV screen any longer, and Desdemona had emitted a piercing eagle cry of terror as the five rushed off. Then Shadewing, trembling violently, entered a devastated trance as a torrent of traumatising memories flowed back.

"That was what we saw on TV during the previous Fighting League ten years ago when me and my mate Silvermoon's son Firewing was forced into that pit of doom with hundreds of other poor creatures, some of them only youngsters," murmured the Bat in utter anguish, his eyes inflated out of their sockets with the left one secreting a tear and sending it running down his left cheek. Kushanku, at this, descended to the floor from his propeller-tailed hover and touched down, and then shot Shadewing a curious gaze.

"Is this how you lost your son?" he asked shakily, the extreme horror of seeing the violence threatening to make him shout, "He was slaughtered in that arena in the previous Fighting League?"

Shadewing did not reply but continued to moan, hyperventilate and tremble violently, especially as the torrent of heart-breaking memories continued to flash through his head. He saw an image of his son, whom Kushanku was now named Firewing, being forced from his (Shadewing's) and his mate's side by a couple of Goblins and forced into a sleigh. Shadewing also heard his son's anguished cries and the cries of his mate standing beside him, as well as visions of his son flailing and trying to free himself from the wicked creatures' grasp, only to be restrained by a couple of Wendigoes in the sleigh.

"Mr Shadewing?" asked Kushanku as Shadewing continued to shudder and hyperventilate.

"This was what happened to my son Firewing… and also hundreds of other poor creatures… th-they were forced from their families… and then forced to fight against each other in this… totally… blood-soaked…" the Bat murmured, his eyes constantly weeping tears as he continued to gaze at the graphic violence as his anguish continued to boil, resulting in his voice raising to a bellow, "…IMMORAL… EVENT…" then an image of seeing the violent scenes from the previous fight, like the one occurring now, flashed in his mind when he used to live with his roost of other Bats, and Shadewing thought he saw an image of his son, Firewing, get gruesomely killed in one of the flashes.

"Why aren't you responding?" cried Kushanku pleadingly and with concern. Then a disturbing, gory sound, accompanied by a scream of agony, exploded from the TV, indicating one of the fighters getting gruesomely killed while the sounds of fists, claws, beaks and jaws striking flesh continued with the sounds of the cheering throng of the Queen's cronies in the stands in the background erupting continuously, jolted the Nekomata again and made him gaze in utter horror at the scene. However, Kushanku knew this was a very foolish move and regretted looking in the TV's direction, as what he saw made him flinch violently. The flinch was violent enough to make his stomach lurch; followed by the familiar feeling of his food threatening to come back up the same way it went in, the exact same feeling that had come upon Sandstorm and a few other kids a minute ago.

"Th-th-they were forced to fight over for… some… stupid prize of a… better life…" continued Shadewing, "All at the… expense of… the lives of others… this is wrong… this is SOO WRONG AND EVIL…"

Kushanku then felt his stomach threaten to disgorge, so he fought against the urge to be sick and keep his meal, that had been brought to him by Alexandrite and the other four from the Kitsune and her comrades who had managed to pinch it from one of the Queen's patrollers, down and prevent it from going to waste. However, he was clearly struggling for the nausea was very powerful. As he continued to wrestle with his stomach, he gazed at Shadewing as he continued to shake, more and more violently and hyperventilate more and more rapidly. Nearby, Emberflame also gazed at the sanguinary scenes of the fight and she also shuddered, the flames forming her body trembling violently. The Pyro wanted to scream but could not for she was too gripped by sheer terror at the blood and gore of the scenes.

"A-a-and my s-s-son was one of those cr-cr-creatures… who lost his life in that… he was slashed… slashed… slashed… in the… I-I-I'm sorry, Kushanku," murmured Shadewing as his anguish reached boiling point, and the moment it did, the Bat put his membranous wings on his head and let loose a piercing, hysterical wail, before falling to his knees.

"Mr Shadewing," cried Kushanku again as he continued to wrestle against the urge to puke as the violent fight continued on the TV with Dashiell and the other adults too stricken and gripped with utter terror to turn round and bark at Kushanku to avert his eyes and leave to somewhere, "What's UP WITH YOU!?"

Then the Nekomata tried to call Dashiell or one of the other adults to come and help Shadewing, "SOMEONE, HELP! MR SHADEWING'S HAVING ANOTHER MELTDOWN!"

As the terror-gripped Nekomata screeched out these words, Shadewing, finally overcome by the anguish, devastation and trauma of the fight on the TV, as well as the massive torrent of memories of the demise of his son, followed by the death of his mate who had apparently died of a broken heart, finally fell forward onto his front. Kushanku's shouts then penetrated some of the adults in Dashiell's group, and Rosemary was pulled back to her senses. Seeing Shadewing on his front, the Monkey leapt from her seat and rushed over to the Bat's side. Hopper, Daisytail, Mensa, Rosebush, Thorn, Spikeabll and Quill followed. As the four Hedgehogs, the Jackalope couple and the Skvader turned up, Emberflame shot them a furious and urgent glare, especially when she saw Kushanku continue to struggle against his urge to puke, resulting in him retching once or twice.

"GATHER THE KIDS INCLUDING KUSHANKU OVER THERE and GET THEM TO THE SLEEPING QUARTERS, NOW!" shouted the Pyro at the top of her voice, "THEY should NOT be SEEING THAT GORE! AND ALSO GET SHADEWING OUTA HERE!"

Rosemary nodded in obedience and set to work, seizing the fainted Shadewing with her hands and hoisting the Bat onto her shoulders, she turned to Rosebush and the other six standing with her, "Gather the kids including Alexandrite and the other four, and guide them into the sleeping quarters at ONCE!"

Rosebush and her group nodded and scattered to find the kids and bring them to the sleeping quarters while Rosemary, with Shadewing on her shoulders, then went over to the retching Kushanku and barked at him to leave for the sleeping quarters. Kushanku, the skin under his icy powder metallic blue facial fur a sickly green colour, his eyes half a sleep and tongue hanging out, nodded obediently and left for the department with Rosemary following. Within moments, Rosebush and her three cousins Thorn, Quill and Spikeball and also Hopper, Daisytail and Mensa, had managed to find Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Satoshi, Alexandrite, Desdemona, Link, Cyril and Paddy and round them up. Now the group was leading the eight kids to the sleeping quarters and well away from the sanguinary violence that was happening on the screen in the Fighting League arena. Dashiell then went to try and turn off the TV but to his utmost horror and dismay, he realised that the controls were not working.

"Gah, why isn't the TV remote working?" bellowed the Cheetah in frustration, "WHY CAN'T WE CONTROL IT!?"

"I think our control of the magic TVs has been removed so that we could see the event!?" asked Rubyfeather. At this, Dashiell shot the Parrot a dreaded look. Then Honeycomb shot Rosebush's group an urgent glare.

"Make sure those kids don't see the scenes!" barked Dashiell's mate as Rosebush guided her group and the kids, their eyes covered either by their own paws, talons or the paws of the adults, towards the corridor leading to the sleeping quarters. Rosebush nodded obediently.

"Can you switch off the TV?" she called back as she helped Satoshi, her paw covering his face, along.

"It's somehow been _rigged_ ," retorted Chiseltooth as he tried to help the other adults to turn off the TV.

"Just GET THOSE KIDS TO THE SLEEPING QUARTERS, NOW!" yelled Dashiell angrily. Rosebush nodded and barked at her three cousins, Hopper, Mensa and Daisytail who had Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Alexandrite, Desdemona, Link, Cyril and Paddy in their clutches and their faces covered, to follow her into the corridor while Dashiell continued to struggle to turn the TV off (you can imagine who or what is preventing them from doing so). However as the last of Rosebush's group entered the corridor, Mensa and Link tripped and fell. Rosebush as she ushered the others into the corridor, saw the Skvader and the young Peryton collapse on their front. With a gasp of horror escaping her mouth, the Hedgehog went to help the pair to their feet.

"Get that young Peryton to the sleeping quarters NOW!" bellowed Dashiell as he and the others with him, including Emberflame, struggled to turn off the TV. Then Emberflame arrived at one conclusion.

"I'm afraid the TV has been magically blocked to ensure that the Fighting League's violent scenes are broadcasted to us," she said despairingly. Chiseltooth, at this, emitted a frustrated cry of annoyance, saying the name of the Great Lion in the process, which was a naughty thing to do. Rosebush then helped Mensa and Link to their feet but during this, the Peyrton fawn's gaze happened to turn directly towards the TV as Dashiell and his group struggled in vain to turn it off… and the violent scenes of the fighters savagely and gorily killing each other. The moment the Bird-Deer's eyes made contact with those sanguinary scenes, a piercing scream exploded from his mouth as the extreme horror and terror at the scenes and the fighters killing each other ignited within him. Rosebush and Mensa saw Link gaze and scream at the TV.

"Avert your EYES, LINK," shouted Rosebush, "AVERT YOUR EYES!"

Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth, Rubyfeather and Emberflame continued to struggle to turn off the magical TV while Link continued to scream in extreme terror at the violence of the fight.

Up and down Narnia, the watching Narnians and those with TVs in their own homes were facing the same problems. The TVs had also been magically blocked to prevent them from getting turned off while the gathered crowds stood before the larger screens were prevented from leaving by some of the Queen's cronies that had organised the gatherings. Link continued to scream at the violence until finally, a paw was swung over his eyes as Mensa had rushed in and seized him. Then the Skvader began to drag the traumatised Peyrton towards the corridor with Rosebush's help.

"Rosebush, Mensa, GET THAT PERYTON TO THE SLEEPING QUARTERS NOW!" bellowed Emberflame. The pair obeyed and dragged Link, who was trembling and shaking violently with terrified whimpers from the violence leaving his mouth, into the corridor and towards the sleeping quarters. With all the kids including the five from Soran's family safely removed, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth, Rubyfeather and Emberflame continued to work on turning off the TV but to no avail.

 **Around five hours later**

Several hours had passed since the fighters had been released into the arena which was followed by an over-the-top; sanguinary bloodbath, and by now only a few dozen of the competitors remained (and a great number of Narnian hearts would have been torn in two by now). Obviously the number of fighters, which had been several hundred at the start, had massively dropped and eventually plateaued as fewer fighters remained. The violent bloodbath was one of the sick Queen and her cronies' favourite parts of the Fighting League as they enjoyed the poor selected Narnians, regardless of whether they were young or old, related such as siblings or cousins, or even close friends, slaughter each other, but their other favourite part was when the moment of truth approaches. That is, when the victor eventually emerges. Amongst the few remaining fighters left, Soran and Gingerfur continued to struggle on. In Dashiell's den, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather continued to watch the remaining fighters as they continued to hunt down and kill each other in the other terrains, such as the forest and mountainous ones. Emberflame had returned to the sleeping quarters to help Rosebush and the other adults to look after the kids, some of them badly traumatised by the bloodbath such as Kushanku and Link, and because the Pyro did not want to watch the Fighting League any longer, especially after Dashiell and the others had given up trying to switch the TV off and had been forced to watch the League continue since the TV system had been magically rigged to prevent the watchers from turning it off.

In the arena on the TV, as well as the bigger screens shown to the larger crowds of Narnians prevented from escaping by some of the Queen's patrollers, Gingerfur, who was bloodied and had been hiding amongst the rocks and trees of the rocky and forest terrain sections of the arena while the massacre had happened, then began to make his move. Dashiell, Honeycomb, Rubyfeather and Chiseltooth watched on desperately as the young Cheetah cub, his face laced with agony, extreme terror and black fear then abandoned his hiding place to find another spot to hide. However, the cub soon found himself confronted by a Manticore who then began to chase him in the direction of the other remaining fighters. As the number of fighters decreased and some of them go into hiding, some of the Queen's cronies were sometimes sent into the arena to influence the direction of the fighters and make sure that they did not stay in hiding for too long. As the remaining fighters continued to hunt each other down like wild animals, resulting in a savage mini-battle when they crossed paths, the Queen and the rest of the audience in the stands continued to cheer and wail with extreme enthusiasm while the Tenome and the Wolf continued to commentate and narrate the events.

"That Cheetah cub has been hiding from the bloodbath and from the other fighters for too long now," said the Tenome named Aku no as she watched the Manticore then drive Gingerfur towards one or two of the hunting fighters, "It is time for him to face some action."

Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather watched on in angst as Gingerfur was forced towards a couple of his opponents, sheer terror clearly written all over his pained face. Gingerfur continued to run from the Manticore until he bumped into something furry. At this, the cub stopped dead and found himself gazing into the eyes of a familiar Dog. It was Soran, and he was wearing a murderous look on his bloodied face, much to the utter horror of Dashiell and the other three. How could this BE!? Soran was one of Gingerfur's closest friends, and yet he seemed to have a murderous intent towards him. To make things worse, it was clear that Soran had been involved in the sanguinary massacre a few hours ago, for his mouth was completely bloodied and the fur on his face and front was blood-stained with a few feathers hanging from him here and there, indicative that he had mauled and slaughtered the members that had been birds or part-birds, like a Griffin or a Skvader, who had been forced into this horrible pit of doom. Then Dashiell and the other three with him watched on as the Manticore, satisfied that he had managed to force Gingerfur towards one of his opponents, backed away and Soran launched himself at the Cheetah cub. Gingerfur, terror flaring within him, jumped aside, making Soran miss and plunge into the snowy ground. However, the Dog, who was clearly influenced by the desire to win the better life prize promised by the Queen, then whirled round and leapt at Gingerfur again and this time, he hit home.

"Look at the puppy go!" cried the Wolf as Soran and Gingerfur barrelled down a snowy slope in a whirlwind of deep orange, black and grey fur, their teeth and claws striking at each other, coming to rest at the foot of the small hill near a thorn-bush, "and now watch the pair as they circle each other and launch into a vicious fight."

Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather worriedly watched on as Gingerfur and Soran, their teeth bared, fur flared out, ears flattened and their glares fixing daggers or rather, sabre-teeth, with each other, then circled. However, Gingerfur soon changed his mind at the last second, turned tail and fled through the black, half-dead trees as Soran lunged towards him, only to miss and plunge into the thorn-bush.

"OOOH!" cried Aku no as she and the Wolf flinched and watched Soran then painfully writhe struggle out of the bush, the thorns digging into his skin, with thrill, "What quick-thinking the Cheetah cub had there. Now look at him dash like mad through the forest…"

"Yeah, but he's still gotta fight against his opponents though," said the Wolf, "There's no point running from your opponents all the time if you're gonna survive to the end."

Then Soran hacked and bit his way out of the thorn-bush, ignoring the pain caused by the needle-sharp thorns pricking his skin like tiny teeth and the scratches forming from them on his skin and drawing some blood, and viciously gave chase after Gingerfur, a few pieces of thorny strands hanging from his head and legs.

Gingerfur continued dashing through the forest, terror and desperation on his face as well as the pain from his injuries yelling at him to slow down but the Cheetah cub, flooded with adrenaline, continued to rush on. He came across a trio of fighters consisting of a grown Bear, a young Pig (not Trotterhoof) and a young Camel, apparently a Calf close to adolescence, as the three savagely fought against each other with the Bear gruesomely killing the Camel and forcing the Pig to back away. Terrified, Gingerfur continued to dash on, especially as he heard a loud bark behind him, indicating the presence of Soran not too far away. This was the biggest nightmare and THE most traumatic event Gingerfur had EVER faced in his life, and it was basically the biggest form of pain, torture and trauma added to his forced separation from Dashiell and his family and thrown into the arena to be faced with a massive slaughtering massacre, and wanted out of the arena here and now, regardless of whether he wanted the promise of a better life promised to him and his family by the Queen or not. Flooded with extreme terror, Gingerfur resumed his flight from the crazed Soran. The chase continued on through the trees until finally, Gingerfur exploded from the forest and into another terrain section of the arena. However, this terrain, unlike the terrains surrounding it, was shiny, flat and smooth, like our world's glass, and Gingerfur found this out when his paws suddenly began to slip and slide on it, much to his alarm.

Not too far away, there was a massive slaughterhouse; the bodies of the fallen fighters, slain during the opening hours of the Fighting League, and their blood colouring the snow bright red. To add to the carnage, several of the Queen's cronies, among them Wendigoes and Werewolves, had come to enjoy the buffet of the carcases, much like how vultures feasted on the carcases in our world, and that sent a MASSIVE wave of disgust tearing through Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather, as well as the other watchers up and down Narnia, as they watched the disgusting creatures feast on the carcases of the fallen fighters. For some of the families that had been selected to give one of their members for the Fighting League, this was the final nail in the coffin. While the Wendigoes and the other meat-eating cronies of the Queen continued to feast on the deceased fighters' bodies, Gingerfur continued to struggle back to dry land, his claws struggling to grip the smooth, glasslike surface of the terrain, which turned out to be the frozen lake. As the Cheetah cub continued to slip and slide back in the direction of the forest, he was met face to face with the shadow of what was once his best Dog friend, and in that Dog's eyes were not sympathy, but sheer madness and insanity.

"Fight me, Gingerfur!" growled Soran fiercely, his teeth bared and saliva dripping from his mouth. However, Gingerfur refused, clearly not wanting to fight his best friend even if he had plunged into pure sanity.

"I said FIGHT ME!" snarled Soran again, sending chills down Gingerfur's spine. Still Gingerfur refused. Watching from Dashiell's den, Dashiell and the other three with them looked on in angst.

"Don't, son," murmured Gingerfur's father. However, Gingerfur, after another few more minutes of hesitation and maintaining his balance on the slippery ice, timidly raised his paw, flared its claws and brought it down onto Soran's face, carving four claw marks into the Dog's face and knocking him back. Gingerfur, at this, immediately snapped back into reality as guilt set in at what he had done, especially as he watched his Dog friend rise to his feet and glare at the Cheetah cub bitterly, his face streaked with four fresh claw marks that oozed blood. As the Dog rose to his feet and sauntered furiously towards him, Gingerfur timidly whimpered, "I-I'm sorry, Soran, I'm s-s-s-so sorry…"

Nearby, some of the Queen's cronies watched in sheer excitement as Soran, with a massive howl, crouched and then launched himself without a second thought at the Cheetah cub. Gingerfur did not have time to get out of the way when he was struck down by Soran and sent into another tumble, further out into the frozen lake terrain of the arena. Then the Cheetah cub and the Dog began to viciously exchange savage bites and claw slashing as they continued to roll out further into the ice, to the cheers of the watching of the Queen's cronies nearby. Elsewhere, the other remaining fighters continued to brawl savagely.

As Gingerfur and Soran continued to exchange bites and clawing, inflicting more puncture and claw marks on each other with drops of blood flying everywhere, a CRACK sounded underneath the brawling pair. Immense excitement tore through the watching cronies of the Queen nearby, while Dashiell and his group felt extreme dread. Honeycomb immediately deduced one thing about the frozen lake's ice.

"The ice is thin," she said in a low voice. Indeed it was. The ice under the brawling Soran and Gingerfur was indeed thin and under that ice, was a tank of freezing cold water. It seemed that the water of the frozen lake part of the arena had been purposely melted in order to add to the difficulties of any unfortunate fighter that ended up on its surface. However, the savagely brawling Cheetah cub and Dog puppy were too engrossed in their fight to notice the ice cracking under them. Those cracks, their cracking noises stabbing the air above the ice, expanded like claws in the direction of the brawling pair of animals as they continued to roll and joined each other until eventually, a ring of cracked ice surrounded Gingerfur and Soran. It was then that the pair realised that they were now in grave danger. Soran immediately leaped off of Gingerfur and began to make a mad dash for the forest adjacent to the frozen lake. Gingerfur did the same but because Soran had bitten his paws during the fight, the Cheetah cub was having sheer difficulty in catching up with Soran. As the Dog and the struggling Cheetah made a desperate rush for the nearest patch of dry land, the thin ice continued to crack and splinter. Gingerfur saw that the gap between him and Soran was increasing and that he was struggling to keep up due to his badly mauled front paws. He flinched as a massive crack sounded near him. That crack then suddenly fractured, forming an opening into the abyss of freezing water below, right behind the Cheetah cub. Gingerfur, terror flaring within him, then leaped onto the nearest piece of unbroken ice as the cracks around him opened up like fissures in the ground. Gingerfur, knowing he had to get to dry land pronto, then tried to jump from one large piece of ice to the next, but found it to be a struggle, especially with his badly wounded front paws that continued to bleed and send pain tearing through his nerves. While Gingerfur continued to struggle to stay ahead of the opening cracks and the abyss of the frigid water of the lake below, Soran had made it back to the forest, and dry land. The Dog then turned round and watched Gingerfur as he continued to struggle to stay ahead of the opening cracks. However, due to the sheer insanity to seize the promised prize from the Queen boiling within him and blinding him, Soran had no intentions of going back to helping Gingerfur. If he was his usually self, he would do just that, but because he was so bewitched by the thoughts of escaping the freezing cold and getting better food from Jadis with his family, he just ramined there and watched Gingerfur to get himself out of the icy mess.

As Gingerfur continued to struggle with more and more iced watery holes opening around him much to the horror of Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather watching from the den, the cub began to call out to Soran for help.

"SORAN, HELP ME!" cried the desperate Cheetah cub as another fissure opened right in front of him. Nearby, the watching cronies of the Queen nearest to him laughed maniacally and cheered for Soran as he continued to stand at the edge of the frozen lake gazing at Gingerfur nonchalantly. As the Cheetah cub continued to struggle towards him, the cracks and fissures eventually overwhelming and overtaking him such that he was now trapped, Soran just smirked and said, "Sorry, my Cheetah friend, nothing personal."

These words pierced Gingerfur's heart like an icicle and to add more needle-sharp shards of ice to the wound, Soran just turned round and bounded off into the forest, leaving Gingerfur to meet his fate. Then the desperation for help exploded within the Cheetah cub as the sheet of ice, which was now a thin iceberg, then slanted under him, plunging the cub's back legs into the freezing water. This sent a MASSIVE cold shock, far worse than ANY cold that Gingerfur had ever felt before; coursing through the Cheetah's body and the cub was sent into panic mode, especially as the thin iceberg tipped so much that his entire body was in the water.

"SORAN! SORAN! SORAAAAAN!" cried the cub as he began to violently splash and flail in the freezing, icicle-stabbing water and as Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather watched on in utter despair, Gingerfur struggled to try and latch onto any nearest slabs of ice he could find but as he began to try and haul himself out of the freezing lake, those ice slabs only broke and he plunged right back in.

"Ooh, looks like the Cheetah cub's gonna face an icy fate," said the Tenome with shock. However, it was not a dreaded shock, but a thrilled shock. That shock was replicated on the Wolf commentator as well. Dashiell, Honeycomb, Chiseltooth and Rubyfeather watching from the den then began to cry for Gingerfur to get out of the icy lake while the cronies nearby laughed and wailed with thrill at the Cheetah cub's constant struggles in the freezing water.

Then the Cheetah cub's moves and struggles began to get slower and slower…


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15- despair, and explosions of rage and anger**

Kushanku sat with his siblings Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, remaining two adopted Cheetah siblings Amberpaw and Sandstorm, and Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona and Cyril sat on the kids' bed, some of them still trembling from the sheer shock of seeing the sanguinary scenes of the fight on the magical TV. Some had even been sick and had to go outside into the freezing snowy cold through the window under Rosemary's supervision to throw up. However, Kushanku had managed to keep down his food while those that had been sick felt that their nausea has been eased. However, the threat of another throwing up episode still hung over them like a miasma.

Sitting with the fourteen kids in the sleeping compartment were Emberflame, Rosebush and her three siblings Thorn, Spikeball and Quill; Dahlia's parents Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes, Rosemary the Monkey, Snowwing's mother Mensa the Skvader, and Shadewing who had managed to come out of his hysterical faint. There was silence hanging over the group like a cloud, with some of them still trembling and whimpering with the aftereffects of the extreme shock of seeing the poor fighters kill each other gruesomely in Jadis's Fighting League arena, but Emberflame, Daisytail, Hopper and Rosemary were sat with their hands or paws on their faces while Mensa was tending to Shadewing who was uttering something to her. Kushanku tried to decipher what the Bat was saying to the adult Skvader but because he was not very good at lip-reading and because the Bat and the Skvader were talking in a low voice, he could not make out what they were saying or talking about. Suddenly, Amberpaw's voice snapped his gaze to the speaker.

"Do you still believe in that over-sized, shoddy-haired cat that apparently sung Narnia into existence, Kushanku?" growled the female Cheetah cub disdainfully, her scorn of the subject surfacing once again, "If so, then why did it allow such brutal suffering and this year-long winter to occur?" she gestured to the snowy outside through the window with a paw as she said this. Kushanku didn't reply for he was still young and did not know much about the subject at all. Then Amberpaw hardened her disdainful glare.

"Well if it did, then it must be an OGRE of a creator to allow this much suffering to occur in this corrupted, messed-up system," she growled through gritted teeth, "That is why I DON'T associate with myths such as some creator of Narnia and stuff like that."

"Yeah, and by the way," added Snowwing, "Who made the creator, anyway?"

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, however, did not reply and continued to sit in traumatised silence. Then finally, Crystal the Parrot chick spoke.

"Well if the creator of Narnia did exist," she said, "Then I don't believe all this messed-up stuff with the constant snow and the Fighting League thing is his fault."

A scornful "Pfft!" escaped Amberpaw's mouth and Snowwing just breathed a despondent sigh, especially as he gazed warily at Rosebush and her three cousins Thorn, Spikeball and Quill nearby as they gave the group a look. However, they did not seem bothered about the discussion of the Great Lion or Narnia's creation this time, likely due to seeing the sheer horrors of the Fighting League on the TV. Then Alexandrite spoke.

"Apparently not," she said, continuing Crystal's statement, "You guys remember the broadcast for the Fighting League? It said that the Queen is responsible for the constant winter, apparently to keep away any creature called 'man' and to end a war or something like that."

"Well, if that is the case, then why is that tyrant organising this horrible, HORRIBLE event in which creatures are sent to _slaughter_ each other, anyway!?" snarled Nyarth bitterly, speaking for the first time since his eyes took in the gory fight of the fighters fighting against each other. He winced at the horrible imagery, imagery that should not have entered his eyes in the first place, as they flashed in his mind.

"I don't know," said Desdemona, "But one thing is certain, I do NOT wanna see those images EVER AGAIN, anyway. I'm likely to have nightmares for weeks."

The other kids nodded in agreement but Kushanku said nothing and continued to gaze at the floor. Then the youngest Nekomata kit's gaze travelled to Emberflame as she 'sat' on her lamp with the chin of her fiery head on her fiery hand, and her fiery gaze staring into space.

"Are you alright, Miss Emberflame?" asked Kushanku with concern. Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Amberpaw, Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona and Cyril also gazed at the Pyro as she gazed into space, her flaming hair flickering at the air and more flames emanating from her humanoid body, the most common form she often took, and rising upward.

"Miss Emberflame," said Nyarth, "Kushanku asked you a question."

At first, Emberflame did not answer but then finally, she did a minute later. "I wish you youngsters had never seen those poor fighters start killing each other in the goriest of ways," she said in a sombre voice. Some of the kids winced at this, and Link felt his stomach lurch; the Peryton fawn placed a hoof on his stomach and sighed, fearing that nausea might come over him again. Then Amberpaw tried to perk things up.

"Look, it-it-it's okay, Miss Emberflame," said the female Cheetah cub, "It was an accident…"

"No, it's NOT okay," snapped Emberflame angrily, before turning her fiery head in the direction of the kids so that she could look at them, before moving her gaze to Shadewing as he continued to talk with Mensa and also Rosemary, Daisytail and Hopper, his eyes streaming more tears down his cheeks, "Forcing someone, even a young kid such as Gingerfur, or Shadewing's pup Firewing who was forced into the previous Fighting League ten years ago," her gaze returned to the kids, "into a savage, bloody battle for some 'better life' offered by that… _so-called Queen_ ," the Pyro hissed these three words with pure malice, her respect for the so-called Queen having been vanquished completely after seeing the sanguinary 'tournament' she had put forth to occur once every ten years, "against their will… those unfortunate participants did not sign up themselves to fight against other Narnians and slay them like wild, mindless _beasts_ , NOR did they ask permission to be entered into that arena of death…" Kushanku and the others looked on sombrely as the Pyro continued, "It ISN'T right, it ISN'T right at all. It's beyond-diabolical, _abominable and absolutely immoral._ That Fighting League…" Emberflame's voice became saturated with pure anger and outrage and she began to tremble, "It's no event to honour the Queen and her cronies. It was merely invented for the _sadistic and bloodthirsty entertainment_ of that bunch of twisted, _demonic creatures_ , and to severely oppress the Narnians by tearing their hearts into two, in addition to this constant winter and unfair offerings, like that ninety-percent food and crop law for example…" Emberflame then turned her face away and shut her eyes, "Aslan FORBID that that disgusting Fighting League event should get any positive views. It deserves NONE WHATSOEVER."

Surprise flashed through the kids, for Emberflame had non-hesitantly said the Forbidden Name. However, they were still too badly shaken from the Fighting League's violence to even care of the potential danger they were in. Then Amberpaw managed a small smile.

"Well, at least the victor and his or her family will get a better life as promised by the Queen," she said but this was met by a fiery glare from the Pyro, both literally and metaphorically.

"What about the families of the OTHER participants slain mercilessly in that arena of blood and bones, EH!?" she retorted in a growl, making Amberpaw flinch and back away, "What are THEY to do? Keep on living in these appalling conditions brought upon us by the so-called Queen with a severely broken heart to contend with!?"

Emberflame then gestured to Shadewing, prompting the kids to gaze at the Bat as he continued to sob in the arms of Mensa, Dahlia, Rosemary and Hopper, his membranous wings covering his face, "Shadewing's heart was hacked and slashed DEEPLY ten years ago, by this DIABOLICAL, SADISTIC event," growled Emberflame, "and it's still in tatters even now."

"He used to have a son and live in a roost of other Bats, didn't he?" asked Satoshi, his arm still in a cast. Emberflame nodded.

"Yes, his son was called Firewing and his mate was called Silvermoon and together, the family lived in a roost of other Bats, helping each other to survive in these harsh conditions inflicted upon the whole country of Narnia by that so-called Queen," she replied. The kids then sat down to hear Shadewing's backstory as Emberflame launched into an explanation.

"Before Shadewing's roost, who lived in a cave, was selected for the Fighting League by that so-called Queen, they had lived together and helped each other to survive. A Bat's diet is mostly fruit and insects but since the constant winter had caused a scarcity of those food sources, the roost of Bats had resorted to desperate measures to prevent themselves from starving, especially their pups, among them Firewing. They had hoarded some of the fruit brought in to them from the food deliverers and gave the rest of it to the Queen's food collectors, as the law demands. Despite the hardships caused by the Eternal Winter, the Bats kept themselves entertained; the elders would tell stories of their youth to the younger pups, among them Firewing; and some of the elder Bats were strong, steadfast believers in old Narnian traditions and the Great Lion (Kushanku smiled in awe at this). They were a happy roost indeed. But then that happiness was quashed and violently crushed when the Decadal Fighting League, the second one, was announced, and the roost was chosen by the Queen to have one of their members sent into the League for the prize of a better life, free from the cold and starvation and everything else caused by the constant winter (the offer has been the same in both the first AND the second occurrences)."

The kids listened intently as Emberflame's voice changed tone, "Then the Queen's collectors, which I believe was a group of Goblins, came and, like what happened with Gingerfur a few days ago, a random piece of paper was drawn from a bucket or the like in which all the names of the family or group were written and placed in there, and to Shadewing and Silvermoon's horror and heartbreak, Firewing was chosen (the kids shuddered as chills made their skin prickle). Firewing was then forced to go to the Goblins and was taken away with the other unfortunately selected participants."

"That's exactly right, Emberflame," came a voice. At this, Kushanku and the others and Emberflame turned their gazes and to their surprise, they saw Shadewing walk in, a sad and tearful look on his face, "My son was torn away from me and the other Bats by those Goblins despite the desperate wails and cries we emitted when those brutes forced him into the sleigh."

"Mr Shadewing," said Kushanku with surprise.

"I-I-I thought you didn't want to talk about it," said Satoshi. Shadewing breathed a sigh and sat down on a nearby cushion on the floor. Nearby, Rosemary and the other adults including the four Hedgehogs sat and looked on.

"That was true," said the Bat, "But I feel I've left my past regarding the loss of my son in the dark for too long and allowed it to bottle up, resulting in these violent temper outbursts, such as the one a while ago, which I still deeply regret…" the kids nodded in understanding.

"It was our stomachs that wouldn't rumbling," muttered Nyarth. Shadewing nodded and continued. "But let's put that aside and have the truth come out into the open," said the Bat, "and this time, ALL of it…"

And so the kids cocked their ears to Shadewing as he continued his backstory, picking up from where Emberflame left off. However, it wasn't easy as he felt the grief threaten to erupt within him again, so he nodded to Emberflame to continue his story should it become too painful for him to continue himself.

"After my son Firewing had been forced from us, and after he had feasted with the other participants with the Queen and her cronies, he was then thrown into the Fighting League arena, along with hundreds of other participants," more tears oozed from Shadewing's eyes and ran down his furry cheeks, and he even wiped some away with his wings, and his voice began to break, "and when that bloodbath erupted, my-my-my son was… was…" Rosemary put her hands onto the Bats shoulders as he struggled to keep himself together and continue the explanation, "I'm sorry…"

"Maybe you should stop?" asked Crystal politely.

"We can see it's taking a toll on you," added Link. However, Shadewing somehow managed to pluck up the courage and described how his son died during the bloodbath in the arena before going on to explain the devastation it had on him, Silvermoon and the rest of the roost. He also explained how the violent scenes had badly traumatised some of the roost members and even made some of them violently sick, pass out such that they fell from their perches, or in extreme cases, driven to complete insanity such that those Bats lost all thought and rocketed out into the freezing weather (it had been blizzardy at the time, according to Shadewing) resulting in them getting lost and possibly dying.

"The following days after the Fighting League, after the victor and his family were taken by that witch of a Queen (Nyarth scornfully smiled in agreement to this statement) to be given a new home with better food and other resources made scarce in this winter," continued Shadewing in an edgy voice. Despite this, he felt his burden ease and his heart feel lighter. It was like the massive weight of snow being shaken off a branch, "was an utter NIGHTMARE. My mate Silvermoon eventually passed away from the extreme grief of our son's loss, and the rest of the Bats, including myself, eventually packed up and split for we did not want to spend another minute in that cave due to bad memories…"

"That sounds like a foolish move, wasn't it?" asked Akira.

"You were stronger together as a roost," put in Crystal. Shadewing gently nodded. "We were, but we were so overcome with grief that we didn't care. Of course, two days after I had left, I ended up getting lost in a massive blizzard until I was found by some Sylph friends of Emberflame," he flashed Emberflame a small smile who smiled in return, "and they guided me to Dashiell's den where Dashiell and Honeycomb took me in and nursed me back to health."

"It was just before you four were brought to this den's door as very young baby kits," Emberflame said to Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi, who exchanged glances and shrugged. Then after he was satisfied with explaining the rest of his backstory, Shadewing tearfully and edgily said, "And that's about it. Now you know why I was behaving hysterically throughout the whole process of this third Fighting League, especially when Gingerfur was forced into it…"

"Fighting League!?" scoffed Nyarth, "I think it should be called the _Slaughter League_ based on the BLOODBATH that happens during the initial minutes…"

"Nyarth," snapped Hopper and Daisytail in rebuke. However, Emberflame and Shadewing shot the Jackalope couple and Dahlia's parents a stern look.

"He's right, actually," said Emberflame, "It IS basically a Slaughter League, all for the sickening pleasure of that so-called Queen and her cronies."

"Did you have nightmares about the Fighting League for some time after that?" Dahlia asked Shadewing.

"Yes," said the Bat sombrely, "It went on for months. Sometimes I cried and sobbed hard in the night. You won't BELIEVE how much that Fighting League has devastated me and countless other Narnians whose family or group members had been forced into such a slaughterhouse arena by that tyrant…"

As these words left his mouth, a piercing scream, like that of claws scraping against the surface of smooth wood, sliced through the air, making everyone in the sleeping quarters jump and shoot their gazes in the direction of the door for the screams were coming from the main living section of the den. However, the screams were not the result of physical pain, but were the result of a different kind of pain: a pain of anguish, a pain of extreme and utter heartbreak. This jolted Shadewing the most for it was all-too familiar. Then he, along with the others in the room, then began to ooze tears as grief took hold as they arrived at only one possible conclusion.

"Gingerfur," whispered a distraught Amberpaw, her eyes spilling tears down her cheeks. Sandstorm, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira also began to weep very greatly, before Shadewing came and pulled the six felines into a hug. Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Cyril just looked on with sympathy, before going over to comfort the six siblings as well.

 **Later**

It was dark for night had come, and it had begun snowing again. By now, the dreaded, bloodthirsty Fighting League had come to its end, the last surviving fighter having emerged victorious. The majority of Green Leaf Village was enveloped in total darkness, much like the darkness of the snowy night and the usual weather, and in that darkness was total devastation, heartbreak, sadness, trauma and all kinds of other emotions left behind by the sanguinary event. Although the event won't happen again until ten years later, the deep wounds it had inflicted on the Narnians will have a lasting effect.

In Dashiell's den, Dashiell, Honeycomb, Amberpaw and Sandstorm lay together on Dashiell's bed, heartbreak completely enveloping them, while nearby, Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia were also grieving the loss of Gingerfur, who had eventually succumbed to the freezing lake and had either drowned or had died from the extreme cold, or both in the arena. What's worse, Soran, who should have been Gingerfur's best friend, had deliberately left the Cheetah cub to his fate, which was very abnormal, since true friends who truly cared for each other should help each other, not leave the other to face their demise, and that made Amberpaw and Sandstoem question Soran's friendship with Gingerfur and arrived at one possible conclusion, a conclusion that added more stabbing pains to their broken hearts and more tears to spill from their eyes. With the non-Cheetah kids were Rosebush, Spikeball, Thorn and Quill the Hedgehogs, Rosemary the Monkey, Rubyfeather the Parrot, Chiseltooth the Beaver, Mensa the Skvader, Shadewing the Bat and Daisytail and Hopper the Jackalopes, and they saw with the kids in a group huddle with massive tears falling from their eyes as they comforted each other, while Emberflame was on her lamp, lost in thought and also saturated with grief. Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Cyril had returned to Soran's home under the escort of the Hedgehogs a few minutes ago now that the Fighting League had finished. Then Shadewing spoke, his gaze on the Cheetahs as they grieved the loss of Gingerfur.

"This is just like me and Silvermoon when Firewing was slaughtered in that arena of death," he murmured in a broken voice and his eyes oozing great tears, "So many other families and groups also went through the same thing as they grieved the loss of their unfortunate members as well."

"The families in this village who had been forced to give up a member will be going through the same thing as we are," said Chiseltooth, before uttering a series of sobs and breaking down. Nyarth, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira also broke down. Although he was at times obnoxious and even mocking of the Nekomata kits, he was still the adopted brother of them, and Kushanku and his siblings could not believe the untimely demise of the young Cheetah cub. Gingerfur, along with Sandstorm and Amberpaw, had had his whole life ahead of him, and often he talked about how he wanted to have a family of his own and help the other poor families in this dreadful constant winter, among other things. But now that had been unfairly and sadistically taken away by the Queen and her cronies. 'No!' thought Nyarth bitterly and in severe grief, 'That Queen is no Queen at all. She's a TYRANT, a WITCH and a MONSTER!'

"You know, I think this is the last time I'm gonna see this despicable 'Fighting League'," Nyarth heard Hopper growl as he hugged his mate and daughter, Daisytail and Dahlia, "Once we have dealt with this grief somewhat over Gingerfur's loss, we're gonna look into packing up and moving out of this country for good," the adult male Jackalope's gaze then travelled to his grieving daughter, fearing the worst, "The last thing I want is our precious daughter here possibly getting selected for the next slaughterhouse fight in ten years' time, which by then she'll almost be a teenager, and her following Gingerfur's fate at the hands of that sadistic witch of a Queen and her equally sadistic cronies."

"But Hopper," said Mensa with shock as she sat with her depressed son Snowwing, "The whole COUNTRY'S smothered with SNOW and ICE as well as treacherous conditions and terrain! And besides that, there are the Queen's patrollers absolutely EVERYWHERE!"

"That's right," put in Chiseltooth as he also gazed worriedly at Hopper and his mate, "Not to mention those Dryads who are on the Queen's side. If any of us tried to migrate out of Narnia, at all, those spies could report our actions to the Queen and we could face certain death."

"Absolutely," added Rosemary, "I've heard that a group of Elves, Harpies and Otters tried doing that and they ended up getting caught by one of the Queen's patrollers, subsequently captured, reported and then either slaughtered or turned to statues for 'disobeying the Queen's rules and betraying her'."

As the Monkey spoke, Nyarth shot her a shocked look. "Are you meaning to say that the Witch has also put forth laws that we _stay in Narnia_ under the threat of DEATH as well!?"

"I'm afraid so," said Rosemary sadly. At this, Satoshi slammed his left arm onto the quilt in a rage.

"You're kidding!" he snapped.

"She's not," said Mensa, "It's seen as betrayal to the Queen's status as a war heroine and disrespect."

"War heroine!?" snapped Akira, "Mrs Mensa, she ain't no war heroine. She's a war villainess."

However, that rage soon faded to despair, and she and the rest of the group, especially Hopper, Dahlia and Daisytail, felt their hopes quashed. The Queen had strictly forbidden all Narnians from leaving the country so as to trap them in her dictatorial web of sharp icicles and ice shards, and to ensure that no-one, but NO-ONE dare attempt to flee Narnia, she had organised countless spies and patrol groups to go out and check on the Narnians to ensure that none of them had even a HINT of plans of fleeing Narnia, at all, and the best spies of them all were the Queen-loyal Dryads since these earth sprites lived in trees and plants and thus kept a constant eye on their surroundings, rather like how CCTV cameras in our world would keep an eye on the property of the building they were constructed on. It truly was a despairing revelation and it only made Dashiell's group cry all the more. They knew they could not face another Fighting League, but they also could not leave the country either. They, along with the other Narnians were truly… TRAPPED.

While Dashiell's group continued to grieve and wallow in the pit of despair over the diminishing possibilities of escape, they were alerted to a new sound coming from outside.

"What's that noise?" asked Crystal in an edgy voice, her eyes still oozing tears.

"Sounds like Father Christmas or someone," said Snowwing. At this, Crystal shot the Skvader kit a glare.

"There's no such figure, Snowwing," she snapped, "Stop trying to cheer us up."

This prompted Crystal's mother Rubyfeather to rebuke her chick. When Rubyfeather and her generation had been young, every year, when it was Christmas, a figure called Father Christmas would come by on his sleigh and deliver presents to Narnians, and Rubyfeather often told stories of the figure to Crystal and the other kids including Kushanku and his three siblings, but because Father Christmas hadn't been seen since Jadis came into power and locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter, the younger generation of Narnians believed him to be a mere myth. And because of that, that new sound, which was the sound of snow being sliced by metallic blades, along with the jingling of bells and the pounding of hooves on the white stuff which would indeed indicate a sleigh, was indicative of someone else, but as that someone else popped up in the head of a certain member of Dashiell's family, the fire woman jolted in a fireball from her lamp, alerting the other family members including Dashiell, Honeycomb and their two remaining cubs, Amberpaw and Sandstorm and pulling them out of their grief over the loss of Gingerfur.

"What is it, Emberflame?" blurted out Dashiell. Emberflame shot the Cheetah a serious look.

"Do you know of any hidden compartments in your den, Dashiell?" asked the Pyro urgently. Her dreaded gaze especially landed on Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and also Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia, who returned her gaze of dread with confused looks.

"There is a trapdoor under the rug in the kitchen area of the main living compartment leading to an underground room," said Honeycomb. The moment those words left the female Cheetah's mouth, Emberflame sprang into action. Leaving her lamp and flying in a fireball to Kushanku and the other kids with him, especially as the sounds of a sleigh approaching outside increased in loudness as well as the pattering of feet, hooves and paws on snow as some of the villagers had left their homes to investigate the visitor, entered the window from outside into the sleeping quarters, Emberflame shot Kushanku and the other kids an urgent look.

"Follow me to the kitchen, NOW!" barked the Pyro.

"Why?" asked Nyarth.

"Just DO IT!" retorted Emberflame. This jolted Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and also Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Amberpaw and Sandstorm off the beds and made their legs propel their bodies off the beds and towards the door to the corridor leading to the living compartment. Emberflame immediately flew to the front, seized the door handle and yanked the door open and hastily guided the nine kids towards the kitchen area of the living compartment where the trapdoor to the underground room lay, while the adults, stirred by curiosity, ran to the windows to look outside into the darkness.

"Could it be?" asked Rosemary. Suddenly, a voice shouted, "VILLAGERS of GREEN LEAF VILLAGE, ALL HAIL JADIS, the QUEEN OF NARNIA and OUR HERIONE and RESCUER from the GREAT WAR!"

This was enough to explain why Emberflame was so frantic in ordering Kushanku and the other kids out of the sleeping quarters but the adults were confused.

"The Queen?" asked Chiseltooth, "What is she doing here?"

"I don't know but if we wanna find out, there's no point sitting here," replied Rosemary and with that, she bolted for the door to the corridor and left for the main entrance. Chiseltooth, Rosebush, Quill, Thorn, Spikeball and Rubyfeather followed but Shadewing, Dashiell and Honeycomb chose to remain behind.

"You go ahead, we'll stay here," said Shadewing.

"Yeah, we don't wanna join the gathering," said Dashiell as the grief over the loss of Gingerfur returned, "We're too depressed."

And with that, the trio returned to their beds to grieve. However, Honeycomb eventually had other ideas, especially as her glare landed on the window from which the sounds were entering the room, and the female Cheetah's face morphed into a look of outrage…

In the kitchen area of the living quarters, Emberflame pulled back the rug and exposed a rectangular wooden slab in the floor with a large ring attached to it. Once she had removed the rug, the fire sprite seized the ring, which was a handle, turned it a quarter to the left and pulled up the slab, revealing a hole in the floor with stairs leading down to an underground compartment, much to Kushanku and the others' surprise. While this happened, Rubyfeather, the Hedgehogs, Rosemary and Chiseltooth ran past, opened the entrance's door and dashed outside.

"Down there kids, NOW!" shouted Emberflame. Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia obediently and without hesitation descended down the stairs but Amberpaw stood there.

"Why?" she asked the Pyro.

"Just DO IT!" retorted Emberflame with massive urgency, prompting Amberpaw to follow the other eight down the stairs and into the underground room. As soon as all nine kids were underground, Emberflame shouted to them at the foot of the stairs as their glowing eyes aglow with timidity, "And stay down there until I tell you it's safe for you to come out."

Then without explaining why, the Pyro closed the trapdoor, swallowing the nine kids in darkness, much to their slightly frightened surprise, and the sound of the rug being replaced to cover the trapdoor occurred as Emberflame returned the rug to its original position before leaving.

As a gathering of villagers coalesced at the same spot where it formed when Gollum and his group had arrived to do the random selection of the participants for the Fighting League from the selected families days earlier, a sleigh pulled up outside the entrance to Green Leaf Village, alongside some smaller sleighs. However, unlike Gollum's sleigh, which was dark in colour and was pulled by yule goats, this sleigh was pulled by reindeer, and those reindeer were pure white, like the snow. The sleigh itself was more elaborate than Gollum's sleigh, which indicated that it belonged to someone of a higher rank. Its main body shone a beautiful silver in the lights from the villagers' houses, and behind the seat appeared to be some type of hood. Decorative pieces resembling icicles rimmed the sides of the seating area and these shone in a beautifully crystalline sparkle. However, don't be awed by this beautiful sleigh for in it was someone who you ought NOT to mess with. As the reindeer were commanded to halt with a shout by a Black Dwarf similar to Gollum but was a different individual, especially based on his facial features and lack of grotesque bulge in his eyes out of their sockets and the sleigh stopped before the entrance to the village, alongside the smaller, subordinate sleighs indicated by their darker, less elaborate colouration and their pullers being yule goats, the gathering of the villagers had thickened as more and more individuals joined the crowd. Behind the thickening crowd, Rosemary, Chiseltooth, Rubyfeather and the four Hedgehogs (Rosebush and her three cousins) turned up. However, as the crowd was so thick by now, the seven could not get any closer to the arrivals as they pulled up in front of the village. As soon as the crowd had finished gathering, one of the Black Dwarfs driving one of the smaller sleighs and who was familiar to the Green Leaf villagers especially based on his bulging, inflated eyes, then stood up, dropped from his sleigh with two Hellhounds and went to welcome the crowd. Behind the crowd, Rosemary and her group, although they could not see the owner of the elaborate sleigh but already knew who she was due to the shout, then began to listen to the cries of one of her Black Dwarf servants.

"EVERYONE!" cried the Black Dwarf, who was Gollum who had returned as the Fighting League was now finished, "Thanks for respectfully crowding around our mighty QUEEN OF NARNIA. Now, ALL OF YOU BOW DOWN TO HER!"

At first there was hesitation but when the Hellhounds let loose fierce growls, the crowd reluctantly knelt down. Rosemary and her group did the same despite the hatred they now harboured for the Queen. Then Gollum yelled, "Brilliant! Now, time to pass over the announcement to our mighty, radiant, AWESOME HEROINE, Her Majesty the QUEEN OF NARNIA!"

And with that, the bug-eyed Black Dwarf returned to his small sleigh with his two Hellhound comrades and allowed the Queen to take over. Behind the crowd, Rosemary, Chiseltooth, Rubyfeather, Rosebush, Thorn, Spikeball and Quill watched on as a massively, tall figure whose skin was as white as the snow all around her, and far whiter than any Unicorn's pelt such that it would make any Unicorn green internally with envy, and her royal uniform consisting of decorative and adorningly, breathtakingly beautiful jewellery resembling ice crystals including a set of tall crystalline icicle decorations spiking up from her head, then stood up in her equally elaborate, large sleigh and climbed down to greet the villagers. Then Rosebush thought she saw a spiky stick in the Queen's left hand, which she assumed to be a sceptre, an object some kings and queens that ruled Narnia sometimes possessed, as its tip glinted in the lights from the villagers' houses and dens and sparkled in the falling snow. Then the Queen spoke.

"Thanks, Gollum, my loyal servant," her voice sounded crystalline and angelic, much to the surprise of Rosemary and her group and the other animals and creatures in the crowd. This was ironic, TOTALLY ironic indeed, considering how horrible and FOUL the Queen's reputation had become. The Queen continued.

"I'd like to honourably present to you, the CHAMPION and VICTOR of this DECADE'S FIGHTING LEAGUE!" shouted the Queen and with that, she pointed her stick-like sceptre towards her sleigh, prompting the onlookers to turn their gazes to follow the point and gaze at the figure as it rose from the seat near where the Queen sat. Then uproarious clapping from the Black Dwarfs, Hellhounds, Goblins and Wendigoes who had accompanied the Queen erupted into the snowy air.

Back in the dark underground room under the trapdoor in the kitchen area of the main living quarters, the nine kids continued to wait. However, Amberpaw was getting agitated.

"I wonder what's taking Miss Emberflame so long," murmured the female Cheetah cub.

"Hush, be quiet," hissed Crystal in a whisper.

"I wonder who from here has won the Fighting League, based on the Witch's presence here," murmured Amberpaw in a more agitated voice.

"Look, sis, Miss Emberflame will explain to us once she lets us out once that Witch-Queen has gone," said Sandstorm. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia nodded in agreement.

"I wanna go out and see for myself," said Amberpaw. This alerted the other eight.

"No, Amberpaw, Miss Emberflame told us to remain in here and wait for her command for us to come out," said Kushanku.

"So we MUST remain in here as ordered," added Satoshi.

"So don't even THINK of going out here, whatever you do," said Nyarth, although he was tempted to leave the dark, compressed room as well for he was desperate to find out the winner of the Fighting League as well, but he knew it would be unwise, "DON'T leave this place."

"B-b-but I wanna see," said Amberpaw, before her anticipation finally reached boiling point, "I'M SORRY, BUT I WANNA SEE that winner RIGHT NOW!"

Then before anyone could stop her and despite the other eight kids' protests, the female Cheetah cub scurried up the stairs, seized the trapdoor's handle and forced it open.

"AMBERPAW!" yelled Kushanku and tried to follow him but Dahlia latched her paws onto the Nekomata's shoulders and restrained him. Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira were also restrained by Dahlia and Crystal. The eight then watched with eyes inflated with sheer horror as they watched Amberpaw then force open the trapdoor, making a waterfall of light pour into the room, and then scrabble out, "AMBERPAAAAW!"

Back outside, Rosemary and the others with her as they remained knelt down in the snow were gripped with intense disbelief, shock and horror as they watched the figure join the Queen's side. It was a silvery grey puppy.

"SORAN!?" barked someone, whom Rosemary identified was Alexandrite. Soran smiled proudly as he stood by the Queen's side and took in the cheers of her accompanying cronies.

"Let's HEAR IT for THIS DECADES FIGHTING LEAGUE VICTOOOOOR!" cried the Queen loudly as she gestured to the puppy, and with that, the Queen's cronies intensified their cheers and clapping but from the villager crowd, the clapping was a mere trickle for so many of them were gripped with extreme heartbreak over the loss of the family members in the Fighting League, and Rosemary's group refused to even clap for the puppy. However, the Hellhounds came forward and let loose threatening growls with their teeth bared and their glowing red eyes ablaze with a terrifying glare, prompting the villagers' clapping to increase from a trickle to a reluctant, gentle waterfall. The Hellhounds smiled with satisfaction, before one of them, presumably the leader, came forward.

"Now to call forth Soran's family," he said, his blazing, fiery eyes piercing the crowd like a pair of fiery streams, "Where are you?"

At these words, a certain part of the crowd moved, and as those individuals moved aside, some grey dogs bounded towards Soran and locked him in a tearful hug. Rosemary and her group looked on with enraged glares as they watched Growler, Silver-Ears, Zira and the rest of Soran's biological family hug him and as the other members of the family, those adopted, arrive. Among them were Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Cyril, and they reluctantly arrived before the Queen with tears falling from their eyes, especially as they gazed at Soran, but what hurt them even more was there wasn't even a hint of guilt or remorse over the slaughter of the remaining fighters, such as leaving Gingerfur to his fate, in his eyes; not even a single sliver of it. Then the Queen spoke to the family, "Well done, you family members of this victorious Dog. You have won the prize of a better life, thanks to him. You will now live out the rest of your lives free from hunger and starvation; protection from the cold and the snow… and in a better, luxurious house which I will set up for you once we get back to my palace."

Rosemary, Chiseltooth, Rosebush, Quill, Thorn, Spikeball and Rubyfeather looked on as Soran uttered a thank you to the Queen and went to board her sleigh. Gollum went to usher the Dog's family to board the sleighs as well.

"Come along please," said the Black Dwarf as the ironically beautiful; tyrant looked on with a surprisingly pleasant smile, while the Hellhounds growled the villager crowd into clapping for Soran's family along with the Queen's cronies. Rosemary and her group did the same to set up a façade of obedience, but they were clearly livid at Soran for what he had done to Gingerfur and perhaps several other poor creatures in the arena, and wanted to give him a piece of their mind but they knew they'd end up in serious trouble, especially with you-know-who present right on their doorstep. However, that was about to be the case with a certain family member of theirs, and she came storming right out of Dashiell's den and towards the crowd.

Just as Alexandrite and Trotterhoof the Pig, who was also laced with sadness and reluctance, boarded one of the sleighs such that all the members of Soran's family, both biological and adopted were ready to be taken to the Queen's palace now, an adult Cheetah barged through the crowd and made a beeline straight towards Soran in the Queen's sleigh, much to the alarm of the crowd.

"HONEYCOMB!" barked Rosemary. Behind her, Chiseltooth, Rosebush, Quill, Thorn, Spikeball and Rubyfeather, Dashiell came rushing out with Shadewing and Amberpaw.

"HONEYCOMB!" bellowed Dashiell but Honeycomb was too blinded by extreme wrath to even hear her mate and some of the villagers' cries to come away from the Queen. With her eyes fixated on Soran in the Queen's sleigh, the female adult Cheetah cub snarled, "So YOU'RE the victor of this SLAUGHTERHOUSE LEAGUE at the expense of the lives of the other participants including my son and your OWEN best friend, EH!? You low-down, savage, MURDEROUS BEAST!"

Some of the Hellhounds and the Black Dwarfs surged forward to apprehend the enraged Cheetah but Honeycomb struck them down by delivering them a nasty slash across their faces, carving some claw marks and drawing blood.

"GET BACK AT ONCE, CHEETAH!" barked the Queen but Honeycomb, much to the extreme horror of the crowd, shot the tall humanoid an acidic look and what she said next sent a volcanic eruption of fear and panic tearing through the crowd, especially Dashiell and Amberpaw who had just seen who was the victor despite Emberflame's furious protests that she return to the underground room with the other kids.

"Don't you DARE TELL ME TO GET BACK, you TYRANNICAL WITCH!" she snarled with spittle flying. That did it. The Queen's ferocious temper erupted. As soon as her face flashed to a look of pure outrage, the villagers all surged backward with cries of terror, trampling over each other and the snow in the process, as the white figure then twirled her sceptre and in a split second, a WOOSH-FLASH sounded. The crowd yelled in utter horror again as a bright flash of pure white erupted in front of them, and as soon as the crowed had moved to a safe distance, Rosemary the Monkey, who had dived into a nearby snowdrift, then peered out and gazed at the scene in gazed in utter horror. To her extreme terror, she saw the Queen, a volcanic look on her face, glare at Honeycomb with the icy-white spike on her stick, which Rosemary had assumed to be a sceptre, pointing dead-centre at the female Cheetah's forehead. Then Rosemary examined Honeycomb but to her horror, she saw that the Cheetah was no longer a usual living golden-orange cat with black spots, but a grey, lifeless, hard replica of herself, frozen in the exact position the second she flinched, her face, now a stony, lifeless replica of its former flesh-and-blood appearance, in the moment of horror, her mouth agape and her eyes widened. It took Rosemary a few minutes to realise and take in what had happened as everything in the background slowed down, the sound merging together into a cacophony as the Monkey became rigid. However, the moment of rigidity was immediately shattered when a shout of a certain male Cheetah penetrated the bubble surrounding the Monkey, snapping her back to reality.

"HONEYCOOOOOMB!" cried that Cheetah as he rushed over to the stony replica of his mate as the Queen withdrew her stick and looked on without a sliver of sympathy. Then Dashiell flung his front paws around his petrified mate's body and began to enter a hysterical breakdown. Then the Queen aimed the icicle-like end of her stick at the onlookers, making them back away and scream all the more with terror as though they expected to meet the same fate as Honeycomb as well while from her sleigh, Alexandrite looked on in utter terror as she watched a severely devastated Dashiell break down over the turned-stone Honeycomb, only to be driven away by some of the Hellhounds.

"LET THIS BE A LESSON TO THE REST OF YA!" bellowed the Queen at the top of her voice, "IF I EVER… repeat: EVER… RECEIVE THE SAME TREATMENT AS THIS BEAST," she pointed her stick at the petrified, stony statue of Honeycomb, still frozen in her flinching position, "Then YOU LOT will join HER FATE AS WELL!"

The villagers continued to back away in extreme terror as the Queen then commanded the Hellhounds to take Honeycomb's petrified body and smash it for she did not want to add this Cheetah to her collection of other petrified creatures much to Dashiell's anguished cry. This statement made Rosemary arrive at the possible conclusion that other creatures had also met the same fate but had been preserved in statue form instead. The Hellhounds obediently nodded, went over to the statue of Honeycomb, took it to the Queen's sleigh and climbed to the highest point of it with the Queen's permission, and then without hesitation and with Soran and his family looking on, some without much care and some with utter horror, such as Alexandrite, Paddy, Desdemona, Cyril and Link, the fiery black dogs shoved the statue of the Cheetah from the back of the Queen's sleigh. The stony statue of Honeycomb fell towards the snow and broke into three pieces, sealing the Cheetah's fate altogether, much to the terror of the villagers and to Dashiell's further anguish as he let loose another cry. This done, the Queen ordered her comrades into their sleighs, while she herself climbed into her own sleigh to depart. At the door of Dashiell's den, Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia, having left the underground room despite Emberflame's orders to return to the place, watched on as the Queen prepared to leave, but they had seen the whole thing, including the revelation of Soran being the victor of this decade's Fighting League, his family boarding the sleighs… and the Queen turning Honyecomb into a statue. Then Kushanku's eyes made contact with those of Alexandrite, whose gaze read, "Sorry, Kushanku, company. We have to go, Queen's orders," much to the Nekomata's heartbreak. Then as soon as she and her cronies with her were in their sleighs, the Queen commanded the Black Dwarf in the driver's seat to command the reindeers into running. However, before leaving, she left behind this message, and it was the final nail in the coffin for Gingerfur's family with Soran.

"And I do believe some of you villagers are believers in the Forbidden Subject, according to Soran here," said the Queen, "As soon as I have set up Soran and his family in their new life, I will be sending some of my followers to initiate an investigation on you lot and if you are found to believe in that subject," the Queen's glare hardened, "My followers have MY permission to put you to death, whether you like it or not."

This sent immense chills which were as icy as the Queen's glare and tone of voice, tearing through the villagers, especially Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth for they were believers in the said subject. Then with a thwack of the reins and a shout from the Queen's servant Black Dwarf, the reindeer were off with the sleigh. The smaller sleighs followed suite with the yule goats pulling them, and within moments, the Queen and her group was gone, taking Soran and his family with them.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16- the aftermath of the events of last night, Kushanku's dream part 1**

 **Next morning**

The light of morning slowly ate away at the darkness of the night as the Narnian sun rose slowly in the domed sky. However, due to the sky being saturated with snow clouds, the morning had a very dull, grey, dismal atmosphere, but the atmosphere above the majority of the villages and towns in the snow-locked land of Narnia were FAR worse. Since it had been the night of the Fighting League yesterday, the deep gashes and wounds of heartbreak, trauma and devastation, especially over the loss of the selected participants and the witnessing of the slaughterhouse massacre in Jadis's arena of death, were still as fresh as they had been when they were opened up during the Fighting League event, and many hadn't even had a wink of sleep as a result, while for those that did manage to get to sleep, they were plagued by vivid nightmares of being in the arena of death where they saw blood spilling, countless participants falling, dead and the cheering cronies of the Queen in the stands and nearby. In Green Leaf village, one such family was suffering from those wounds as well as the other aftereffects of the Fighting League. Not to mention the grief of betrayal they felt at Soran and his family for leaving them and the other villagers to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives when the Queen had come to pick them up in addition to Honeycomb's demise at the Queen's hands as well.

All through the night, Amberpaw, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia and Sandstorm had either been wailing and crying their eyes out, struggling to sleep only to be jolted awake from nightmares of the Fighting League again, or hiding under the covers and shuddering with extreme fear. This behaviour had been occurring with the majority of the other youngsters in the village as well, in addition to the other youngsters up and down Narnia. Because the kids had been up all through the night sobbing and wailing, some of the adults in these households had tried to calm them down but to no avail. Rosemary and Rubyfeather had tried doing that with the nine kids but could not get them to settle down. The distraught kids had caused some of the other adults to leave and sleep elsewhere in the den. Dashiell had left to sleep in the underground room under the rug where Kushanku and the others had been ordered to hide by Emberflame when the Queen turned up while Rosebush and her trio of cousins had left to sleep on the sofa. Rosemary and Rubyfeather had tried every trick in the book of sending restless kids to sleep such as counting Narnian birds (a version of counting sheep), telling them a story and singing them a lullaby, though it had been extremely difficult for them as well for they were equally traumatised by the Fighting League and its gore as well, and even if one or two of the kids did get off to sleep, they were only jabbed awake by nightmares of the gruesome Fighting League again which started their extreme upset all over again and putting the Monkey and the Parrot's efforts to lull them to sleep to waste over and over again, all through the night, and Shadewing had told the pair over and over again that it was no use; the kids were too traumatised to sleep.

Now that it was morning, Rosemary, her eyes bloodshot and her fur all out of place as though she had been dragged through a snowy bush lacking its leaves, sat with a still-sobbing Snowwing and Dahlia on her knees while Rubyfeather, her red and orange plumage also untidy and out of place and the metallic lustre in some parts of her feathers reduced, cradled her daughter Crystal as she also continued to sob. Next to the Parrots, Sandstorm lay on his back with his front paws on his belly and the skin under his spotted facial fur a nauseous green colour, his eyes half asleep and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He had been sick again last night as the disturbing imagery from the massacre from the Fighting League had disturbed his stomach again. Next to Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Kushanku were in a state of terror, and were trembling violently and also weeping, while Amberpaw remained hidden under the covers of her sleeping spot, too terrified to come out, especially after witnessing her mother Honeycomb's demise. While the commotion continued to boil, Shadewing, Chiseltooth, Mensa, Hopper and Dasiytail, their fur and feathers also messed up and their eyes bloodshot and red from barely any sleep, stood with their wings or paws crossed and their bodies propped against the wall.

"This is HONESTLY the final straw," muttered Shadewing tiredly and bitterly under his breath as he listened to the constant sobbing and wailing of the kids, "There's no way we're gonna deal with this grief. The chances of a group breakup are very high, just like how my roost had split up and went their separate ways."

"I still think we should consider leaving this town and Narnia altogether," said Hopper despite knowing how treacherous that would be, but the Jackalope didn't care. The grief and oppression has pushed him over the cliff at last. "I would rather DIE TRYING THAT than continue to live in this constant snowy winter-saturated country with the constant threat of starvation and the cold hanging over us all the time," the Jackalope shook his head and blinked his bloodshot eyes, "not to mention live with the severe traumas of that HORRIBLE massacre event yesterday," he felt his stomach lurch as he said this.

"In addition to that psychotic Queen sending some of our cronies to hunt down and kill any villager who believes in the existence of some big Cat that created Narnia which is strictly forbidden indeed," put in Daisytail, before her glare travelled to Kushanku and his three siblings, "Those four Nekomata kits over there are to blame. They're the ones who brought this threat on us."

At this, Shadewing jumped to the Nekomata quads' defence. "Don't you DARE pin the blame on Kushanku and his sister and two brothers," he barked, "Don't you see they've been through enough as it is already!?"

"Look, Shadewing!" retorted Daisytail in an even angrier voice, her muzzle shoved right into the Bat's face, "THEY'RE the ones who started this STUPID SUBJECT on that GIANT CAT CREATURE in the FIRST PLACE. As such, they should be given the COLD SHOULDER," the female Jackalope then began to tremble and her bloodshot eyes began to ooze tears, "I didn't WANT any of this… WE didn't want any of this. I BELIEVE THEY SHOULD BE KICKED OUT!"

This ignited immense shock and astonishment within Daisytail's own mate Hopper, and also Mensa and Shadewing, and their mouths dropped open and their eyes widened, and the three backed away. How could Daisytail say such a thing about those four kits?

"Daisytail… THAT is the most SPITEFUL thing you have said!" snapped Hopper angrily. Daisytail then began to protest but then a sob sounded nearby. At this, the parents of Dahlia, together with Mensa and Shadewng, slowly turned and, to their utter horror, they saw a quartet of familiar fork-tailed, bipedal cats gaze at them, their eyes oozing tears and their mouths rippling. It was then that Daisytail realised her stupidity in her choice of words. It must have been all that had happened that had caused her to say these things.

"Oh, Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, I'm SORRY," cried the female Jackalope pleadingly but the spikes from her words had already pierced the already-traumatised and wounded hearts of the four kits. Kushanku then stepped furiously and tearfully towards Daisytail.

"Thanks for letting us know!" he wailed and with that and with sobbing taking over as his emotions erupted, he bolted for the door with Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi in tow. Daisytail tried to dash after the quads but Shadewing stonewalled her.

"I'm afraid it's too late, you foolish she-Jackalope," snarled the Bat furiously, "You've already upset them."

Daisytail then began to tremble violently as her regret began to volcanically erupt. Turning tail, she flung herself onto her sleeping spot and burst into tears, while Hopper and Mensa charged after Kushanku and the other three kits. As the male Jackalope and Skvader left, a Beaver and two Hedgehogs appeared, their faces wearing surprised looks.

"What's happened NOW!?" demanded Chiseltooth as he stood with Rosebush and Quill, one of her cousins. Shadewing put his wings up and said, "Mensa and Hopper have got it covered," his glare then turned to the sobbing Daisytail, "She over there had said something nasty about them... that they should be kicked out for bringing this mess on us."

An agape look came upon Quill and Rosebush's face and Chiseltooth swayed as his head felt light at the shock.

"She did NOT!" hissed Rosebush incredulously. Then Quill's paws went to the back of his spiny head, and the Hedgehog turned round to vent his frustration.

"EVERYONE in this village has gone completely NUTS!" he shouted, "Dashiell is refusing to come out of the underground room… the kids are upset… a LOT of the villagers are erupting with extreme fury in the other houses and dens…" the Hedgehog then turned back round, "but to TOP IT ALL OFF, that wretched QUEEN has left us to pick up the SHATTERED PIECES of our LIVES after she had come to collect Soran and his family and take them away last night…" his head and face then fell and his round ears drooped, "And I reckon that family of Dogs and their adopted members will have been set up in better housing by now while WE are left to continue living in these dilapidated conditions. What is WRONG with this country!?"

Shadewing said nothing in reply to this statement. He knew that saying that things will be okay, when so many hearts have just been sliced into pieces by the events of yesterday, would be utterly pointless. Then Rosebush moved on.

"Our village leader has called for a village meeting which will occur in a few minutes if you want to get ready," she said. This message was picked up by Rosemary and Rubyfeather as they continued to comfort the still-distressed Amberpaw, Crystal, Snowwing, Sandstorm and Dahlia as they continued to sob, tremble or feel ill.

"You go ahead," said Rubyfeather as she cradled her daughter Crystal, "We need to remain behind to tend to these youngsters."

"And don't bother Dashiell either," put in Rosemary, "He's too distressed over the loss of both Gingerfur and Honeycomb last night to attend."

Rosebush, Chiseltooth and Quill nodded while Shadewing left to get his coat.

 **An hour or two later**

The village elder meeting was underway and the purpose of the meeting was listing the options for the next few days. The villagers knew they didn't feel safe, after the Queen's warning to them that some of her cronies were going to visit them to sift through their home for any believers in the Forbidden Subject to put to death, but will likely put ANY villager to death there and then, whether they believed in the Forbidden Subject or not, and wanted a solution as soon as possible, especially for the safety of the youngsters. Shadewing, Rosebush, Chiseltooth, Thorn and Spikeball had left Dashiell's den to attend the meeting while Hopper, Mensa, Rubyfeather, Rosemary and Emberflame had remained behind to deal with the severely distraught kids, and Daisytail was left out for she had severely upset Kushanku and his siblings.

Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira had been crying so much for the past two hours that they had finally fallen asleep. It was clear the extreme fatigue caused by the sleeplessness as the result of the trauma of seeing the massacre of the Fighting League yesterday, as well as the grief and the heartbreak of losing Honeycomb and Gingerfur alongside it, resulting in the severe nightmares in some of them. Sandstorm, Amberpaw, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia had also fallen asleep as tiredness had finally overwhelmed them. Because all the kids but Nyarth had fallen asleep, the incredibly fatigued Hopper, Mensa, Rubyfeather, Rosemary and Emberflame had returned them to the sleeping quarters so that they could rest. However, the five knew that they could snap back awake again for the violent imagery of the Fighting League was still fresh in their minds, so they had to be ready for next imminent episode of more wailing and crying. Only Nyarth remained, and he was talking with Emberflame while Hopper, Mensa, Rubyfeather and Rosemary went to check on Dashiell who was still down in the dumps or um… the dark underground room, both literally and emotionally, the grief of losing Honeycomb and Gingerfur still weighing him down.

"That was how Shadewing suffered after Firewing was killed in the previous Fighting League, didn't he, Miss Emberflame?" said Nyarth to the Pyro who rested in her fire lamp in the main compartment. Nyarth was not only grieving the loss of his adopted brother and mother, but he was flooded with extreme rage at the Queen and her cronies for this extreme oppression.

"Yes," said Emberflame as she and Nyarth watched the Jackalope, the Skvader, the Parrot and the Monkey talk to the extremely despondent and heartbroken Dashiell in the underground room through the open trapdoor (the rug pulled back to allow access), "The loss of both his mate and oldest son has sent him over the edge. This is a striking parallel to Shadewing's loss of both of those family members, the only difference being that his mate had died of a broken heart instead of at that BEASTLY WITCH'S hands," the Pyro trembled with bitter rage and rancour at the Queen as she said this, and her flames shuddered. Nyarth then breathed a very sad sigh and continued to watch Rosemary and the other three continue to console Dashiell who refused to climb out form the underground room, his ears drooping and forked tail snaked out behind him on the floor.

"Well, what's it for us now?" asked Nyarth, "What are we gonna do? We're sorry for disobeying you to stay in that underground room while Jadis was here, but Amberpaw wouldn't calm down and bolted out of the trapdoor."

Emberflame's fiery face then formed a small frown, "But at least you weren't spotted by that disgusting Witch last night, Nyarth, but from now on until our village elders come up with an evacuation solution, your lives are now in serious jeopardy. We're gonna have to wait what our village leader and elders say and then we'll take it from there."

"Would it mean moving to another village?" asked Nyarth nervously. Emberflame didn't answer and continued staring at Rosemary's group as they continued to talk to and console Dashiell, much to Nyarth's disappointment. Then he let loose a yawn as his tiredness soon swamped him, indicating that he needed to go to bed and get a nap.

"I'm off to the sleeping quarters, anyway," he said, "I'm utterly tired," however he only partly meant this, as he wasn't sure if he was going to drop off or not for one, and he was reluctant to actually go to sleep for another. Seeing the sanguinary scenes of the Fighting League on the magic TV last night had given him horrible nightmares and Nyarth did not want to enter another nightmare featuring those horrible, HORRIBLE scenes and watching the bloody massacre of those innocent participants take place ever again. With a sigh, the oldest brother of Kushanku left for the corridor leading to the sleeping quarters.

"We'll let you know of the village elders' decision, Nyarth," said Emberflame as he left.

"Thanks, Miss Emberflame, " said Nyarth and with that, he entered the corridor and then the sleeping quarters, before placing himself wearily onto his sleeping spot, being careful not to disturb the other sleeping kids, who might wake up any moment for one or two of them, especially Satoshi, were squirming and mumbling, and reluctantly went to sleep.

 **A little while later**

Kushanku stirred and murmured as a gentle breeze caressed his colourful fur, ruffling his mop-like head hair. He was lying on his back but to his surprise, the ground underneath him, which was still soft, did not feel soft as in the soft pillows or quilts, but a different sort of soft. The soft texture had a straw-like feel to it. Murmuring and moving his head, Kushanku opened his eyes and sat up to examine his surroundings but as he did, he realised that he was not in the sleeping quarters. Nyarth, Crystal, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Amberpaw and Sandstorm were nowhere to be seen, and Kushanku realised he was completely on his own, which startled him greatly. Furthermore, Kushanku was in a strange scene. Thin blades of green and gold, things that Kushanku had never seen in his life at all for his entire life he had only seen white snow and ice, wavered back and forth. Kushanku had no idea what these flexible blades were but based on their texture, they resembled leaves, like the leaves on Hopper, Dahlia and Daisytail's fruit tree; the only green leaves he and the other kids with him had ever seen in their lives, alongside one or two other indoor fruit trees grown by a few of the other Green Leaf villagers, so they had to be plants of some sort, and Kushanku found that the landscape was saturated with an OCEAN of these leafy blades. Then a description of these plants given to him, Nyarth and the other kids including Gingerfur when they were alive, by Honeycomb, came to mind: _grass_. Kushanku had never, ever seen grass before, not even a blade of it, much less an entire ocean of it stretching for miles but then the young Nekomata kit spotted a small thicket up ahead. The sky overhead was awash with a golden glow, the sun overhead hovering and bathing the field with its golden rays. This brought to Kushanku's mind Honeycomb's description of a typical spring day before the Eternal Winter, when the lands of Narnia would transform from a snowy white landscape of winter to a lush country flooded with green grass and leafy trees decorated with colourful spots of flowers; concepts Kushanku had never even seen since he had never even seen a spring, summer and autumn before. As he continued to take in the awesome scenery, Kushanku rose to his feet and began to look around for the other family members, timidity boiling within him.

Despite the beauty of the field and thicket in the distance, Kushanku expected some figures to walk by before turning on each other and girly slaying each other like the participants in the Fighting League arena like in the previous dreams he had last night which snapped him back to reality and sent him into hysterical wailing, so he very cautiously began to take his first steps. The grass under his feet felt strange and soft, but Kushanku did not want to stop and relish the new feeling under his back paws. All he cared about was finding a way out of this landscape before any figures appeared and slaughtered each other right in front of him. As Kushanku continued to take his cautious steps on the grass, something, or a small cloud of them, flitted past his face, making him jump. At this, the Nekomata shot the cloud a startled gaze when he realised that the cloud consisted of colourful flakes, mostly red, yellow, blue, green, black, white, orange, violet and pink, and some brown. At first, Kushanku thought they were petals but when he examined the fluttering things closer, he realised that they were actually _wings_. These wings reminded Kushanku of the colourful wings Fairies, like the clinician Fairies in Green Leaf Village, possessed, and that they resembled the wings of a group of insects Honeycomb had told him were called butterflies and moths. However, these flitting things weren't Fairies for they were too small to be Fairies for one and they did not possess a humanoid body for another. Furthermore, each of the flitting things had a pair of straight filaments pointing out in front of their heads in a V shape and when Kusahanku saw these as some of the flitting things darted and danced close to his face, he assumed them to be butterflies as he recalled the descriptions of them given to him and the other kids by Honeycomb. Kushanku then managed a small smile, the first one he had had since the severe trauma of the Fighting League event last night and reached out a paw to touch them. One of the butterflies flitted close to his paw but then darted away again and within moments, the butterfly cloud began to drift in the direction of the thicket in the distance, a breeze blowing them forward like petals. Kushanku picked up his pace after them.

As the Nekomata chased after the butterfly cloud, he noticed a strange change in their behaviour. Much to his surprise, the cloud of colourful butterflies dispersed out and then collapsed back together. Then the cloud morphed into a shape. Kushanku looked on as the butterfly cloud took the form of a rectangle with a triangle attached to one end, its point aiming for the thicket. This made curiosity well within Kushanku.

"An arrow?" he thought. Then another butterfly cloud appeared and began to form other shapes, this time it was letters and words. As Kushanku watched, this second butterfly cloud formed the words FOLLOW THE ARROW in mid-air. Kushanku shook his head with surprise before his gaze turned to the arrow formed by the first butterfly cloud as it began to move away. Compelled by curiosity, Kushanku walked after the arrow before speeding it up to a gentle run as the arrow began to move faster. As he left, the words dispersed and the second cloud of butterflies scattered.

Kushanku continued to follow the butterfly cloud-arrow through the field and towards the thicket. The Nekomata looked on in surprise as the small grove got nearer and nearer as he approached it, the butterfly cloud-arrow constantly flying ahead of him, the individual insects rigidly in their places in the arrow shape as though they were bound together by some solid force. As Kushanku got closer to the small grove, he realised that the trees were lush and green, quite unlike the majority of the trees he had seen which had been leafless, bare and resembled skeletal forms with icicles and snow collected on and hanging off of them. Furthermore, the trees were decorated with colourful spots of flowers which were mostly red, orange, yellow, white, violet, pink and blue. Kushanku stopped briefly to admire the flowers on the trees before resuming his following of the butterfly cloud-arrow, which began to lead him towards the entrance of the small thicket. As soon as Kushanku was at the entrance, the butterfly cloud-arrow disintegrated and the butterflies dispersed, much to Kushanku's alarm. Kushanku was now left alone and timidly and warily, he gazed into the trees, the golden rays of the sun slicing through the gaps between them and lighting up the canopy and floor. However, he considered turning back but then he heard a soft, gentle sound, which stopped him in his tracks. At this, Kushanku shot gazes in different directions and assumed it to be just the breeze blowing in his ear as another gust of it rustled the leaves and the flowers, but the second time the sound occurred, he realised it was _speaking._ Furthermore, it was saying his name in a soft, gentle, quiet whisper.

"Kushanku"

Kushanku, at this, snapped his gaze in the direction of the sun-sliced forest and warily listened to the sound.

"Wh-who is that?" asked the Nekomata, "Who's there?"

He then began to trace the source of the whisper as it continued to utter his name, which he found out was coming from within the golden sun-sliced forest. Reluctantly and cautiously, Kushanku took his first steps further into the forest; flashing a glance behind him at the open field to make sure he knew where he was should anything disturbing appear so that he could flee. As Kushanku ventured deeper into the forest, he passed by some bushes. He stopped briefly to gaze at the flowers that grew on one of the bushes. These flowers were trumpet-shaped, like our world's daffodils, and were coloured blue-white but to Kushanku's surprise, the flowers were aglow, similar to the stars in the sky he sometimes saw during the very rare clear skies he got back in Green Leaf Village. The flowers' luminous blue-white glow radiated outward into the partially dark air like the light from a lamp. These flowers weren't anything at all like the descriptions Honeycomb had given Kushanku, so he through of them as very unusual indeed. Kushanku continued to gaze at the glowing flowers when the whisper called his name again, this time, slightly louder, pulling his attention from the glowing flowers back in the direction of the clearing in the forest. Kushanku continued to walk timidly and cautiously deeper into the forest, occasionally flashing a glance over his shoulder at the entrance as he moved further away from it, passing more bushes and trees decorated with colourful and glowing flowers, more star-like trumpet flowers glowing like lamps on more bushes, but as Kushanku continued to venture deeper into the partially sunlit forest, the surroundings suddenly began to change. Kushanku drew in a sharp gasp and flinched as the trees and bushes around him suddenly sprung into life and began to move backwards radially, creating a larger, circular clearing with him in the centre. Also, as the trees moved further back, the golden sun's rays swamped Kushanku, making the Nekomata shield his face from the brightness with his paws. However, he did not notice a golden cloud appear and flow into the circle from the trees directly in front of him. As the cloud formed, the trees and bushes stopped moving and Kushanku slowly lowered his paws. However, as his eyes found the cloud formation directly in front of him, the Nekomata uttered a shriek and darted for cover behind one of the bushes that had moved back. Seconds later, Kushanku slowly peered out from behind the bush's leaves and gazed wide-eyed with fear and timidity at the golden cloud as it hovered on the ground. Then from the cloud, a deep, thunderous voice gently boomed out.

"Kushanku"

Kushanku flinched and shuddered, clearly not wanting to leave his hiding place, and cowered behind the bush. However, the voice spoke again, "Kushanku, do not be afraid. Please come out from behind d the bush and come closer."

Kushanku, at first, did not obey but when he saw that the golden cloud did not harbour any danger, the Nekomata slowly rose to his feet and very cautiously crept out from his hiding place, before sauntering slowly towards the cloud, trembling more as he did. After taking around three steps towards the cloud, Kushanku timidly asked, "Wh-wh-who are you?"

In response to this, the golden cloud suddenly erupted with a golden light, masking Kushanku cover his face with his paws and look away, the wind from the cloud ruffling his fur and making his mop-like head hair waver like the grass in the field. Then as the golden light slowly died down with the wind dropping to a gentle breeze, Kushanku slowly lowered his paws and very slowly turned his gaze back to the cloud formation. To his surprise, he realised that within the golden cloud, a figure had formed. This figure was engulfed in a golden glow which radiated out from its face which Kushanku saw resembled the face of a big cat like the Cheetah. However, unlike the Cheetah, The cat's face was not a deep orange and was not spotted. Instead, it was a golden-beige colour. Surrounding the cat's face was a mass of hair, ablaze with golden light. Kushanku recognised the style of hair around the cast's face. 'A _mane_ ', he thought with surprise. He then saw a pair of large front legs, bulky, like pillars, descend from under the cat's head and those legs ended in massive paws. Kushanku then thought he saw some more of the cat's body behind its glowing, radiant mane. That body was hulking and a tail was just visible. That tail ended in a tuft, rather like how a paintbrush ended with a cluster of bristles. As Kushanku took in these details and pieced together the appearance of the cat, especially as the figure's penetrating eyes pierced into him, and arrived to the conclusion that this type of cat was unfamiliar to him for he had never seen one himself, a wave of extreme fear washed over him, made him jump back, fall on his front and cover his head. Inside him, he knew that this figure was not someone to mess with, and Kushanku practically trembled violently with his face buried in the grass, as though he expected the large, radiant cat to lurch at him and maul him. However, the large maned cat did not. As fierce as it was, it began to speak to Kushanku in a gentle voice.

"Kushanku," said the cat, "Don't be afraid. Please rise. You're not going to die."

Kushanku, at first, remained curled over with his paws protectively covering his head but then he slowly obeyed the cat's command. Slowly, the Nekomata turned, rose from his cowering position and turned to the cat in the cloud. As his gaze returned to the radiant cat, Kushanku began to cautiously examine the cat's features once again. As he did that, recognition began to well within him and when he arrived at the conclusion of the cat's identity, he flinched with utter shock and awe.

"A-A-A-Aslan?" murmured the Nekomata.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17- Kushanku's dream part 2, Kushanku is given a very important task**

Kushanku continued to gaze in awe at the radiant figure as the golden cloud faded to better reveal a gold-furred maned big cat, which was in fact a lion, surrounded by an aura of golden light, especially around his mane. The lion was truly a sight to behold but Kushanku was still cautious and wary, for he sensed a danger associated with him. However, despite his fierceness, the lion retained his gentle gaze on the Nekomata kit. Then Kushanku found the courage turn round and, kneeling before the lion as a sign of respect. The Lion then began to speak. In his booming voice, there was disturbance and distraught.

"Kushanku, I have seen the distress and heard the wailing and cries of heartbreak from the Narnians for the past thirty-five years since Jadis had locked Narnia in the constant winter with her evil spell," he said, "It is clear that the Witch's dictatorship and corrupted government system she had intentionally invented when she usurped the throne from King Frank X is having a devastating impact on the inhabitants of Narnia, most especially with the… the…" the Lion's voice sounded like it was about to splinter, much to Kushanku's concern, for he sensed that the Lion was about to break down, "W-w-with that… abhorrent… DETESTABLE… once-every-ten-year event she calls the Decadal Fighting League in which several hundred individual Narnians, some of them _youngsters,_ such as your adopted brother Gingerfur, are randomly selected by her and sent into an arena where they practically slaughter each other for a prize of some 'better life' by the Witch herself…"

Kushanku couldn't agree more to this. What he saw on the magical TV back in Dashiell's den was utterly _abominable,_ and it was clear that the Lion was totally grieved by the same thing as well and Kushanku thought he saw the Lion's eyes blink with sheer grief. However, there was one thing the Lion had said about Jadis's coming to power that confused him.

"If you don't mind asking," the Nekomata timidly and warily said, "What did you mean by 'she usurped the throne from King Frank X?"

"Before the Witch killed King Frank X and most of his sons and stole their throne and locked Narnia in the constant winter you're familiar with today," replied the Lion, "Narnia was under the protection of the Tree of Protection, planted in the Lantern Waste by a human called Digory Kirke after I had sent him to fetch a silver apple from the Garden of Youth," Kushanku tipped his head to one side in confusion. The word 'human' sounded somewhat familiar and he had never heard of a figure called Digory Kirke before, but then the Lion continued, "The Tree of Protection had served to keep Jadis away from the Narnian land but when it eventually withered and died, Jadis returned and usurped the throne, and brought in an incredibly corrupted government system with her after she had cursed Narnia with the constant winter."

"B-b-but that's not true," said Kushanku, "We were told that a war had broken out and Jadis had come along to rescue us from that war but at a price with Jadis locking Narnia in winter to keep the humans away."

"Yes, that is true you were told that," said the Lion, but then a stern look formed on his radiant face, "But that is just another one of the evil Witch's tricks she has used to hide the real truth from you Narnians," Kushanku continued to gaze at the Lion in confusion as the Lion hardened his stern glare, "In other words, you have been told a pack of lies."

This sent a massive demoralising wave surging through Kushanku, and he shuddered in disbelief. The Lion put on a comforting face, "I know how disheartening the revelation is to you but it's true. You, and most of your generation, have largely been blinded by the Witch to the truth, and those lies have also affected some of the older Narnians, causing them to doubt the real truth and abandon it."

"What are we gonna do then, um… Mr Lion…" began Kushanku.

"Please, call me Aslan," said the Lion.

"What are we gonna do… um… Aslan?" asked Kushanku timidly with a gulp. A stern look came upon the Lion's face.

"I'm going to assign some of the Narnians an important task if they are to escape the grip of the evil Witch's dictatorship, both from her curse locking Narnia in the winter and her tools of extreme oppression, such as this… _thing_ she has called the Fighting League," said the golden Maned Cat, growling the last two words with utter disgust, before resuming his stern voice tone, "And you are going to be one of them for your village, Green Leaf."

At this, Kushanku shot the Lion a disbelieving look as the Maned Cat began, "So listen very carefully," the Nekomata, despite uncertainty welling within him, obeyed and cocked his ears to receive the important information. The Lion began.

"I want you to evacuate the villagers of Green Leaf and go to the base of Gangalf the Wise Kitsune and his mate Kyukon, the first Kistune who have existed since my creation of them during Narnia's beginnings and the parents of the entire Kitsune species; I have appointed them to not only be the father and mother of all Kitsune, but I have also appointed them, along with their eldest children, to be Chroniclers and recorders of Narnia's history, as well as prophecy keepers, shortly after the Tree of Protection had been planted so that the truth of Narnia's history and the true prophecies are kept as a record," Kushanku was aware that Kitsune were amongst some of the Narnian creatures that were able to live an extremely long time, alongside Centaurs and even his own species, the Nekomata, thus he had assumed that this Gandalf character would probably be Narnian centuries old. The Lion continued, "Groups of other town and village Narnians are going there to seek temporary refuge from the Witch's oppression and her spies and also receive a proper education on the _true_ history of Narnia as well as the prophecies I have commanded Gandalf, his mate and eldest cubs to keep, among them the Golden Age Prophecy, as well as proper food and rest, and I want to rescue the villagers from Green Leaf and send them there as well."

"Then after you have rested up at Gandalf's base, have properly learned of Narnia's history and about the Prophecy, Gandalf and his mate will provide you with training and further instruction on a migration out of Narnia and into Archenland, where you till stay until the Age of Winter nears its end and that it is eventually safe for you to return to Narnia."

"Okay," said Kushanku, but then curiosity welled within him, "But how are we gonna get there? I don't know where this Gandalf Kitsune guy lives."

"I will send a Phoenix who will lead the way. The other groups already heading to Gandalf's base are being guided by more Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs," replied the Lion. Rocs were a type of elemental bird in Narnia that resembled a giant eagle or other bird of prey and who were associated with snow and ice, and thus loved winter and were thus ice birds and the frosty equivalent to the Phoenix. Their plumage had a variety of shades of white, icy blue, grey and silver, similar to how Phoenixes had a combination of reds, oranges, yellows and golds in their plumage, and Rocs possessed chilling and icy powers and abilities. However, due to the Witch's curse locking Narnia in a constant winter with no spring, summer or autumn, the constant presence of snow and ice, alongside the strength of the cold and the spell causing it, had caused the Rocs a LOT of stress, despite their love and association with snow and ice, especially after witnessing the other Narnians not suited to constant winter in constant stress with the threats of starvation or freezing to death hanging over them all the time, and had participated in trying to distribute food to those Narnians but like every other Narnian creature, the Rocs had faced a lot of trouble from the Witch's cronies.

The Lion then became very serious with Kushanku, "You are to follow the Phoenix I am going to send you but it is VITALLY and VERY important that you stay on the Phoenix's trail and NOT step onto any paths either on the right or the left, or wander from the group," this sent shivers down Kushanku's spine and he gulped, "Otherwise you'll end up getting spotted by the Witch's spies which would result in them reporting your actions to the Witch herself which would seriously jeopardise your very lives. Also, you must make sure that the villagers do NOT go in a different direction, or they'd end up in grave danger from the Witch's cronies."

Kushanku timidly and hesitantly nodded. But then a question sprouted within him and he began to plead with the Lion, "But how am I gonna convince the villagers, especially my adopted Cheetah dad Dashiell, who is already severely heartbroken from losing Gingerfur and Mrs Honeycomb," his heart lurched as he said the names of the two deceased Cheetahs, "that you've spoken to me? Firstly, the mention of your very name's strictly forbidden; secondly, any talk or even a mentioning of you is forbidden also, and thirdly, I'm just a young Nekomata kit. I have no qualities of a leader, not even the slightest," Kushanku then closed his eyes and shed a tear, "They'll NEVER believe me."

The Lion looked upon the distraught Nekomata with sympathy, "It is true that some of the villagers don't believe in me at all, but there are some who, deep down, do and are trusting in me and the Golden Age Prophecy to keep their hopes alive in the severe oppression put upon them by the Witch," the Lion's gaze then hardened into a stern look once again, "But you MUST carry out this task," he said seriously, "You MUST get as many of the villagers, especially those who believe in me and the Golden Age Prophecy, and yourself, out of that village as soon as possible because if you stay, or go in another direction other than the Phoenix's one, the Witch's cronies will come and slaughter you, or drag you off to the Witch herself and have you turned to stone for the Witch sees the subject on me and the Prophecy as a serious threat. But don't worry; I will be with you when you speak to them and carry out my commands…"

Kushanku shuddered violently as doubtful pressure built up within him.

"But I CANNOT DO IT!" he cried in retort and in distress, "I CANNOT lead DOZENS OF VILLAGERS who are TOO AFRAID TO BELIEVE IN YOU because of that STUPID WITCH and secondly, because I'm just a STUPID YOUNG KIT who is often SEEN AS CHILDISH AND MISCHIEVOUS! Why can't you select another villager to take up that role instead!?"

At this, the Lion flashed an irritated glare at the Nekomata and began to rebuke him.

"Have you not been listening?" he said in a slightly angry voice, much to Kushanku's startled flinch, "I said _I shall be with you when you carry out your task_ ," the Lion the proposed Kushanku a question to challenge his beliefs and faith, which the Lion felt were shrinking with the cold air of doubt, similar to how the freezing air from the Witch's spell had on beings of fire such as Pyros, "Who sung Narnia into its existence during its birth? And who was it that gave the talking beasts their power of speech?"

Kushanku then backed away somewhat as the Lion scolded him for his doubt, but despite this, he tearfully gave the Maned Cat his answer, "It was you, obviously. You were the one who spoke Narnia and sung everything in it into existence," Kushanku then breathed a sigh, "And you clearly haven't used evolution to bring everything that lives in the world into existence over millions of years either."

"That is the correct answer," the Lion said, "and you will learn about that truth when you reach Gandalf and Kyukon's base with the evacuated villagers and the other Narnians from various other villages and towns who I have commanded to go there."

Then Kushanku gazed at the Lion worriedly, "But there are some villagers that don't believe you created Narnia or even if you exist at all. What am I gonna do about that, especially if I am to deal with this by myself?"

As he said this, he bowed his head and lowered his ears in despair. The Lion approached him slowly. "Look, there are some villagers, amongst them a certain Pyro who lives with you, who still believe in me as I have said before," he said comfortingly, "You may not see that they do on the outside but I know their hearts and their minds, and I know they will listen to the warnings I have told you to deliver to them. All you have to do is trust in me to convince them," Kushanku tearfully raised his head and gazed at the radiant Lion as he continued, "And as I've said before, I shall be with you," the Lion's face then became sombre, "but there will be some villagers who will not listen to my warnings given to them through you, especially those who don't believe in me but also including some of them who do, and I'm afraid they will end up facing the serious consequences I told you about, so don't waste any of your time trying to convince them if they don't listen, even if they happen to be your own two biological brothers, sister or adopted Cheetah brother and sister," Kushanku flinched at the mentioning of Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Amberpaw, especially the last of these five for she often scorned and mocked any concept of the Great Lion as well as Narnia's creation.

"Just get yourself and the other villagers who do heed my warnings out of that village and follow the Phoenix," said the Lion. Kushanku looked on tearfully and nodded.

"I will do as you have told me," he said promisingly and in a tearful voice. Suddenly, another voice penetrated the atmosphere and called Kushanku's name, making the Neokamata snap his gaze into the air. The Lion formed a firm face, "It's time for you to go now, Kushanku," at this, the Nekomata snapped his gaze back to the radiant Lion as he began to fade, "Remember to carry out the task I have given you, and make sure that you follow the Phoenix whom I have called upon to be your guide to Gandalf the Kitsune's base, as well as heed my warnings, and when the time is right, we shall meet again…"

The Lion's voice became echoed as Kushanku was pulled away from him and from the dream, especially as the calling voice, which turned out to belong to Mensa the Skvader, which continued to repeat his name. Kushanku then found himself being pulled away from the Lion, much to his alarm as the beautiful forest scenery merged together into a blur with the Lion's figure at the focal point of the stretched, distorted forest…

Back in the 'real' Narnian world and in the sleeping quarters of Dashiell's den, Rosemary was barking at Kushanku to wake up as well as shake him by the shoulders. Around the sleeping Nekomata, a very concerned Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Sandstorm and Amberpaw stood with Hopper as Mensa continued to shout Kushanku's name to shake and wake him. After a few more moments, Kushanku finally opened his eyes. To his surprise, he found himself gazing into a very concerned look of a Skvader. Alarmed, he sat bolt upright and shot confused glances in various directions in the sleeping quarters.

"Wh-wh-where am I?" he stammered in confusion.

"You were having a nightmare, adopted bro," said Sandstorm, "So I went to fetch Mr Hopper and Mrs Mensa to come and wake you up."

"I believe you've been dreaming about that HORRIBLE Fighting League thing again, haven't you?" asked Crystal before the Parrot chick lowered her head with nervousness, "I certainly had… _again_."

The frightened looks were replicated on the faces of Nyarth and Snowwing who appeared to have been dreaming about the horrible event and its gory actions as well. Then Kushanku moved on, "How is the meeting with the possibility of evacuation of this village?"

"Our leaders have reached a decision," said Hopper, before the Jackalope commanded the nine kids to get their coats on and come outside, "Come. Our Peryton leader is going to announce it to us."

At this, the nine kids dashed off obediently and left the sleeping quarters via the door to the corridor with Hopper and Mensa following. However, as they left, Kushanku remembered the words spoken to him by the lion-like figure in his dream: " _I want you to evacuate the villagers of Green Leaf and go to the base of Gandalf the Wise Kitsune, you MUST carry out this task."_

However, Kushanku pushed these memories to the back of his mind for the time being and left after the other eight kids. As soon as the remainder of Dashiell's family including Dashiell himself had put on their coats, they left the den and joined the gathering of the other villagers before an elevated slab of wood where the leader and his highest ranking subordinate elders had taken their stand to deliver the announcement. Kushanku gazed at Dashiell as the Cheetah continued to wear the incredibly depressed look on his face, the grief over the loss of Honeycomb and Gingerfur all in one day yesterday still fresh on his face and in his heart. The Nekomata shuddered with worry. How was his adopted Cheetah father going to react when he talks about who he had been dreaming about? The Nekomata feared the worst possible reaction from the adult male Cheetah, especially since his heart was in complete tatters over the loss of both Gingerfur and Honeycomb in one day. Kushanku decided to put this thought to one side and see what the Peryton village leader and the elders had to say before going ahead with the task, but he sensed that he will have to deliver the warning and carry out the task assigned to him by the Lion in his dream, whether the villagers or even his own family including Dashiell liked it or not.


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18- the villagers leave down two separate paths**

Kushanku stood with Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Sandstorm and Amberpaw and also Shadewing, Hopper, Daisytail, Dashiell, Rubyfeather, Chiseltooth, Rosemary, Mensa, Rosebush, Spikeball, Thorn and Quill as the Peryton stag took his stand on the platform and faced the crowd. He called for everyone to be quiet and turn their attention to him.

"May I have your attention please?" he called. Everyone fell silent and gazed at the village leader as he was flanked by three of the elders: a Red Dwarf and two Elves. In the eyes of the villagers were uncertainty and fear, as told by the rapid blinks of their eyes and worried looks on their faces. The Peryton stag saw these and said, "I know you lot are horribly distraught and worried about our fate but we, that is, me and the elders, have been discussing this and have managed to come up with an evacuation plan to hopefully escape it…"

Kushanku gazed at the village leader as he continued, "We are gonna pack up and leave this village and go to the nearest town to us, our neighbouring town Purple Flower, where we will hopefully receive hospitality from the residents there…"

Kushanku, at this, flinched. This was against the command from the Lion figure in his dream: the villagers were to follow a Phoenix who will come and lead them in the direction of a certain base, and Kushanku soon found himself in the middle of two choices: either go along with the Peryton leader's advice with the other villagers or speak up, and he knew the latter option would land him into some serious trouble for he doubted that many of the villagers would believe his dream to be real. As the Peryton stag said, "Right, let's all return to our homes, pack up our valuables and whatever meagre food supplies we have left in our dens and houses, and meet up here again to get ready to leave for Purple Flower Town…"

Kushanku then shot gazes in various directions for any sign of a colourfully red firebird in the trees. To his disappointment, there was none present, not yet. As the crowd began to prepare to disperse to return to their houses to pack up, Rosemary ordering him and the other kids back to Dashiell's den to do the same, Kushanku made his decision.

"Kushanku, what are you doing?" asked Nyarth when he saw his younger brother leave.

"I'm gonna deliver this warning I've been told in this dream," replied Kushanku as he left. This prompted glances to be exchanged between Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Sandstorm and Amberpaw, and the last one in this line put on a sneering look while the others began to call Kushanku to return to them, only for their cries to fall on deaf ears. Then Kushanku ran around the crowd while they talked and prepared to move and rushed onto the wooden platform just before the Peryton stag was about to make his way down from it with the two Elves and the Red Dwarf. The quartet was stopped and surprised by the appearance of the fork-tailed, bipedal cat as he began to protest to them. This, however, hadn't gone unnoticed by someone in his family.

"Kushanku, what ARE YOU DOING!?" yelled Rosemary from the back of the crowd. Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Sandstorm and Amberpaw also looked on in shock, as did some of the other members of the crowd including Hopper, Daisytail, Dashiell, Chiseltooth, Mensa, Rosebush, Spikeball, Thorn and Quill.

"Kushanku, get down from that platform at ONCE," squawked Rubyfeather angrily, "Or I'll fly up there myself and DRAG YOU OFF!"

Dashiell and the other adults of Kushanku's family also cried out for the Nekomata to return from the platform but Kushanku had already begun to speak with the Peryton stag.

"Excuse me, sir," said Kushanku to the stag, his nerves as a multitude pairs of eyes bore into him threatening to overwhelm him, "I don't think it's a good idea that we should go to Purple Flower Town."

"Look, we don't have a choice, Kushanku," replied the Peryton stag village leader as the two Elves and Red Dwarf flanked him, agreeing looks on their faces, "The decision has already been made and we're gonna go along with it."

"Yes, absolutely," said one of the Elves sternly, "That wretched Dog who has won the Fighting League yesterday has likely told that witch of a Queen that some of us still believe in the Forbidden Subject…"

"And as a result, ALL of our lives are in danger because of him," put in the Red Dwarf bitterly, clearly outraged at Soran's betrayal since he won the Fighting League.

"Including the youngsters such as you," added the other Elf.

"Kushanku, come down, right NOW!" yelled Chiseltooth at the back of the crowd of villagers.

"Your family elders are calling you," said the stag with a glance at the Beaver and the others of Kushanku's family. Kushanku then hastily launched into snapping as the tension of his nerves reached sudden breaking point. "If those villagers go in the WRONG DIRECTION, they will STILL NOT be safe from that WITCH…"

This plunged the other villagers into silence and stopped them in their tracks, and they converged their gazes on the Nekomata kit. Dashiell and the others with him also stopped. The stag looked on with the two Elves and Red Dwarf, before frowns formed on their faces. Behind Kushanku, the other elders also looked on with stern frowns.

"Okay, young Nekomata, what is this silly codswallop…" said the stag in irritation and with impatience.

"It's NOT codswallop," said Kushanku, before his gaze rolled over the listeners, "Now listen, if we go to another town, we'd still be in grave danger from the Witch and her cronies…"

"Where did you get that information from?" asked one of the elders behind Kushanku, a Goat (not one of the Goats from Soran's family who had already left with the Witch yesterday). Kushanku turned to him. He knew that the reaction from the villagers would be negative, but he had no choice, "I had a dream during a nap a while ago," he explained, "and in that dream, someone told me that we must wait for a Phoenix to come for us, and we must follow it to the base of Gandalf the Kitsune," sceptical glares were exchanged between the villagers as he said this, "and NOT go in a different direction from that Phoenix's trail or we'd end up caught by the Witch's spies and reported…"

The Peryton stag flinched in surprise. "Wait, wait, wait, a-a-a-are you telling us that we should follow the instructions of some figure in some _dream_ you've had?" he spluttered. Kushanku was about to reply when one of the villagers in the crowd, a Flying Squirrel, asked, "Who is this 'someone' you are taking about, anyway?"

Kushanku hesitated briefly, "It was um… a figure," he replied.

"What figure?" asked the stag as the two Elves and Red Dwarf flanking him just shot each other confused and sceptical looks and shrugged. This brought Kushanku's nerves to their extreme limit and he felt weak in the legs, but he decided to let it out anyway.

"It was um… a cat," he stammered.

"What cat?" asked a Skunk in the crowd.

"A large cat," replied Kushanku.

"What did this large cat look like?" asked one of the Elves.

"This cat was surrounded by a um… a golden light," replied Kushanku timidly, "and he had shining golden fur as well as a circle of shining thick hair surrounding his face. He had a stocky body and… a tail ending in a paintbrush-like tassel of fur…" this prompted murmurs to emit from the crowd and glances to be exchanged. However, under the curiously, immense fear was boiling for any discussions on the Great Lion was strictly forbidden. At the back of the crowd, Dashiell and his family looked on in wonder but then a furious look appeared on the faces of the adults. Then the Red Dwarf frowned.

"That description sounds like…" he began.

"The… Great… Lion…" said one of the Elves slowly and timidly.

"Wait, are you saying that the figure you saw in your dream was the Great Lion and HE told you to follow a Phoenix to some base?" asked the stag. Kushanku nodded, but then he heard an eruption of wails flood his ears, but to the Nekomata's dismay, those wails were saturated with extreme fright and despair.

"Is it any WONDER we're in SO MUCH DANGER from the Queen's DEATH THREAT!?" screamed one.

"That subject's STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!" cried another.

"We are NOT supposed to HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GREAT LION or ANY OPTHER SUBJECT ABOUT HIM!" cried a third. Then the crowd's order was thrown into chaos and some of them began to run around and let loose despairing wails. Kushanku flinched violently at the uproar he had ignited, and he soon found himself on the receiving end of a number of furious glares from the Peryton stag, the two Elves, the Red Dwarf and the elders behind him. Then a Cheetah paw appeared and seized Kushanku by the head hair, making him yelp in pain.

"Kushanku, you have REALLY CROSSED THE LINE THIS TIME!" bellowed an extremely furious Dashiell as he literally dragged the Nekomata by his mop-like head hair from the platform and through the snow in the direction of his den. Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Sandstorm and Amberpaw backed away, extreme fear and the other adults including Rosemary preventing them from coming to Kushanku's defence. Chiseltooth, Rosebush and Rubyfeather even wept in utter shock. Then moments later, Kushanku was flung hard into the sleeping quarters, where he landed on his face with his legs and forked tail in the air, before falling back down and shooting a terrified gaze into the wrathful eyes of his adopted Cheetah dad.

"You will STAY IN HERE until we are READY TO MOVE OUT," barked Dashiell in an extremely loud voice, so loud that it exploded through the windows of the sleeping quarters and heard by some nearby villagers outside, amongst them Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm and Satoshi who gazed at the compartment with timid eyes, while Amberpaw looked on scornfully, "But in the meantime, you THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

And with that, he slammed the door so hard that the frames around it formed a few cracks and the shockwave traversed the rest of the den, making some of it shudder a little, and Kushanku was left in the sleeping quarters, completely dumbfounded and bewildered as well as terrified at his adopted Cheetah dad's outburst. As Dashiell then stormed towards the exit of his den, Emberflame glided in. she had seen Dashiell literally drag Kushanku by the head hair and tossed him into the sleeping quarters despite causing him so much pain and because of this, the Pyro was outraged at the Cheetah's behaviour towards the Nekomata kit.

"What is the MEANING of pulling at that poor Nekomata's head hair like THAT!?" bellowed Emberflame furiously as Dashiell stormed past, "Don't you realise that you've…"

"SHUT UP, EMBERFLAME!" screeched the Cheetah at the top of his lungs before finally disappearing to outside. Emberflame recoiled in utter shock and disgust. This was out of character for Dashiell to snap at her that harshly but because of the extreme trauma of losing Gingerfur in the gory Fighting League and subsequently Honeycomb at the hands of the Witch yesterday, it was clear that the Cheetah's emotions were out of control, like a massive blizzard. Knowing better than to retort, Emberflame left to check on Kushanku who lay sobbing and trembling violently in the sleeping quarters.

Back outside, the villagers were still running around wailing and crying in despair and terror, and the elders were trying to restore order.

"Come on, everyone," called the Peryton stag from the air as he flew over the dynamic crowd, "CALM DOWN! What that Nekomata said was just a LOAD OF RUBBISH!"

However, to his dismay, the villagers continued to run around screaming and wailing. Many of the youngsters were screaming and crying as though they had been in a bad, vivid nightmare (the Fighting League certainly was this, but it was no nightmare), and the older ones were behaving as though some predatory dumb animal or worse, the Witch's patrollers were prowling around and it was proving a challenge for the stag and his highest ranking subordinates to get the panicked villagers back under control. While the villagers continued to run around, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal had retreated to the side of Dashiell's den to avoid getting trampled by the scattering villagers.

"This is bad," murmured Nyarth as he watched the turmoil.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Akira worriedly. Then Crystal flashed a worried look in the direction of the sleeping quarters.

"I hope Kushanku is alright," she murmured. As the Parrot chick said this, Amberpaw came in, a smug and scornful look on her face.

"Well, he had it coming," she cooed obnoxiously, "After all, the subject on that oversized, mutant cat is forbidden for one thing and the cat itself doesn't exist for another," her smug gaze hardened as glares appeared on the faces of Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal, "I still believe that the Queen has cooked the useless cat and had eaten him for dinner, probably as a celebration meal for the Fighting League's conclusion yesterday…"

At this, Satoshi stormed forwarded, an outraged look on his face with his teeth gritted and raised his paw at Amberpaw but before he could bring it down onto the obnoxious Cheetah's face to swipe the equally obnoxious smirk off of it, Snowwing rushed in and seized Satoshi's arm.

"Don't" said the Skvader kit, prompting Satoshi to shoot him a "What!?" look and reluctantly oblige. However, he still maintained his volcanic glare on Amberpaw. That glare was also replicated on the faces of Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Dahlia, Crystal and also Snowwing and they converged those biting-cold glares on Amberpaw as they were also extremely offended by that remark.

"You HAD to make a SNIDE REFERENCE to THAT DISGUSTING EVENT yesterday, didn't you, you BRAT!" hissed Dahlia bitterly.

"Aren't you at all HEARTBROKEN over your brother's DEATH!?" put in Snowwing. At this, Amberpaw winced as the pain over Gingerfur's death resurfaced sharply at this comment. Then Sandstorm, a sob escaping his mouth, burst into tears and darted off in a direction opposite to the scattered crowd of villagers who were now being calmed down by the Peryton stag and his highest ranking subordinates. Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi followed, their wounded heart having received another gash from Amberpaw's highly insensitive remark about the Fighting League and Gingerfur's death in her attempts to mock the Great Lion. At this, Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal glared caustically at Amberpaw as Sandstorm and the three Nekomata receded into the distance, tears flying everywhere and sobs erupting from all four of them.

"Nice work, Amberpaw," growled Snowwing bitterly, although Amberpaw did look on with a regretful look on her face.

"You've just made things a WHOLE LOT WORSE!" put in Dahlia tearfully, her eyes also beginning g to ooze tears. With that, the young Jackalope, Skvader and Crystal, who said nothing to Amberpaw but maintained her highly acidic look on the Cheetah cub, then dashed off after Sandstorm, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi, leaving Amberpaw to gaze after them with extreme regret and guilt boiling within her. Behind her, the villagers were slowly being brought under control by the Peryton and his subordinates, the elders. However, a few of them, amongst them Shadewing, seemed convinced by Kushanku's warnings and that the dream he had had of the Lion figure was real.

Back in the sleeping quarters, Emberflame tried to calm Kushanku down as he continued to sob and tremble from Dashiell's outburst. Poor Kushanku felt torn, troubled and confused, and his mind continued to splash in the memories of the Lion figure's warnings to him that he must follow a Phoenix and not go in a different direction.

"I don't get it, Miss Emberflame," said the Nekomata tearfully as he cried into his paws, "Th-they just dismissed it as some silly dream…"

"Oh, do try to calm down, Kushanku," said Emberflame with a fire-hand on the Nekomata's shoulders, "They're just extremely scared and afraid of mentioning the Great Lion or anything to do with him," a scowl formed on her fire face, "It's because of that stupid Witch's laws that they are so afraid of even discussing anything to do with Aslan or anything associated with him, that's all…" Emberflame's face then returned to its sympathetic gaze, "But I do believe in the Great Lion and the Golden Age Prophecy, though."

At this, Kushanku slowly raised his face from his paws and gazed at the Pyro with tearstained eyes.

"Y-y-you do?" he asked. Emberflame nodded, "And I also believe that the figure who spoke to you in the dream you've had IS the Great Lion and I believe he is assigning you with a task of rescuing as many villagers as possible from the sly Witch and her cronies…" as she spoke, Kushanku noticed a flash of movement sweep over the bed where he and the other kids slept out the corner of his eye. At this, the Nekomata turned and saw that it was a faint shadow sweeping over the quilts and pillows. It was clear that there was something coming from outside through the window. Compelled to investigate, Kushanku got up and went to the window to peer out.

"I believe that could be…" he said in his usual voice although his eyes were still tearstained. Emberflame followed him. The moment Kushanku peered out the window and found the shadow's owner perched on one of the branches of the leafless trees, his eyes widened with realisation. Shooting a gaze at Emberflame, Kushanku said, "I guess it's time I got moving. If those villagers aren't gonna listen, then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to follow that bird myself…"

"I'm going with you," said Emberflame firmly.

"But Miss Emberflame," said Kushanku, "You can't survive for very long out in the freezing cold."

Emberflame, at this, hardened her gaze, left briefly and quickly returned with a box-like glass container.

"Here, carry me in this," she said, passing the container to Kushanku who realised it was a handheld lamp, "Dashiell used this to transport me and allow me to go with the rest of the family without me having to travel myself and suffer exposure to the enchanted cold," a sigh escaped the Pyro's fire mouth, "If only that were possible then I wouldn't need to be carried around like a fish in a bowl…"

Kushanku said nothing as Emberflame then transformed into her flame form and entered the glass container. After this, the Nekomata prepared to climb out of the window…

Back outside once again, the Peryton stag and the other elders had managed to calm the villagers down and gather them back together. The Peryton stag then ordered them to return to their homes to gather whatever food they had, as well as pack any valuable belongings, and return to outside ready for the evacuation for Purple Flower Town. As Dashiell's group entered their den, Rubyfeather said, "Where are Kushanku and the other kids?"

"I'll fetch Kushanku," said Dashiell, knowing where he was and rushed off for the sleeping quarters to fetch Kushanku while the other adults were back in the den to start packing. Rosemary followed.

"And I'll get Emberflame," said Rubyfeather and with that, the Parrot left to find a fire lamp for the Pyro. As the other adults of Dashiell's family packed whatever rations of food they had as well as their belongings into simple cloth bags, the only carrying tools they had, Shadewing stopped.

"What is it, Shadewing?" asked Mensa. The Bat turned his saddened and uncertain gaze at her.

"I don't know," he said, "I think we should follow Kushanku's advice."

As he said this, a scoffing laugh escaped the mouths of Rosebush, Thorn, Spikeball and Quill and Chiseltooth rolled his eyes.

"Look, it was just a DREAM!" said Chiseltooth.

"And secondly, Kushanku is just a KID;" put in Rosebush, "Most kids these days cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality."

"OR know when to stop pretending," added Thorn.

"I believe that Nekomata kit has an incredibly _overactive_ imagination," put in Spikeball, before tutting, "A lion singing Narnia into existence. Honestly, that's the tallest story I have ever heard."

"And don't get us wrong," Quill supplemented, "We used to believe in that fairy tale ourselves when we were young Hedgehog pups, but now it's nothing more than the stuff of myths."

His two brothers, cousin and Chiseltooth nodded in agreement. Shadewing gazed at the four Hedgehogs and the Beaver unconvinced, however. While Shadewing talked with Chiseltooth and the four Hedgehogs, Dashiell and Rosemary opened the door to the sleeping quarters and began to look for him.

"Kushanku," said Dashiell as he and the Monkey scanned the beds for the Nekomata, "Kushanku?"

However, there was no-one. The room was completely empty for Kushanku had disappeared. The moment that dawned upon the pair; Dashiell once again volcanically erupted in his temper.

"I'M GONNA STRANGLE that FORK-TAILED KIT!" he bellowed.

"Could he have climbed out of the window?" asked Rosemary. At this, Dashiell shot the Monkey a look and rushed for the hole in the wall, the same one Kushanku had climbed out of.

 **Meanwhile**

"Yes, Aslan has sent me to lead you to the base of Gandalf the Wise Kitsune and his mate Kyukon," said the creature Kushanku and Emberflame had spotted through the window. This creature was a very beautiful bird. He had deep red plumage interspersed with some black, gold and yellow patches. His tail feathers were long and elegant and he possessed a scarlet and purple crest atop his head. Kushanku and Emberflame who was inside the fire lamp nodded.

"Yes, I had a dream of the Great Lion warning me to evacuate as many of the villagers as possible and follow you," said Kushanku, before his face and ears fell, "But sadly, none of them would listen…"

The Phoenix was about to speak when Emberflame, from her container, noticed someone approach the three.

"Kushanku," she said, pulling Kushanku's gaze from the Phoenix to the group of incoming animals. It were Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia, and they had noticed the Nekomata with the Pyro in her lamp emerge from the window to the sleeping quarters.

"Kushanku," cried Nyarth.

"Oh, we were so worried about you especially when Daddy dragged you off so furiously earlier," said Akira.

"Are you alright?" asked Sandstorm until his eyes found the colourful firebird. At this, amazement gripped him, "So THIS must be the Phoenix the Lion has told you about in your dream?" the Cheetah cub asked in astonishment. The Phoenix nodded.

"That's right, young cub, Aslan has sent me to guide Kushanku and whoever else from Green Leaf Village to Gandalf's base," the firebird explained, "as going anywhere else, even to another town for refuge, will only lead to a death trap for that Witch's patrollers are everywhere."

This sent chills down the spines of Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia and they shuddered. Kushanku turned to the Phoenix, "I did do as Aslan ordered in my dream, which was deliver the warning to the villagers that they would run into danger if they don't follow you," he said, "But unfortunately, the only response I got was wailing and weeping from the villagers. Not to mention a fiery outburst from my adoptive Cheetah father who dragged me by my hair to our bedroom…" he rubbed his still-hurting head where Dashiell had seized him and dragged him by the hair earlier and sighed. The Phoenix put on a saddened face before resuming his stern look, "Well if they won't listen, then that's their problem but now that you guys have found me," his gaze rolled over Sandstorm and the other six with him, "It is time we got the journey started," the Phoenix's gaze then hardened into a more serious one, "But there are some very important things you MUST know during our journey to Gandalf and Kyukon's base, and I will tell you about them the moment we leave..."

With that, the Phoenix opened his magnificently colourful wings and lofted into the air to prepare to guide Kushanku and his group on their journey to Gandalf's base.

"Right, come along please," said the Phoenix, "And make sure that you _stay on my trail_. There are the Witch's patrollers on the prowl all around and if you stray from my trail or lag behind, you're gonna end up in deep trouble, and I do mean DEEP. But there are other dangers that I would like to tell you about…" Kushanku and his group exchanged glances and prepared to follow the Phoenix, "but I will tell you about those once we get moving. The sooner we do the better, now let's go…"

Kushanku and the others with him nodded and prepared to follow the Phoenix but before they could leave, shouts, alongside the sounds of feet and hooves slamming into the snow, erupted from behind them, stopping them in their tracks.

"KUSHANKU, KIDS!" called the voice, Shadewing's.

"Oh, there you are," put in Mensa.

"We've wondered where you guys had run off to," added Rubyfeather before her gaze morphed into a rebuking glare as it found the other kids standing around Kushanku and Emberflame in her lamp, "Will you lot please do NOT wander off without our notice? We thought we had lost you the moment we found you kids missing. Shadewing, Mensa and Rubyfeather then gathered around Kushanku's group with the rest of the villagers, including the Peryton stag leader and the village elders, and Dashiell (who was still furious with Kushanku for leaving the sleeping quarters), Amberpaw, Rosebush, Spikeball, Quill, Thorn, Hopper, Daisytail, Chiseltooth and Rosemary as well.

The moment the other villagers had formed a crowd partially enclosing Kushanku and his group, Dashiell stormed forward, prompting Kushanku to back away timidly, frightened by the adult Cheetah's thunderous glare but Emberflame in the lamp in his paw assured the timid Nekomata that she will be by his side. This somewhat soothed Kushanku's shaken nerves but he was still very wary of the furious Dashiell, whose outraged glare then scoured Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia.

"Where do you lot think you're going?" growled the Cheetah, "We told you to stay within our sights!"

"Yes, absolutely!" said Hopper as he stood with Daisytail.

"It is time we were off," put in the Peryton stag, "We don't have time for silly games like this."

At this, Sandstorm came forward, his glare on Amberpaw whose face was laced with mockery.

"I'm sorry, folks, but…" he began but Dashiell cut him off.

"None of your excuses son," snapped he, making Sandstorm flinch, "You SHOULDN'T have just wandered off without our supervision."

"Yes, it is time we were off to Purple Flower Town," said the Peryton stag, the majority of the other villagers, all of who had packed up the supplies in paper or cloth bags, wearing impatient looks on their faces. At this, Kushanku timidly came forward.

"We have to follow the Phoenix," he said, pointing to a beautifully coloured red bird with gold, orange and black marks on his plumage. The Phoenix hovered a short distance away from the group, waiting for Kushanku and his group to follow him. However, Dashiell was still blinded by fury at Kushanku for his disobedience that he did not notice the firebird.

"None of your stupid tricks either, young Nekomata kit," he snapped, making Kushanku jump back, "Let's stop this nonsense and GET TO PURPLE FLOWER VILLAGE!"

Kushanku flinched harshly and hid behind Snowwing and Dahlia, frightened whimpers escaping his mouth as Dashiell lurched forward to seize his paw and dropping the lamp containing Emberflame in the process. However, Emberflame suddenly emerged from her lamp and hovered as a fire woman before Dashiell and the villagers, much to Kushanku and also Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia's surprise. Because Emberflame was exposed to the freezing conditions, she knew she didn't have long and must be back in the lamp as soon as possible.

"Right, before we plunge into another cloud of chaos," the Pyro said, "Let me show you something. You see that red, black and yellow coloured bird over there?" she gestured to the Phoenix who continued to hover in the short distance, waiting for Kushanku to lead the villagers after him. The Peryton stag spotted the bird and turned back to Emberflame.

"What about it?" he asked with a frown.

"I hope you've not been influenced by that naughty little kit's tricks about this stupid dream are you?" said one of the elder Elves. Timid murmurs rolled through the villager crowd and some looked like they wanted to run around and wail again.

"We have to follow that firebird to the base of a certain pair of aged Kitsune…" began Emberflame but the stag immediately cut her off in disbelief.

"Wait, wait, wait, you want us to follow that bird to who-knows-where?" he said.

"What if we get lost and end up caught by that wicked Witch Queen?" asked another village elder, a Fairy.

"We cannot trust that strange bird," added another villager, an Ostrich. At this, Kushanku stepped up.

"That Phoenix WON'T lead us into any danger from the Witch's patrolling groups," he replied, "As long as we stay on his trail, we'll be safe, but we must not lag behind or wander away, or we WILL end up in danger," she flashed a glance at Kushanku before returning it to the crowd, "I believe it was Aslan who spoke to Kushanku in his dream and told him of the imminent danger you guys are in…"

However, to the Pyro's dismay and to Kushanku and also Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Snowwing, Crystal and Dahlia's fright, angry and frightened uproar erupted from the villager crowd.

"EMBERFLAME!" snapped Dashiell.

"How DARE you mention that forbidden name!" snarled the Peryton stag angrily, "Don't you realise that we're in enough danger as it is already!?"

"Not to mention having been put through enough trouble as well," added one of the Elves, "such as from the ABHORRENT Fighting League which included the loss of loved ones in that bloody fight."

"And besides that, that oversized, hair-problem cat doesn't exist," put in Amberpaw scornfully. However, Shadewing, along with Mensa and Rubyfeather exchanged glances amongst themselves and with some of the other villagers, worried looks regarding Kushanku's warning and Emberflame's explanation of the dream appearing on their faces. It appeared that conviction was taking root in these individuals. Then the Peryton village leader called to the crowd and said, "Let's leave for Purple Flower Town."

And with that, the crowd began to move away from Kushanku's group. Emberflame, at this, flew up in her fiery humanoid form and tried to persuade the villagers as they shuffled to leave.

"Wait, if you go in the wrong direction, you WILL end up killed!" she cried, "Guys, L-LISTEN! Haven't you forgotten the Golden Age Prophecy?"

These last three words stopped some of the villagers in their tracks, but the rest of them continued to move after the Peryton stag as he flew to the front and began to lead them away. Then Dashiell whirled round and glared furiously at the Pyro.

"Look, Emberflame, you and that no-adopted-Nekomata-son-of-mine are wasted enough of our time already," the Cheetah snapped, stabbing Kushanku deeply with what he had called him, "We've heard ENOUGH of this STUPID SUBJECT on this Lion-thing and risking OUR lives just talking about it. Now it's time to move on to escape the Queen's wrath."

"What did you just call Kushanku?" snapped Emberflame. At this, Dashiell flashed Kushanku, an extremely offended look on his face, as he gazed at the Cheetah. However, without batting another eyelid or acknowledging him, Dashiell turned his back on the Nekomata kit and left with Amberpaw, a scornful look directed at the same Nekomata and his three siblings, following him. But as the villagers prepared to leave after the Peryton stag, some of the crowd members noticed some of their relatives staying behind, such as Dashiell with Sandstorm, Hopper and Daisytail with Dahlia and Chiseltooth, Rosemary, Rosebush, Spikeball and Thorn with Quill, Shadewing, Rubyfeather, Mensa and also Crystal and Snowwing as they remained behind with Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira. At this, these villagers turned round and called for the stayers to come along but the stayers, wary and convinced looks on their faces did not move and instead moved over to Kushanku and Emberflame's side. This led to a big argument igniting between some of these splitting families, with Sandstorm arguing with Dashiell for disowning Kushanku right in front of him, Dahlia arguing with Hopper and Daisytail, and one or two of the Fairies arguing with the rest of the Green Leaf Fairies. This continued for a few more minutes until finally, the villagers following the Peryton stag gave up and left.

A minute later, Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira stood with Shadewing, Sandstorm, Mensa, Snowwing, Quill, Rubyfeather, Crystal, Emberflame (who was now back in the safety of her lamp as she had spent long enough exposed to the freezing cold), and several other villagers, among them the two Fairies (an elder female and her grandson), an Elf, a young Ostrich, and three Squirrels and a Badger (there were about four dozen or more of them) as they watched the rest of the villagers recede further away from them in the direction of Purple Flower Town. Kushanku stood with Shadewing, tears falling from his eyes as he gazed at Dashiell as he left with Amberpaw. The Peryton stag stole one last glance at the group of stayers before turning around and ushering his group along. Then while Kushanku's groups continued to watch the Peryton stag's larger group leave, the Phoenix called them and pulled their attention to him.

"It's time we left as well," said the firebird, "Don't bother with that lot; if they won't listen, that's their problem, but they will face the consequences of their decision to not to listen to Aslan's warnings given to Kushanku to tell them."

At this, Kushanku's group pulled their gazes away from the Peryton stag's group and left after the firebird and left a few at a time. Kushanku and Sandstorm were the last to leave. Reluctantly, these two also pulled their gazes from the larger group of villagers and, tearfully, left after the Phoenix.

Then within moments, the villagers of Green Leaf went in two separate directions, with most of them going after the Peryton stag in the direction of Purple Flower Town, and Kushanku's smaller group following the Phoenix.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19- a horrible realisation and Trotterhoof the Pig hatches a plan**

 **Meanwhile**

While Kushanku and his group's journey to Gandalf the Kitsune's base, where they will stay for a few months before going on south to Archenland was just beginning, in the Queen's palace gardens, a certain family of animals had settled into their new home. Soran, along with his sister Zira, father Growler, mother Silver-Ears and the rest of his biological family, and the non-Dog members who had joined the family either through adoption or choice, such as Alexandrite and Padparadscha the Nekomata, Desdemona the Griffin, Cyril the Hippogriff, Link the Peryton faun, and Trotterhoof the Pig, were living in a new den, set up for them by the Queen and her cronies the moment they had been taken to the Queen's palace and surrounding snowy grounds.

The den was larger than the den Soran and his family previously had, and the contents and food were of far better quality. The furniture was luxurious, extravagant and elaborate, decorated with the softest pillows and comfiest quilts you had ever seen. The windows had thicker curtains and were very effective in keeping the heat in the den and the cold out, and there were magically operated heaters and fires built into the Dog family and their non-Dog members' new home to provide plenty of warmth, and there was even a shower, a bath and a large bowl that could be filled with warmth water for relaxing in, complete with bubbles (like the bubble bath tubs we are familiar with in our world, called Jacuzzis), and there was a flat, magic TV screen hung on the wall, provided so that Growler and company could watch the activities going on in the Queen's palace and the like. The better quality food included plenty of proper bread, best quality fruit and vegetables, best quality meat and best quality treats, such as Turkish delight, cakes and other desserts (unlike our world's animals who can't eat chocolate or cakes due to them being poisonous to them, the Narnian animals could). This new home had absolutely EVERYTHING that Soran, Grolwer and their family could ever dream of. It was thoroughly protected from the cold very warm, very comfortable, and the family had plenty of food to eat, whereas before, like every other villager in Green Leaf and the rest of the towns and villages in Narnia, Soran and his family had been severely struggling in the grip of the freezing cold of the Eternal Winter and the threat of starvation due to lack of food. Now, the family had settled into these massive improvements and were enjoying every minute of it. Well, almost all of the family was. To add to that, the majority of the family had pretty much forgotten about their fellow villagers and the struggles they will have to continue with, not to mention the heartbreak over the loss of their selected friends or family members in the gory Fighting League to deal with, completely.

Silver-Ears, Growler, Soran, Zira and many of the Dogs were lounging around in their new, comfy sofas and beds while some of the non-Dog family members, such as the two Goats, were enjoying their very first warm bath. Soran and his group were also feasting on the better-quality food provided to them by some of the Queen's cronies put in charge of looking after the victors of the Fighting League, and there were two other luxurious dens and houses built nearby, and these were the homes of the victors of the previous two Decadal Fighting Leagues and their families.

"Aaaah," breathed Growler happily as he ate a very lean lump of meat, the best quality one he had had in his life, "This is certainly the life…" and with that, he began to munch on the food. Silver-Ears smiled nearby as she ate an apple.

"It sure is, dear," she said as she relaxed on the nice warm sofa and pillows, "We're finally free from the freezing cold and from the threat of starvation."

"And the rest of the beasts of poverty," added one of the daughter Dog puppies as she ate a lump of Turkish delight with her brothers and sisters and cousins, including Soran and Zira. The other Dogs and the surrounding non-Dog members nodded in agreement. However, a few of them only nodded because everyone else nodded as these individuals were laced with guilt and sorrow.

"Hey, Trotterhoof," said Growler, "Would you like some apples? They're very rich in quality."

The Pig who sat near the fire, Trotterhoof, turned and gazed at the Dog as he handed out a bright, plump red apple in his paw. The Pig's face was drooping with sadness. At this, Growler gazed at him.

"Problem, Trotterhoof?" he asked. Trotterhoof returned his sad gaze to the fire and did not answer at first.

"I don't know, Growler," he said, "I've been thinking…"

"You've been thinking?" asked Silver-Ears as she sat up, "About what?"

Trotterhoof lowered his head and breathed a sigh. "I've been thinking about the other villagers, especially that family led by Dashiell…"

"Why, what about them?" asked one of the Goats who entered the room from his shower, a towel, one of the best, fluffiest ones provided with the home draped over his back. Trotterhoof continued to stare at the floor.

"Well, since we've been given a new, completely improved home with warmth and plenty of food," said the Pig, "while they and the other villagers have to continue to live on in extreme poverty, lack of food and the freezing cold… it…" one of his eyes oozed a tear and sent it rolling down his cheek, "It… just doesn't… seem…right…" he lifted his gaze and directed it at Growler and the others. As he did that, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona and Cyril walked in, equally saddened looks on their faces, and one of the puppies and Soran and Zira's cousins who was named Molayne, also stopped eating Turkish delight as the thoughts of a certain group of Nekomata entered his head. At this, Growler put on a frown.

"Oh, just forget about them, Trotterhoof," said the Dog as he resumed eating the pierce of meat, "They're no longer our concern."

"Yes, and besides that, it is strictly forbidden to talk about them anyway," put in the Goat as he left with the towel on his back to put it over one of the magical radiators to dry. Trotterhoof, at this, flinched with disbelief at these words, rose to his four hoof-like feet, and backed away from the fire, before going over to the Dogs. Alexandrite and the other five with her followed.

"I-I-I thought you cared about them," said the Pig in a slightly angry and incredulous voice, before his gaze landed on Soran, "And I-I-I thought you were FRIENDS with them…"

"Not anymore, they aren't," said Growler causally and without a hint of remorse, much to the utter dismay and disbelief of Alexandrite and the other five with her such that they flinched as though they had been stung by bees. Molayne also flinched. "Not anymore, Trotterhoof."

The Pig gazed back at the father of Soran in utter astonishment and disappointment. Then an idea about the change in the attitude of Growler and most of his family toward Kushanku and the other villagers entered the Swine's head, an idea that made him flinch violently and made his stomach lurch.

"Yes, we have a new life to focus on and it is time to move on," said Silver-Ears in agreement and in an equal lack of remorse, "The Queen has graciously and generously provided us with this new home because Soran has won this decade's Fighting League," she nodded to her son as she said this, "So let's settle down and focus on this new chapter in our lives."

"Yes," added Growler, "Dashiell and the rest of the villagers of Green Leaf aren't important to us anymore. They've got their own lives to focus on, and it's too bad they have to continue living with the unfortunate poverty as the result of our Queen's wintery spell to end the war, as well as the loss of their loved ones, such as Dashiell with his son, to deal with, and we've got our own, so let's move on, shall we?"

At these words, a burst of anger tore through Trotterhoof, and the Pig began to tremble with it. "Are you meaning to say that we should start THIS chapter in our lives while those POOR OTHER VILLAGERS are to continue living under the constant threat of STARVING or FREEZING to death in ADDITION to DEALING with a SHATTERED HEART over the loss of an individual in that SLAUGHTERHOUSE of an EVENT!?" bellowed the Pig. Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link and Desdemona also flinched, the memories of seeing the fighters gruesomely killing each other on the magic TV screen back at Dashiell's den flashing in their minds, and Link also began trembling as the young Peryton remembered screaming in extreme terror at the indescribable gore and spillage of blood on that sheet of crystalline material. Trotterhoof swept on.

"In other words, are we to LEAVE those poor VILLAGERS to pick up the SHATTERED PIECES OF THEIR LIVES!?" he squealed.

"Look, THEIR PROBLEMS are no longer OUR PROBLEMS, Trotterhoof," retorted Growler, the anger springing him from the comfy sofa and onto the floor on his feet, "So STOP spoiling our SON'S ACHIEVEMENT with THAT TOPIC and START FOCUSING ON OUR NEW LIVES!"

"YEAH!" put in Silver-Ears and the Goat together. The puppies excluding Molayne nodded in agreement, as did many of the other non-Dog family members including the Goat's sister, the other Goat. At this, Trotterhoof stood there, an appalled look on his face. Then the Pig slowly turned and left for a corner, a few large sobs escaping his mouth. Growler followed him. Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link and Desdemona backed away as the Dog passed by them in pursuit of the Pig.

"Trotterhoof, come here," said Growler in a calmer voice in an attempt to comfort Trotterhoof as he erupted into tears. However, Trotterhoof shot the Dog a tearfully disgusted look.

"Get away from me, Growler," sobbed the Pig, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Growler put on a stunned look and continued to try and approach the Pig as he broke down and wept hard, but Trotterhoof fiercely squealed at the Dog to tell him to back off. Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link and Desdemona exchanged glances as Molayne joined the group, not wanting to eat any more of the Turkish delight with his cousins and sister, his appetite having finally dropped, especially at what Soran had done to Gingerfur in the Fighting League. Then the six looked on as Growler finally admitted defeat and backed away from Trotterhoof as he continued to sob loudly. Alexandrite gazed at Cyril, Paddy, Link and Desdemona and now Molayne as well, with a look of dread, guilt and remorse.

"We shouldn't have abandoned Kushanku and his group," she whispered. The other five, remorseful looks also on their faces, nodded in agreement. Then as Growler returned to eating his meat, an idea entered Alexandrite's head, but it was an idea she knew was going to be difficult.

 **Later**

It was now lunchtime, and Soran and company including Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Cyril, Trotterhoof, Molayne and Desdemona were sat around the table waiting for their meals to be served by some of the Queen's cronies in charge of looking after the victors and their families. This table was highly elaborate and was coated with gold and silver and encrusted with a variety of gemstones but don't be fooled by the fact that the table has this beautiful design and colouring. Remember this has been put together by the Queen and her followers exclusively for this family so that they could enter the luxurious lifestyle, and if you think Soran and company's move into this house made for them by the Queen has had an effect on them in forgetting Kushanku and the others, you will be right. However, only a few of the family members had kept their memory of Kushanku and the other villagers and Narnians in their heads and were remorseful over leaving them to continue with living in the severe poverty… and with the heartbreak of losing their loved ones in the horrible Fighting League, such as Kushanku's family with Gingerfur for example. What disturbed them even more was the fact that Soran and the others showed no sliver of remorse or sorrow for the other villagers and only cared about settling into this luxurious lifestyle given to them by the Queen and her followers; a lifestyle they will have for the rest of their lives and will be passed on to their descendants.

Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Cyril, Trotterhoof, Molayne and Desdemona were tempted to live like this but the thoughts of the other villagers and Narnians being severely oppressed by the wintery curse, among other things that Trotterhoof, who was one of the elder members of the family in particular, were plaguing their minds so much that they were finding the settling down into this lavish lifestyle bestowed upon them by the Queen for Soran's victory in this decade's Fighting League very difficult, but there were other reasons that will make them reject this lifestyle even more still to come. While Alexandrite and the other six were wearing saddened and remorseful faces, Trotterhoof's being laced with disgust and rage as well based on his reddened eyes as a result of crying a lot until now, Growler and the rest of the family eagerly waited for the arrival of the food from the Queen's cronies. Today, the meal was being prepared by a group of Banshees and a group of hideous monsters fiercely loyal to Jadis. These monsters resembled the humanoid Wendigoes in that they had a chest shaped like the imprints and indents of a ribcage, but unlike the Wendigoes who had a Stag-like head complete with antlers and with menacingly shining grey-silver eyes, the monsters had humanoid arms and legs and a banana-shaped head ending in a hideous face with a mouth lined with long, sharp teeth. In the mouth was another pair of jaws that protruded out through the needle-like teeth and the monsters also possessed long, prehensile tails like a Manticore, except the body of the tail did not resemble a scorpion's and instead resembled a series of skeletal vertebrae fused together. However, their tails did end with a curved spike, like a sickle or scimitar, sharp and deadly, similar to how the Mantigores' tails ended with a sharp tip, although theirs was a scorpion's stinger and not a sickle. These creatures, however, had no eyes.

Soran and his family continued to eagerly wait for their lavish lunch, the gold-laced table decorated with extremely elaborate plates and cutlery laid neatly before each individual, but Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Cyril, Trotterhoof, Molayne and Desdemona continued to gaze at their plates with sombre looks.

"Cheer up," said Growler when he saw the looks on the faces of six of them, not looking at Trotterhoof for he would receive an outburst from the Pig, "Our lunch is soon to arrive."

"Oh, here it comes," said Silver-Ears. At this, all heads moved up and their eyes found the meals get brought in through a door on a series of trolley-like things, and those 'trolleys' were being pulled by some of the double jawed, scimitar tail-tipped creatures and a couple of Banshees (who resembled women but had very ugly grey hair, deathly pale green skin and black, skull orbit-like eyes, and were dressed in black cloaks like a Hag or a Shadow. All Banshees were female and had the ability of unleashing deafening screams that they often use as warning shots to threats before gruesomely killing them if they were not deterred by the cries. Thus they were often called 'Wailing Women' as well). One of the Banshees then spoke. As she did, her voice came out like a spooky whistle of a wind through a haunted house. On the trolley-like things, which were actually large trays floating in the air and linked together via rope was a variety of lavish food. There was a variety of meat, fruit, vegetables and more, and all were of best quality and elaboration.

"Here's your lunch, my latest victor and his family," said the Hag-like creature as the double-jawed monsters pulled the series of floating magic trays like an aerial train past her and the other Banshee and towards Soran and his family, "Today it is… chicken, stag, bovine, swineflesh and much, much more variety of meat."

Saliva dripped from the mouths of Soran and much of his family and their tongues snaked out of their mouths and swiped their lips as their owners' eyes followed the massive lumps of meat, elaborately decorated with vegetables and fruit, were then taken by the double-jawed monsters and placed before them in the middle of the table. Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Trotterhoof, Molayne and Desdemona, however, only looked on sadly as they watched the meat get loaded onto the table for them and the others to help themselves. Then as soon as the monsters had finished unloading the floating train trolleys, they turned round and followed their Banshee supervisors to outside.

"Enjoy your lunch," called one of the Wailing Women in her ghostly voice as she and her comrade left through the door.

"And don't forget to give thanks to our Queen," put in the other Banshee.

"We will, thank you," said Growler and as soon as the door was closed ass the two Banshees left, the Dogs and their non-Dog family then gave thanks to the Queen before tucking in. As the munching of the meat, fruit, vegetables and the rest of the food varieties flooded the air above the table, Alexandrite gazed at the slab of meat before her on her plate while Trotterhoof left, claiming that he wanted to get himself a drink of water when in reality, he was going to listen in on the two Banshees who were just outside the den and talking.

"Problem, Alexandrite?" asked Silver-Ears as she munched on another slab of meat nearby, around her, her puppies were also eating while the two Goats and the other herbivorous (plant eating) members fed on the fruit and the veg. Alexandrite just replied with a saddened gaze before jabbing her fork into the meat and took a bite out of it. Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne, who sat nearby, however, did not feel like eating and just sat there.

"Come on, you five, start eating," said Growler as he ate another piece of meat, "Our Banshee friends and the helpers have worked hard in preparing this meat and we don't want it going to waste."

At this, Cyril shot the Dog a sad look and said, "We don't feel hungry."

"And besides that, we don't feel comfortable being around those pale green faced Women," added Desdemona. It was clear that the sight of the Banshees and the double-jawed monsters were making her feathers and fur stand on end and her internal organs and nerves shudder.

"Oh, you'll get used to them," said another member of the family, a Cat as he also ate some of the meat, "Just tuck in, will you?"

At this, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Molayne and Desdemona all breathed a sigh and resumed gazing at their food while everyone else continued to eat. Alexandrite continued to slowly eat her piece of meat when suddenly, a voice said in a harsh whisper, "Alexandrite, put that piece of meat down!"

The startled colourful Nekomata, at this, dropped the piece of meat in a gasp and shot the speaker, who was Trotterhoof, a look. But when she saw the serious look on the Pig's face, the Nekomata felt her skin prickle. Paddy, Link, Cyril and Desdemona also shot the stern-faced Pig a startled look.

"What's the problem, Mr Trotterhoof?" whispered Paddy. It was that moment that Molayne, who sat opposite to Alexandrite and next to Silver-Ears, also stopped eating. Trotterhoof hardened his glare as he moved it over Paddy and the other three, but what he said next made their skins heat up as well.

"Don't touch any more of the meat in front of you," said the Pig in a low whisper. This made Molayne, who was able to hear the Pig speak like this, drop his slab of meat in shock and gulp. Paddy, Link, Cyril and Desdemona, at this, flinched and shot the meat pieces and the meat lumps on the table a startled look.

"B-b-but this meat is delicious," whispered Link in protest, "I don't see anything wrong with it."

However, nothing could prepare the Peryton faun, or the two Nekomata, the Griffin, the Hippogriff and the Dog (Molayne) for what came out of Trotterhoof's mouth next as the Pig began to explain why.

"I've just overheard the Banshees talk about where they had got the meat from," whispered the Pig, prompting the six including Molayne, to lean in and listen to him while Growler and the others kept on eating, "and from what I've heard," the Swine's gaze scanned the lumps of meat served on the plates in the middle of the table as well as the slabs of it being consumed by Soran and the others in the family, his skin prickling as he returned his gaze to Alexandrite and the other five, "Those cooked animals aren't _dumb beasts and birds…"_

This drained the colours from the skins under the facial fur of Link, Molayne, Alexandrite and Paddy, and the feathers of Cyril and Desdemona, and their skins became so pale that they resembled the colour of a Wendigoes' menacing white sheened eyes, and Alexandrite and Molayne, who had been eating some of the meat, felt their stomachs lurch violently, and the two also pushed their plates away.

"So those animals were…" began Molayne in a strangled voice as he gagged harshly. Trotterhoof, a frown on his face, nodded.

"What's wrong, Trotterhoof, guys?" asked Growler, pulling the attention of the seven to him, "Something bothering you?"

At this, Trotterhoof saw a convergence of eyes from the rest of the family onto him and the other six. Then the Pig quickly set up a tactic. Shooting a furious glare at Molayne, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Alexandrite and Paddy, Trotterhoof barked, "To our ROOMS, NOW! How DARE YOU mock our QUEEN LIKE THAT!"

At this, the six flinched at Trotterhoof's sudden change in mood, but at his command, they darted from the table and rushed off towards the bedrooms. Trotterhoof then flashed Growler a look and followed, leaving Growler and the rest of the family to continue eating.

A minute later, Molayne, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Alexandrite and Paddy were ion one of the rooms with Trotterhoof. The six youngsters were still laced with confusion at Trotterhoof's abrupt flash to anger but Trotterhoof offered them assurance.

"Don't worry, you're not in any trouble," he said, much to the relief of the six youngsters.

"But why did you yell at us to leave the table?" asked Alexandrite. Trotterhoof hardened his stern look.

"I wanted to get you six away from the table, and that meat as well, pronto," whispered the Pig, "And to do that, I had to come up with an excuse to do that and to conceal the real reason from Growler and the others," Trotterhoof moved his gaze over the other five confused and startled youngsters, "So I'm sorry to have startled you like that."

"I wondered why you changed your attitude so abruptly, Mr Trotterhoof," said Molayne in a low voice. Trotterhoof breathed a sigh as sadness and anger, GENUINE anger, came over him.

"I cannot believe this is happening," said the Swine as a tear came to his eye, prompting the six youngsters to come around him and comfort him, "First we abandon our fellow villagers and now we eat of the meat that is NOT from the dumb animals…"

Molayne, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Alexandrite and Paddy also breathed sad, guilty sighs. They just could not believe the source of the meat, and Molayne and Alexandrite, who had taken some bites out of that meat, also felt very sick. Then Cyril spoke.

"What are we gonna do now, Mr Trotterhoof?" asked the Hippogriff.

"We're gonna get out of this place and try and return to Kushanku and the others," said Trotterhoof as he wiped a tear from his eyes with a trotter, "I believe what we've done has roused the anger of Aslan and I believe the Lion is convicting us to leave this place behind…"

"But… what about Uncle Grolwer and the others?" asked Molayne.

"I'm afraid they're too far gone," said Trotterhoof sadly, "I've tried to convince them but…" at this, Molayne's ears fell with his face as the Pig trailed off. Then Paddy said, "That Witch may have used her evil magic to blind those family members to reality and the needs of the other Narnians so that she could have them focus on this luxurious lifestyle at the expense of the others…"

As the orange-pink Nekomata said this, Desdemona began to tremble with rage.

"Huh, not only has the Witch _traumatised_ everyone with this… Slaughter League or whatever it is called," the Griffin hissed, "But she has also tricked us into eating the meat of…" she trailed off, not wanting to say what beast and bird the meat was from, but I'm sure you readers already know this.

"That is correct, Desdemona," said Trotterhoof firmly, before turning his gaze to all six of them, "Now let's get out of this place. The sooner we're out of that Devil Woman's offers of this 'better life' and her territory, the better but first…"

Then the Pig called the other six to come closer to him and as they huddled together, Trotterhoof began to explain to them a plan of escape, what materials they will need and so on.

These seven brave members were going to carry out a daring escape from the Witch's territory and return to Kushanku and the others.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20- the start of two separate journeys**

 **Back with Kushanku's group**

Kushanku, together with Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia and also Shadewing, Mensa and Rubyfeather and the rest of the villagers who had chosen to go with Kushanku's group and the Phoenix continued to follow the firebird down what was a path through the forest. All of them were attired with thick coats and flat things called snow shoes and Emberflame had been transferred to a larger lamp to be carried on the journey for she could not survive for very long out in the cursed wintery air. The group had passed by an abandoned winter weather attire and gear store for humanoids (such as Elves and dwarfs) which would have been a twenty-minute walk from Green Leaf Village without the deep snow, and the Phoenix had ordered the group to take the thick coats and snow shoes and put them on for it was extremely cold indeed, while Emberflame had moved into a new lamp. The coats were quite cumbersome and were hard to carry but the Phoenix knew that the group would not be able to travel to Gandalf's base without appropriate protection against the freezing winter. The group also had a small stock of food on them but they knew that they will have to restock on it once it ran out, as well as look for shelters to spend the nights on the journey. However, the Phoenix knew best.

As Kushanku and company continued to trudge along, the snowshoes on their feet impacting the snow and kicking up some small balls of it with every step, the Phoenix began to give the group further instructions and warnings.

"My name is Blaze," said the firebird as he flew ahead of the group as they trudged along, "And as Kushanku in front of you will have told you, I have been sent by Aslan to guide you guys to Gandalf the Wise Kitsune's base."

The walkers struggled to trudge along for the snow was indeed deep and the thick coats were quite heavy, but they were determined to get out of and away from the Witch's oppression as soon as possible for a much-needed break.

"Are there other Phoenixes leading other Narnians to this base?" asked Nyarth as he trudged alongside Kushanku.

"Yes," replied Blaze, his beautifully scarlet, gold, yellow an d black wings beating at the frigid air and condensation clouds escaping his beak with every exhale, or in pieces as he talked, "Aslan has sent other Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs to do just that."

"What's a Roc?" asked Snowwing with a sceptical look on his face. At this, Mensa came up beside him.

"It's a large hawk-like snowbird with icy blue, white and grey plumage," she explained, "They're often considered the icy version of the fiery Phoenix or the electric Thunderbird."

"The males also have long, flowing blue tails while the females just have a tail like an eagle," added Rubyfeather as she carried Emberflame in her new lamp and trudged along with Crystal. Because of the heavy coats, the flying beasts were too weighed down to fly, so they had to walk in snowshoes like everyone else. "Rocs have a love for winter and snow and ice but…" the Parrot then trailed off. Nearby, a Fairy and her grandson, who rode on the Ostrich's back due to their small size, just exchanged glances with the Ostrich, three Chickens and a young Bear and shrugged. Blaze then went to finish Rubyfeather's explanation.

"That's right, my Parrot friend," said the Phoenix but then his face fell, "But unfortunately due to the state and conditions the Witch has locked Narnia, the Rocs have become much stressed with the constant snow and ice. Not to mention the freezing cold being too much for them. Also, they miss Christmas and spring, summer and autumn very greatly as well."

"We've never had a Christmas at all," said Akira as she lifted her snowshoe-attired feet and placed them down on the snow with every step.

"There hasn't been a Christmas for well over thirty years," said the elderly Fairy as she and her grandson rode on the Ostrich's back, "I don't know if this has something to do with that Witch's curse but Father Christmas hadn't been seen since the beginning of this horrible Age either."

"Let's just focus on getting to Gandalf and Kyukon's base and we'll talk about it there," said Blaze and with that, he resumed leading the group along.

A little while later, the group was finally away from Green Leaf Village and were ready for the next part of the journey. As the group neared a thicket of snow and ice covered trees lacking any leaves, some of the group members carrying the smaller ones, such as the kids and Rubyfeather carrying Emberflame in her lamp while a few others carried the bags of food and other supplies they were able to get their paws, hands or wings on, Blaze turned to them, a stern look on his face.

"Right, now that we are out of your village and before we venture any further, I'm going to go over the instructions and warnings with you once again, so listen carefully," said the Phoenix as he went over to a branch. Kushanku and the others stopped before the Phoenix as he perched onto a branch of a nearby tree. Some of the snow was shaken loose as Blaze perched quite heftily onto the outstretched wooden arm.

"This journey will be, as you will now know, extremely dangerous," said Blaze. At this statement, all ears cocked to listen. "Up and down the winter-locked land of Narnia, there are countless groups of the cronies of that Witch on patrol, as well as any Dryad and Sylph living in these trees or gliding about the Narnian air who are on her side on the lookout…" Kushanku shuddered as he gazed at the leafless trees. Blaze continued, "So it is essential and vitally important that we stay together. That is, we must NOT lag behind, wander off or leave each other's sides. Is that clear?"

Nods rolled through the group, much to Blaze's satisfaction.

"Good," said the Phoenix, before continuing, "This journey will not only be risky with the Witch's cronies and followers on patrol, but will also involve a treacherous trek over snowy terrain as well as," the Phoenix's stern gaze hardened more, "passing by some evil individual creatures who have set up places thanks to that Witch's curse who will try and tempt Narnians into coming over to them by offering them their desperate needs such as assistance or hospitality in shelters, as well as warm food, when in fact they are luring them into a trap."

This sent shivers down the spines of the listeners and Crystal huddled against Rubyfeather. Blaze continued, "And there will be such creatures who will try and lure you lot away from my trail with those temptations and catch you, potentially for the Witch. So to avoid that, you MUST ignore them and keep on my trail, or you'll end up facing potential doom at those creatures' clutches…"

"Excuse me, Mr Blaze," said Nyarth, "What sort of creatures could tempt us from leaving your trail?"

A dark look came into Blaze's onyx-like eyes. "Creatures such as Yuki-onna, the Snow Woman, who have made their home in this land due to the Witch's winter curse."

"Yuki-onna?" repeated Kushanku, Akira, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Satoshi together while Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal just exchanged glances with each other and the other kids and shrugged. At this, the elder Fairy came in, her dainty, wrinkled face laced with a dark expression.

"Yuki-onna is a very evil creature who resembles a humanoid woman dressed in a white outfit and has long black hair, icy blue lips and snowy-white skin," she explained, "She often roams Narnia at night when there is a heavy blizzard, but despite her beautiful looks, she is a savage predatory creature and a temptress."

"Yes, she prowls around in the blizzard looking for vulnerable individuals, but most especially male ones, to capture and kill," explained Blaze, "When she finds one, she uses her beauty and sly behaviour disguised as distress to ignite curiosity and awe in her victims so that she could then lure them towards her and to their deaths. So many Narnians have been lured away by that evil creature and have never been seen again…"

Some of the members of the group trembled and some of the kids actually huddled against their parents or carers as they heard this.

"I hope we're not gonna run into a blizzard," murmured Mensa as she held Snowwing close in her front paws.

"It is likely, sadly," said Blaze, "But in the event of that, we will have to look for some shelter until that blizzard dies down, but we'll get to that when we come to it. Anyway, continuing…"

As Blaze continued giving more instructions and warnings to the group, Kushanku gazed at the Fairy and her grandson and said, "Based on that description of this Yuki-onna woman, she sounds like a snow version of a Siren."

"That's exactly what she is, Kushanku," said the Fairy, "She's a real temptress. In fact, she's been dubbed as The Temptress of the Snow or She-Jack Frost based on her behaviour and how she prowls around in the blizzards."

"Sounds like she may be loyal to the Witch," said Sandstorm.

"It's plausible that she is, since she has taken advantage of the constant winter," said Mensa, before putting on a firm facial look, "Anyway, enough on Yuki-onna and let's resume listening to Blaze's instructions. It's very important."

Sandstorm and Kushanku nodded and returned their attention to the Phoenix with Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi and the rest as he went on to explain some other things such as food and shelter and what the group will do when they had to find these. Then as soon as he had finished, he commanded the group to follow him and once again, Kushanku and company was off, and they followed the magnificent firebird through the thicket. The little ones and youngsters were kept tightly by the sides of their parents or carers as they walked on.

 **Meanwhile**

Hours later, dusk was coming over Narnia, signifying night-time. Back in Soran and his family's new den on the Witch's palace grounds, a certain group of animals was preparing to abscond and escape. Between now and when Trotterhoof had led Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne from the table during lunch, Trotterhoof had to reason with Soran, Growler and the other members of the family and persuade them to think of the other members of Green Leaf Village and up and down Narnia as a whole once more and what struggled they will have to face in the next ten years such as the freezing winter and the 'Queen's' dictatorship, among other things. However, to the Pig's utmost dismay and sadness, none of the other family members listened to his pleas and began to treat Trotterhoof with contempt. Some of them began to call the Pig immature, cowardly and absolutely spiteful for rejecting the Queen's gift of the better life after Soran won the Fighting League, while some played deaf and pretended he wasn't there. Yet still some others, such as Growler and Silver-Ears simply flashed Trotterhoof a glare and turned their backs on him to resume their activities. Giving up, Trotterhoof eventually resumed enacting his plan of escape with Alexandrite and the other six and returning to Kushanku and the others, starting with how they were going to reach the outskirts of the Witch's palace grounds undetected.

And so, Trotterhoof was in one of the bedrooms with Alexandrite the Nekomata and her sister Paddy, Cyril the Hippogriff, Link the Peryton, Desdemona the Griffin and Molayne, the only Dog from Soran's family who had decided to leave with Trotterhoof for he was clearly troubled for the other Narnians unlike the rest of the Dogs, not to mention their attitude towards them and the Witch's dictatorial use of wicked events such as the Fighting League, and the corrupted law system to oppress everyone else out in Narnia. However, he was also very heartbroken and distraught over his parents, cousins and sister's refusal to listen to Trotterhoof's pleas to remember the other oppressed Narnians, and was still weeping even now. While Molayne continued to mourn and grieve his biological family's refusal to consider the other Narnians and their suffering, Trotterhoof was discussing the first step of the plan: how they were going to escape the den and go through the Witch's palace territory undetected.

"It is important that we stay together," said the Pig with a stern face, "Because otherwise if any of us wander, our cover may be blown and we may end up caught and brought before that Witch."

Alexandrite and the other five including the tearful Molayne nodded in understanding. Then Cyril spoke.

"How are we gonna sneak past the Witch's servants and followers?" he asked.

"Exactly," said Desdemona in agreement, "Wouldn't you think a small group of Talking Beasts consisting of a young Griffin chick, Hippogriff chick, Peryton fawn, two Nekomata youngsters with brightly coloured fur, a silvery grey Dog puppy and an adult Pig would stick out like a bare brown-black tree trunk against the white snow to those hideous creatures?"

Alexandrite, Paddy, Molayne and Link nodded in agreement to this. If the little group of seven creatures tried to escape without some form of cover, they would be discovered very easily. However, a wily smile formed under Trotterhoof's nose and snout.

"I'll tell you six kiddies how," said the Pig in an equally wily voice, the tone of voice you would use if an excellent idea popped into your head, "We're gonna dress like those Banshees, Hags, Tenome and Shadows."

Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne gazed at the Pig curiously but then their answer was revealed when Trotterhoof opened a drawer and showed the six its contents.

"Black covers?" asked Alexandrite as she gazed at the black items in the drawer, which were actually black blankets and curtains.

"But how are we gonna use these to look like a small group of Hags or Banshees?" asked Paddy. Molayne backed away, a slightly disgusted look on his face. He clearly did not want to dress up as one of the Snow Queen Tyrant's followers. However, in order to escape, he had no other choice. Then Trotterhoof began to explain.

"We're gonna add tatters to the rims of these blankets and curtains and style them after the black hooded cloaks of the Hags and Banshees," explained the Pig. As he spoke, Desdemona and Cyril pulled out some of the black sheets to examine them. Then the Pig's gaze found the reluctant looks on the faces of Molayne and Link, the latter who also wore a rather disgusted look at the idea of dressing up as one of the Witch's followers, "I know it sounds contradictory to our behaviour and you don't like doing this but how else are we gonna get out of this place without getting spotted by that evil Snow Queen's followers?"

This prompted the Dog and the Peryton to agree to this statement for there was no other way. Even flying out of the Witch's palace grounds was a no-go for there were the Witch's followers who could also fly, such as the Manticores, Bat-Harpies and the Vultures that had defected to the Queen's side, on patrol, and a Peryton, a Hippogriff and a Griffin could easily be spotted and reported, and Desdemona, Link and Cyril, who were those three creatures, shuddered at the thought of meeting the evil Witch and her wrath, especially how she had executed it by turning a certain Cheetah into a statue back in Green Leaf Village when she came to take Soran and his family the other night.

While Trotterhoof was discussing his plans and commanding the six kids to get some more of the black blankets and curtains out to make the cloaks, the sounds of talking suddenly reached their ears through the door to the room, prompting the group to stash the black covers under the beds in case the talkers, who were Soran, Growler and one of the Goats, opened the door and entered the room. However, they didn't and continued to speak outside the door. As the trio spoke, Alexandrite and Molayne cocked an ear each towards the door to listen in on the conversation.

"What's going on Mr Trotterhoof?" asked Paddy but Trotterhoof replied with a sharp "Shh!" and an abrupt raising of his front hoof-like foot in a 'stop' gesture, prompting Paddy to pipe down. Then Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Trotterhoof began to listen on the conversation as well.

"I heard our Queen has sent some of her Wolves and Manticores down to Green Leaf Town and Purple Flower Village to search out any believers of the Great Lion to either kill or bring to the Queen herself to be turned to stone," said the Goat's voice.

"That icy blue, grey and white Nekomata is certainly one of them," said a second voice, Growler's. At this, Alexandrite mouthed "Kushanku" under her breath. But then Growler's voice tone began to change and as it did, it sent chills down the spines of Trotterhoof and the other six.

"But Soran here certainly did very well in telling the Queen about Kushanku's belief in that Lion," said Growler outside, "I hope he is hunted down and disposed of. After all, any discussion on the Lion or anything related is strictly forbidden and highly offensive to the Queen."

"I just wanted to honour her for her generosity in giving us these luxurious improvements we have for so long craved, Dad, such as this much better den, warmth and the plenty of food after I had emerged victorious from this decade's Fighting League," said Soran's voice. This sent hot rage burning through some of Trotterhoof's group members, especially Molayne, and the rest shuddered violently.

"I think Soran and the others are definitely too far gone," whispered Cyril warily.

"Yes, totally bewitched by that Snow Queen," hissed Desdemona in quiet bitterness and with her feathers and fur puffed out. Trotterhoof, however, just shuddered and shed a tear. This conversation was indicative of something not good at all. Not only has Soran's family abandoned Kushanku and the others, but they had also betrayed them to the Queen.

"You have done very well, son," said Growler's voice and as Growler spoke, the voices faded as the trio walked on down the corridor, "Like I've said, any topic on the Great Lion is strictly forbidden. Anyway…" the rest of the words became inaudible for Growler, Soran and the Goat were now out of earshot. Trotterhoof and the other six remained still and silent for a few moments but then Trotterhoof broke it. "Let's just resume dressing ourselves up as Banshees and Hags."

"But Mr Trotterhoof, what about Soran and the others?" asked Paddy. However, the pink and orange Nekomata found herself on the receiving end of five pairs of glaring eyes as Alexandrite, Cyril, Molayne, Link and Desdemona shot her an angry look, making Padparadscha flinch. Trotterhoof turned to her. "I'm sorry, Paddy but we're gonna have to leave them. They're too rooted in this 'improved life' given to them by the Queen and there's nothing more we can do. Now let's just focus on turning these blankets and curtains into tattered rags and dress ourselves up."

Paddy nodded and returned to carrying out the first step of the plan. First Trotterhoof and the six youngsters put rips and tears along the rims of the curtains and cloaks and poked holes further towards the middle of the sheets by biting them, clawing them and poking their claws or talons through the fabric. Then as soon as the black curtains and blankets were turned into a ragged enough state, Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne then began to dress themselves in the tattered sheets.

"Boy, this certainly does make us look dark and dreadful," muttered Molayne as he draped one of the blankets over his back and, with Paddy and Alexandrite's help, wrapped the blanket around his body, tail and head. Trotterhoof did the same with his blanket and curtain.

"Well, like I've said before, Molayne," said the Pig, "It's the only way we're gonna get out of here undetected."

Molayne breathed a sigh and continued dressing himself up. Then as soon as he, along with Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link and Desdemona, had finished wrapping themselves in the black cloaks (which will also keep them warm during their escape through the palace grounds), the seven stopped to admire their work. To Trotterhoof's satisfaction, the septet looked no different from the Hags, Banshees and, to some extent in the case of Trotterhoof, Desdemona, Cyril, Molyne and Link who walked on all fours, the Hellhounds who were also black. The tattered blankets and curtains wrapped around the seven's bodies indeed resembled the ragged cloaks worn by the Hags and Banshees and the group had even cleverly styled part of their disguise around their heads to resemble a hood.

"Excellent work, you six kids," said Trotterhoof, "Now, let's get out of here."

With that, the group converged towards a window, which was larger than the windows back at Soran's family's den, rounded and had a moveable glass pane attached for opening and shutting. Trotterhoof had planned against the group sneaking out of the front door for Soran's family was up and down the den and he did not want the group getting spotted which would subsequently rouse suspicion, so the group had to escape through one of the windows instead. Desdemona went first and climbed out of the window, but as she landed onto the snow, the flap of her hood flopped over her eyes and temporarily blinded her but the Griffin managed to readjust it with her talons (a Griffin's front feet) and tie it around her head to cover her ears and beak but keep her eyes exposed so that she could see where she was going. Then Link went next, followed by Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Molayne and finally, Trotterhoof. As soon as the Pig had landed onto the snow and the group had adjusted their hoods so that their distinctive facial features were hidden as much as possible, the sounds of footsteps reached the group's ears. At this, Trotterhoof seized Link and Desdemona and with a silent bark of "hide!" to the other four, the seven dived behind a snow-covered stone wall as a group of five Banshees, their black cloaks almost identical to the makeshift cloaks of Trotterhoof's group, walked by. As the five hideous Wailing Women walked past, Trotterhoof heard them conversing.

"I'm glad Soran and his family had enjoyed their lavish lunch, girls," said one of the Banshees, whom Trotterhoof had identified as one of them that had served said family their lunch, "but preparing the meat had been quite a challenge."

"Tell me about it," said another Banshee, "Those pesky, stubborn Beasts wouldn't stop squirming, squealing, shouting and protesting while the Wendigoes and the Xenojaws were trying to drag them to the slaughter area."

At this, Molayne mouthed the words 'shouting' and 'protesting' as he heard this while Alexandrite flinched again. Trotterhoof then shot these two a confirmatory glare.

"Yes, the lumps of meat that had been served on our dinner table by those two Banshees and group of Xenojaws had been the meat of Talking Animals," he whispered, "That's one of the reasons why I wanted to get you six away from the table as fast as possible."

Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne flinched violently to the point of gagging and Molayne felt very sick to the stomach. To eat the meat of a Talking Beast was as barbaric and murderous as cannibalism in our world, and as Molayne's mind flashed the images of the lumps of meat on Soran and his family's dinner table, and his family… however, Molayne trailed off as his stomach lurched even more. This was the final snap in the threat in his relationship with Growler, Soran and the rest of the family, and Alexandrite and the other five had also severed their bond with that family and their respect for the Queen as well. However, the seven resumed their concentration on the Banshees as they walked away to follow some Hags, also dressed in ragged black robes, who had called them as they passed by. Trotterhoof commanded Alexandrite and the other five youngsters to follow the Banshees and the Hags, which they did. As they abandoned their hiding spot, Molayne refused to look back at his family's den and was more eager than ever to escape the dreadful Witch's clutches with Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Trotterhoof.

Sadly and with his heart breaking, the Dog followed the only six family members he had left as they crept after the Banshees and Hags in their makeshift blanket and curtain-based cloaks which made them resemble the hideous humanoid women very well despite Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne being four-footed.


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21- a daring escape**

 **Meanwhile**

Kushanku's group was still trekking through the snowy land and trying their best to keep up with Blaze the Phoenix as he led them along. They were now in a clearing with a few patches of skeletal, snow-covered trees scattered around them and the occasional small hill rising up here and there, but the real difficulty was the snowy terrain Kushanku and company were walking on. The walk was immensely difficult and tiring and many of the walking animals and creatures, some of them carrying the smaller kids on their shoulders or backs or in their arms and wings, were puffing and panting as they forced their feet, despite them having snowshoes, up and down on the deep snow with every step. Furthermore, dusk had fallen over the land of Narnia and darkness had just about enveloped the land, and snow had begun to fall. But that's not all; the winds were also picking up. The snowy wind was blowing against the group's faces and fronts, making it increasingly difficult for everyone in the group, including Blaze the Phoenix, to see ahead into the darkness. Because of the nightfall and the increasing snow and winds which are imminent of a blizzard, Blaze knew that he had to lead the group to somewhere safe and sheltered where they will spend the night for travelling by night, especially in a blizzard, was especially treacherous.

"Guys," called Blaze as he led the group along and struggled to fly against the increasing winds, "We gotta find shelter. The snow's getting up and it's getting too dark to continue."

As he said this, Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi who were dressed in their thick coats and snowshoes, were trudging along tiredly and breathlessly, and were struggling to brace themselves against the wind as it threatened to blow them over, and their eyes were screwed shut as snow blew into their faces. Behind the four Nekomata quads siblings, their last remaining adopted Cheetah brother Sandstorm, along with Mensa the Skvader (who was clutching Emberflame in the lamp) and her son Snowwing riding on her back, Quill the Hedgehog, Dahlia the young Jackalope kit who was riding on the back of a Horse, Shadewing the Bat, Rubyfeather and Crystal the Parrots (the latter being carried in her mother's wings), and everyone else were also struggling to keep up. Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing had become too tired to walk and had to be carried. The Fairy and her grandson were riding on the back of a Pterosaur whose wings of skin were covered by a thick blanket to protect his wings from the freezing cold, much like Shadewing's wings for skin-wings made Pterosaurs, Bats and other creatures with such wings made them more vulnerable to heat loss in the freezing weather, especially blizzards.

"We've especially got to get these kids out of the wind and snow as well," added Shadewing, a squinted flash of especial concern at Kushanku and the other youngsters and little ones who seemed to be weakening from the frigid wind that carried the snowflakes through, around and past the group. Blaze then took off into the air to find some shelter.

"Stay there until I come back," said the Phoenix as he ascended a few metres to increase his bird's eye view of the landscape. As he did that and the group stopped, some of the kids in their parents or carers' wings, arms or on their carers' backs, or were simply walking with the carers, began to talk to take their minds off the blizzard until Blaze returned.

"Will we meet Father Christmas at all?" asked one of the Rabbit kits as he stood behind his mother and three younger siblings not too far away from Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, their mother using her body as a shield against the freezing wind and snow to protect her four kits from the effects of the worsening blizzard. Kushanku, who was now holding a baby Badger pup in his arms to protect him from the wind and snow as well as help ease the burden of the older Badger sister (who had asked Kushanku to hold her baby brother) as she cared for some of the other kids including a pair of other Badgers, who were her and the Badger pup's brother and sister, at this, turned his gaze in the direction of the Rabbit kit that had spoken.

"Well, according to what we've been told by our elders," said the Nekomata as he struggled to keep his balance against the snow and wind battering against him and kept the Badger pup close to the fur coat on his chest, "The Witch's wintery curse has had a very negative impact on his entry into Narnia."

"That's right," said Mensa when suddenly, a gust of wind threw the Skvader off balance and sent her unto a stumble. Luckily, the Horse who carried Dahlia on his back jumped in and managed to use his body to break Mensa's fall before she toppled and dropped Emberflame's lamp and Snowwing from her back.

"Thanks, Buck," said Mensa as the Horse helped her to her feet. The Horse, named Buck, flashed a smile of thanks and nodded while Dahlia breathed a sigh of relief. Mensa then resumed the conversation.

"The blizzard seems to be getting worse," muttered the Skvader bitterly at the ever increasing winds as they rose close to a howl, "I sure hope Blaze will have found us some shelter soon. As I was saying, Father Christmas has not been seen since Jadis came into power and locked Narnia in the winter we are familiar with…"

At this, disgruntled growls and moans escaped the four Rabbit kits.

"But we WANNA see Father Christmas!" snapped the oldest Rabbit kit.

"Yeah, we wanna receive prezzies from him and celebrate Christmas!" put in one of his sisters with a stomp of her snowshoe-wearing back foot onto the snow. At this, the Rabbit kits' mother turned to her four kits and scolded them.

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to forget Father Christmas until the Witch's tyrannical rule is over," she said.

"But how long will that take?" asked her older son. The other three kits wore sour looks on their faces. The Rabbit mother, however, trailed off. She could not think of a way to answer her son's question. Just then, the beautifully colourful bird with flaming red, golden and yellow plumage reappeared. He flapped slightly as a gust of wind, along with a spray of snow, nearly sent him into a chaotic flight and he struggled to regain control of his balance.

"There's a cave in that direction," said Blaze with a talon point, "We'll take shelter in there for the night."

And with that, he commanded the group to follow him.

"Come on, everyone," called Nyarth and with that, the group began to struggle towards the cave, some of the older members carrying the vulnerable and tired kids and babies in their arms or wings or on their backs. Kushanku gripped the Badger pup in his arms while the older Badger sister helped her younger brother and sister and some of the other kids along. Snowwing rode on Mensa's back while Rubyfeather carried Crystal, and Buck carried Dahlia. The group, which looked like an amorphous mass from a distance due to the visibility being reduced by the worsening blizzard, its winds now howling through the group and the surrounding trees, making their leafless branches waver like shadowy monsters with claws in the darkness, began to move faster as the struggling members became more desperate. It was obvious that the wind was not only making movement difficult but it also plummeted the air's temperature to lower than it would be if the air was still. Blaze was especially struggling to stay aloft and within sight of the group as the wind continued to blow him about like a very light red, yellow and golden feathered towel, but he still continued to guide the group towards the cave. As the group struggled along, Kushanku raised his head as he continued to clutch the Badger kit in his arms and stand against the wind such that his face was right in the path of the snow, which was now a full-fledged blizzard. Looking at objects that are directly behind the direction of the freezing wind with snowflakes riding it was horribly difficult and uncomfortable, and Kushanku's eyes were struggling to stay open as they were battered by the wind and snow. Furthermore, the Nekomata's ears were whistling with the freezing air and his white head hair was thrashing all over the place like the leaves in a tree during a violent storm. Despite these difficulties, Kushanku managed to pick out a faint black hole ahead of the group.

"Over there," he cried to the others as they tried to shield their faces and the kids from the blizzard. With that, the crowd began to follow Kushanku while Kushanku himself followed Blaze. It was an arduous few minutes and there seemed to be no end to the blizzard's ever increasing rage, and it was making walking more and more difficult. Every step required more and more effort to make and the deep snow wasn't helping either, despite the snowshoes holding their owners up and preventing them from sinking.

When the group was now within a metre of the mouth of the cave, Blaze touched down and began to guide them in. Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira, Satoshi and the young Badgers including the baby in Kushanku's arms entered first, followed by Sandstorm, Mensa and Snowwing with Emberflame in her lamp, Quill, Buck with Dahlia on his back, Shadewing, Rubyfeather and Crystal, and then finally, everyone else. As the group wearily, tiredly and shivering with cold entered the cave and out of the blizzard, some of them flopped down as relief swept over them. The cave was large, just big enough to house the whole group, and was made from rock but its interior had soft earthy dirt and a number of rocks scattered about its floor. As the group continued to pour wearily into the cave, Kushanku placed the baby Badger onto a makeshift bed made by the older Badger sister as she set up some beds for the kids using her own fur coat. Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira also set to making up some beds with some more fur coats for some of the other youngsters of the group with a few of the adults, including Rubyfeather and Mensa, helping. As they did that and as soon as the last members of the group had entered the cave, Blaze ordered the entrance to be closed off in order to keep the freezing air outside. At this order, some of the stronger members of the group, such as a Bear and a large Gorilla, then set to collecting whatever rock they could find and began to pile them at the entrance to create a seal against the cold. As the rocks were being collected and piled in the entrance, the rest of the group settled down for the night. They all snuggled together to help keep each other warm. As they did that, Kushanku watched on. His face was smothered with snowflakes and his whiskers had even developed ice crystals. His ears were still whistling from the wind and his white head hair was a mess and out of place, but he was glad that he and the others were out of the blizzard and the darkness. As he took a rest, Blaze touched down near him.

"You did well, Kushanku," said the Phoenix, "I'm proud of you."

"If only I had got some more of the villagers from Green Leaf Village to believe me, including my adopted Cheetah father," murmured Kushanku guiltily.

"Well, like I've said before," said Blaze, "If they don't listen, they don't listen, but it will be their fault when the consequences sweep over them for disobeying Aslan's command to follow me from the village…"

Kushanbku just sighed and resumed watching the others in the group as they settled down. at the entrance, the Gorilla, Bear and the other strong animals had finished piling rocks in the entrance but Blaze told them to leave one or two small openings to allow some air in otherwise the group could suffocate, which they did. The job done, the rock collectors returned to the others to settle down themselves.

"I just cannot believe that Jadis would invent such a HORRIBLE event to cause us so much heartbreak and devastation, Blaze," murmured Kushanku as the memories of the Fighting League and its horrors returned to him. His eye began to shed a tear as he said this. An angry look of barely any surprise came upon the Phoenix's face as the Nekomata said this.

"That White Witch is a being of every pure evil you could think of," he said in a growl, "She's always been like that even at Narnia's beginning," Kushanku flashed the beautiful firebird a surprised look as he continued, "She's always been a manipulative liar, thief, temptress, sadist and destroyer and every other evil since she came into Narnia and she still is even now. She's pure evil beyond comprehension and is the queen of every evil you could name under the sun," Blaze's voice morphed into a growl, "But don't get me wrong, on the outside, she's as pure and as beautiful as an angel and she speaks like one but by the time you get lured in by the angelic beauty in her voice and her appearance, she eventually shows her true colours as the Wicked Snow Witch that she is…" Kushanku continued listening as Blaze then breathed a sad sigh and lowered his head with a sad look on his face, "That is why so many Narnians had fallen to her side and become corrupted…"

As the Phoenix said this, the thoughts about Soran the Dog and his family flashed within Kushanku's mind, and the idea of that group, who had been friends with Gingerfur and Amberpaw, becoming followers of the Witch since Soran had won the Fighting League made him flinch.

"You'll learn more about Jadis and her TRUE, TRUE colours when we get to Gandalf and Kyukon the Kitsune's base," said Blaze when he saw the worried look on the Nekomata's face, "That couple, who are the parents of all the Kitsune in Narnia, have been appointed by Aslan to be Chroniclers and Prophecy keepers shortly after the Tree of Protection had been planted and had grown…"

"Are they still alive even now?" asked Kushanku.

"They've been around since Aslan formed them along with the other Talking Beasts," said Blaze. At this, Kushanku flinched with extreme shock. "Well, if that is true," he blurted out, "Th-then they'd be well over _nine-hundred years old!"_

"Kitsune are amongst the few creatures that can live for hundreds of years," said Blaze, "and as they age and grow in experience, wisdom and in some cases, knowledge on magic, their number of tails increases. A Kitsune gains one tail every hundred years and the maximum number of tails a Kitsune can have is nine. By the time a Kitsune reaches nine-hundred years of age, they have nine tails and are very powerful and very wise, but their power and wisdom NEVER… EVER… exceeds that of Aslan."

"Oh, so Gandalf and his mate are nine-tailed Kitsune?" asked Kushanku. Blaze nodded.

"That's right," he said, "And during their entire lives, they have been collecting and recording every key event in Narnia's history, starting from Aslan's creation of it through Jadis's usurping of the rule of our country up until now. They also work with the Centaurs in collecting key Prophecies, such as the Golden Age Prophecy, and other future events of Narnia."

Kushanku smiled in fascination when he heard this but then Blaze then turned stern, "But we'll learn more about Narnia's proper history and the Prophecy when we get to Gandalf's base. In the meantime, let's settle down for the night and prepare to continue when it gets light next morning."

Kushanku nodded and left to join Akira, Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm as they settled down into some makeshift beds made from the fur coats they had collected for the journey. Blaze then called for the group's attention for he had one last important rule to deliver.

"Can I have your attention please, everyone," he called. At this, all eyes turned to the Phoenix as he prepared to speak.

"We're gonna stay here until the morning as it is too dangerous to continue travelling in this blizzard," said Blaze, "And because that blizzard is part of the Witch's winter curse, there will likely be some snow monsters lurking about looking for vulnerable victims to catch," his face then turned severe, "So you MUST NOT… repeat; must NOT… under any circumstance… go out into the night. You stay RIGHT… HERE! Is that clear?"

Nods rolled through the crowd while some of them trembled. Snowwing shrunk behind Mensa as he eyed the sealed off entrance save for a small gap left in the seal. Then Blaze called, "Good. Let's get some sleep until the morning comes."

With that, the group prepared to settle down for the night.

"Snowwing," said Mensa. At this, Snowwing obeyed his mother's command and went over to her while nearby, Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Crystal and Dahlia, together with Shadewing, Quill, Rubyfeather, Buck, and Emberflame in her lamp, all clumped together to share body heat. It took a while for the group to settle down but eventually, all of them, including Blaze, succeeded. Outside the cave, the blizzard continued to howl and blast across the dark, snowy landscape.

 **Meanwhile**

The Queen's or rather, the Witch's, palace was hustling and bustling with the activities of the Witch's cronies and minions. In the darkness of the night, various hideous creatures, alongside a variety of creatures that appeared to be Narnians that had fallen to the Witch's side, such as Fauns, Minotaurs, Kitsune, Vultures and Nekomata, were up to their daily jobs of caring for the snowy palace grounds, guard patrol and preparing to go out into Narnia to carry out patrol tasks out there. However, a number of those horrible creatures had been called by the Witch to her throne room for she had an extremely important task for them, but not all of the creatures that were on their way to the throne room were the Witch's cronies.

Alexandrite the Nekomata and her sister Padparadscha, Cyril the Hippogriff, Trotterhoof the Pig, Link the Peryton fawn, Desdemona the Griffin and Molayne the Dog, their identities covered completely by their makeshift Banshee, Shadow or Hag cloaks they had made from the black sheets, curtains and blankets they had deliberately and partly torn to make them look like the ragged cloaks of the real creatures, had managed to find their way into the Witch's palace and her throne room without being detected for they were curious about the Witch's reason for the calling of so many of the hideous creatures, among them some of the police captains, to her throne room. Because of this, it had to be something important. However, Trotterhoof did not want his little group to spend too long in that very heart of the ice palace for if he knew if they were caught, they would be either put to death or turned to stone by the Witch.

Hiding behind a block of wall that jutted out from the main wall, Trotterhoof, with the other six close behind him and in the shadows, began to listen in on the conversation of Jadis and the captains of the main police, among them Romulus the Wolf and Gollum the Black Dwarf with his hideously large eyes bulging out of their sockets. Jadis's throne was, like the rest of her palace, made of solid, glittering, transparent, crystalline ice of hypnotising beauty. However, Trotterhoof knew there was nothing so beautiful about the Witch's chair or her ice palace for despite their seeming purity; the Witch was an outright beast. The Witch herself, who was now fully revealed in a shaft of moonlight that shone through an opening behind her throne, could be fully seen. Her skin was practically white, as white as the snow smothering nearly all of Narnia, and her crown was a set of icicles standing like giant, transparent, glass stalagmites from her head. These stalagmites of ice glistened in the silvery moonlight like diamonds. The Witch's eyes were as black as onyx stones, and her coat shone like a beautifully icy blue and silver blanket. In her left hand was a stick which had an icy white stick rising from one end. What Rosemary the Monkey had assumed to be a sceptre was in fact something much more sinister. Paddy glared bitterly at the Witch's immensely beautiful appearance.

"She's so… glamorous…" she whispered in awe.

"Yes, but an outright fiend on the inside," hissed Alexandrite bitterly. Padparadscha then flinched when Link, Desdemona, Molayne and Cyril shot her a disapproving glare at her gazing at the Witch.

"Don't be hypnotised by that feral animal's beauty, Paddy," whispered Trotterhoof sternly, "She's no beauty at all."

"Yes, she's the queen of the dung flies," hissed Alexandrite bitterly, making the other six flash extremely shocked and frightened looks at her. If you said something like this and Jadis overheard you, you could be put to death. Trotterhoof then snapped harshly but quietly at the six younger Talking Beasts to concentrate on the main job. This was one of the reasons why he did not want to stay here for too long. The Witch's beauty was practically alluring and irresistible, like how a light was to a moth. Then suddenly, a conversation started up between the Witch and Romulus, Gollum and the other creatures behind them. Standing with the Wolf and Black Dwarf captains, a massive, hideous Manticore with the face like a Giant, fangs like a Sabretooth Cat, enormous black Bat-like wings, a Lion-like body and mane that was a pale green like that of a corpse, and a shining black scorpion's tail ending in a scimitar-like blade, stood to Romulus's left while Gollum was dwarfed by an enormous humanoid Lizard-Man that resembled a cross between a Komodo Dragon and a humanoid with piercing yellow reptilian eyes, rose of sharp teeth in its mouth like a Shark, and a hide of frightening grey scales covering its entire body. Its fingers and toes ended in talon-like nails and its prehensile tail swiped at the air behind it.

"Reports on your search for the Kitsune Chronicler and his hideout, Romulus, Gollum, Malefor and Ganondorf," said the Witch in her angelic voice. However, that voice was laced with sternness and spitefulness this time, not as angelic as it had been the last time we heard her speak before she zapped Honeycomb into a Cheetah statue at Green Leaf Village when she went to collect Soran's family. Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Desdemona, Link and Molayne then listened intently as the large, corpse-coloured Manticore spoke.

"We've covered every square mile of your lands, your Highness," said the chimeric beast, "But we've not been able to find any signs of it at all, as of now."

"However," said Gollum, "Our patrollers are on the hunt for any Narnian who still believe in the Great Lion and the Golden Age Prophecy to catch and either kill or turn in to you for you to deal with…"

"Golden Age Prophecy?" whispered Molayne curiously. Trotterhoof, however, hushed at him to be quiet.

"Good," said the Witch as she turned around to take a few steps away from Romulus and the others with him, before turning around to face them again. However, her onyx-coloured eyes and snowy white face had creased into a scowl.

"But one of the biggest priorities is finding that Kitsune Chronicler, his mate and their helpers, as well as their Library hideout, and their bringing them to me as well as their base completely destroyed so that ALL TRACES of anything to do with the Great Lion, the Prophecy and Narnia's true history is completely removed," the Witch's face then changed to a look of a wicked smirk, "And I cannot WAIT to have two statues of a pair of fully grown, nine-tailed Kitsune as part of my collection of other courtyard statues…"

Horror tore through Trotterhoof and the other six and they shuddered.

"She has other Beasts turned to stone!?" whispered Cyril in utter horror. The other six said nothing and continued to listen on the conversation. Then the Lizard-Man spoke.

"But in the meantime, what should we do, your Majesty?" he asked. The Witch slinked like an elegant cat over to her throne and sat down. Nearby, a Faun and another chimeric Beast resembling a cross between a Jackalope and a Skvader but with a pair of fangs like that of the Manticore, called a Wolpertinger, came in with a plate and offered the Witch a crystalline ice glass of ultra-high quality and pure drink, but Trotterhoof, Alexandrite and the other five did NOT want to guess what was in those glasses. Due to how EVIL and BARBARIC Jadis was, the liquid had to be something extremely immoral and unthinkable. After taking a sip from the glass and placing it daintily back onto the plate which was also made from the purest ice, the Witch glared at the Lizard-Man.

"Continue the search for the Kitsune Chronicler, Ganondorf," snapped the white-as-bone humanoid woman in a voice of a spoilt brat, "The sooner we apprehend that nine-tailed dog-faced weasel and his mate and servants and destroy their Library base, the better. I want EVERY LAST TRACE of ANYTHING to do with the Great Lion and the Golden Age Prophecy, and Narnia's history, vanquished. Is that clear, Ganondorf, and Gollum, Romulus and Malefor?" she scoured her glare from the Lizard-Man over the Black Dwarf, Wolf and then the hideous Manticore.

"Yes, your Majesty" said the Manticore, "Perfectly."

"Absolutely," said Romulus. Gollum and the Lizard-Man whom Trotterhoof assumed was named Ganondorf (and the Manticore, Malefor) nodded in agreement, as did their underlings which consisted of mostly smaller Wolves, Manticores, Lizard-Men and Black Dwarfs.

"Then send your patrollers OUT THERE and CONTINUE YOUR SEARCH!" barked the Witch. Following this shout, a stampede of paws, hooves, feet and reptilian feet thundered into the palace air as Romulus and the others left, Romulus, along with Gollum, Ganondorf and Malefor barking orders to the underlings to get a move on. After the group had left, the Witch gazed with hideous hope at the Faun and the Wolpertinger as they served her cups of unthinkable drinks.

"And I sure hope that Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town are dealt with, especially with that certain Nekomata kit who is likely to spread that disease in his town…" she told her servants, followed by a sip from one of her icy cups. Realisation tore through Trotterhoof's group as the Pig ordered them that it was time to leave.

"That's Kushanku she's just mentioned," murmured Alexandrite quietly.

"Let's just get out of here before we're caught," whispered Trotterhoof and with that, the Pig, with the two Nekomata, the Hippogriff, the Griffin, the Dog and the Peryton, all dressed in their Banshee or Shadow like cloaks, quietly and hurriedly left the Witch's throne room.

Sometime later, Trotterhoof's group was now in the corridor leading to the courtyard for they were following Romulus's crowd, Trotterhoof having formulated the idea of a quick escape from the Witch's palace grounds instead of walking or flying. However, as the seven entered the courtyard, they were in for a horrifying surprise. Trotterhoof walked at the front, leading the six younger members along when suddenly, his snout that extended slightly ahead of his black hood touched something hard. At this, the Pig turned to what had touched his snout but when he saw a black figure, the Pig let loose a startled squeal and backed away, almost stepping onto Alexandrite's feet. Behind him and a very surprised Alexandrite, an equally surprised Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne stopped dead.

"What is it?" asked Paddy. Trotterhoof, as soon as he had settled his nerves down from the shock, then took some time to register the black thing which was a stone figure. Paddy and the other five did the same as Trotterhoof then identified the shape of the stone statue.

"That's an Archaeobird," murmured the Pig as he examined the stone figure, which was in the shape of a strange Theropod Dinosaur-like feathered creature with a long tail ending in a fan of feathers at the tip, claws on its wings and feathered legs. Then Trotterhoof examined the stone Archaeobird's face and saw that its muzzle-like beak was wide and agape, its eyes above the beak closed and one of its clawed wings raised in a defending position over its face as though the figure was cowering to protect its face from an incoming attack to its head. Its other clawed wing was also raised in a similar position but not as high. Nearby, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne shuddered and wept as they examined more stone figures. These figures were a variety of other Beasts and figures, even humanoid nature spirits such as Dryads, Sylphs and Pyros, and like the Archaeobird statue that had startled Trotterhoof, all of them had their arms/wings/hands raised over their heads, their mouths/beaks agape and their eyes screwed shut as though terrified, begging for mercy or protecting their heads from a threat to their faces. Then the group remembered the Witch mentioning a collection of statues in her courtyard, as well as how Honeycomb went from a living Cheetah to a lifeless stone figure of herself in a literal flash when the Witch zapped her back at Green Leaf Village, and as it dawned upon them, Cyril said, "I believe these are the creatures the Witch has turned to stone."

The other six converged their gazes at the young Hippogriff in horror.

"You mean the Witch may have used that sceptre-stick thing of hers to do just that and collect these poor creatures as trophies, Cyril?" asked Desdemona. Cyril, a dark look on his face, nodded. Trotterhoof then gazed at the stone statues open more and frowned.

"Well, there's nothing we can do to liberate these poor victims of that feral animal with an icicle crown, deathly white skin and icy cloak," said the Pig sadly, "Let's just get out of here."

Just as this sentence left his mouth, a voice startled them.

"Excuse me, are you that Pig from the family of the latest victor of the sanguinary Fighting League of that Witch's?" it said. At this, Trotterhoof and the other six with him all flinched and shot startled gazes about the animal statue-filled courtyard.

"Who's there!?" hissed Trotterhoof hostilely as he entered defence mode while Alexandrite seized an icicle nearby to use as a defensive weapon. Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne cowered behind the pair when suddenly; Molayne saw a flash of movement out the corner of his eye amongst the stone statues.

"Guys, look," said the Dog and with that he pointed a paw. Trotterhoof and the other five followed the Dog's paw point and saw, to their surprise, three figures walk in. However, only the figures' heads were visible, much to the extreme fright of Trotterhoof's group, but then the three figures sighed and dropped something covering their bodies to reveal their full identities to the seven. Surprise and awe welled within Trotterhoof's group.

"No way," murmured Alexandrite in utter astonishment while the other six said nothing.

Standing before Trotterhoof's group were three figures. One of them resembled a Wolf but had the ears and the tail of a Tiger, and a small mane surrounding its neck like a Lion, and its fur was coloured neon blue and yellow. Sparks occasionally flashed in the mane of the Cat/Wolf creature, indicating that it possessed electricity in its body (this type of Beast was called a Raiju, or Lightning-Wolf-Cat). The second figure was a silvery Horse but it had feathered wings. This figure was instantly recognisable to Trotterhoof: this Horse was one of the descendants of a certain Winged Horse who was involved in a very important task long ago, and it had silvery-white fur and feathers, its mane and tail tipped with icy blue. Unlike the Witch's cape, this Winged Horse's wings and fur had genuine beauty. The last figure was a Cat but it was neither an ordinary Cat nor a Nekomata for its tail was not forked and it was quadrupedal… hexapedal... as Trotterhoof and the other six with him examined the Cat whose fur was charcoal black with vivid neon orange-red stripes and spots strewn over the pelt and that its eyes were a vivid amber colour, they saw that the Cat did not have four legs, but _six._ Molayne identified this type of Cat immediately for one of the creatures that lived in a village not too far away from Green Leaf had been this creature.

"A _Wampus Cat_ ," he said in awe. The six-legged Cat nodded but then suddenly, footsteps sounded down the hallway and all ten shot startled looks down the corridor.

"We'd better get moving, FAST," hissed the Raiju (who was a male) and with that, he, together with the Winged Horse, or Pegasus, and the Wampus Cat, who were both female, seized something on the floor and swept them over their bodies, making them disappear into invisibility, while Trotterhoof and the other six adjusted their Banshee/Shadow disguises and hastily left, moments before the Witch appeared into the courtroom with some of her servants, among them the Faun and the Wolpertinger.

Trotterhoof and the other nine rushed through the corridor and soon, they found themselves facing a passing group of Banshees, Tenome, Hags and another hideous creature called Gorgons (some of them having snakes for hair but unlike their Greek mythology counterparts who can turn anyone who look into their eyes to stone, they have control over this power and can do it at will), as well as giant serpents called Basilisks as they walked or slithered along.

"Alright, everyone, to the sled shed," commanded the Gorgon, "Let's move, move, move, MOVE!"

"Yeah, let's run along," shouted a familiar voice, Gollum's. Trotterhoof flashed Alexandrite and the other eight a nod before leading them carefully into the passing traffic of the Witch's cronies. As they walked along, Alexandrite began to question the three invisible newcomers (who were donning a magical device called an _invisible cloak)_.

"Who are you three, anyway?" she asked quietly.

"I'm Thundersparx," said the Raiju, before nodding to the Pegasus and the Wampus Cat, "And these two are Milky Way and Obsidian. However, we'll talk later. Let's get outa this place first."

Alexandrite nodded and continued following Trotterhoof. It was vitally important that all ten stayed together for if one were to separate from the group, the results and consequences would be disastrous. Furthermore, the ten escapees were walking on thin ice for they could not afford to show their faces to the Witch's cronies and give away their identities. However, despite this, Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne were able to pass off as either Shadows, Hags or Banshees for their makeshift cloaks bore a remarkable resemblance to the cloaks of the real Shadows, Hags and Banshees despite some of them being four-footed, while the three newcomers who were Thundersparx the Raiju, Obsidian the Wampus Cat and Milky Way the Pegasus, their bodies disguised by the invisible cloaks, were practically unseen.

A while later, Trotterhoof and the other nine were finally out of the Witch's palace and were outside and at the sled shed. Here, the Witch's cronies stored away their sleighs and the reindeer and yule goats that pulled them. As the Witch's cronies dispersed to prepare the mini-sleighs, Trotterhoof and company ran for the nearest sled they could lay their eyes on. As the ten seized the sled, the Witch's cronies were already preparing their sleds, hooking the yule goats and reindeer to them with reins and as soon as everything was prepared, the cronies climbed into the sleds and barked at the pullers to run with a crack of a whip, leading to the pullers tugging on the sled and pulling it away from the shed and into the dark, snowy background.

While all this happened, Alexandrite, Molayne, Paddy and Obsidian had climbed into the sled while Trotterhoof, Cyril, Desdemona, Link, Thundersparx and Milky Way, wary gazes on the cronies as they continued to climb into the other sleighs and drive away, then pushed the sleigh out of the shed and into position. This done, Trottrerhoof commanded those in the seats to throw them some reins so that he, Cyril, Desdemona, Link, Thundersparx and Milky Way could harness themselves to the vehicle, for trying to hook up any of the yule goats or reindeer belonging to the Witch and her followers was not an option at all.

"What?" retorted Alexandrite in surprise.

"Just do it!" barked Trotterhoof, making Alexandrite comply. Together with Paddy, Obsidian and Molayne, Alexandrite tossed Trotterhoof, Cyril, Desdemona, Link, Thundersparx and Milky Way the reins and while they tied the reins to the sled, Trotterhoof and the other five, their disguises still covering them, then began to help each other put the reins on themselves. Although this appeared to be demeaning to the six soon-to-be-pullers of the sled, Trotterhoof knew the group had little time to rein up and leave before any eyes of the Witch's cronies could spot them. Then as soon as the six pullers had reined themselves to the sleigh, they were ready to pull the sleigh along.

"Alright, you four, you ready?" commanded Trotterhoof as Alexandrite, Obsidian, Paddy and Molayne took hold of the bars of the sleigh, "Hold on tight!"

And with that the Pig, together with the Hippogriff, Griffin, Peryton, Raiju and Pegasus started running while the four riders held on tight in the seats of the vehicle. At first, it was difficult for Trotterhoof and the others had never pulled or ridden a sleigh before but after a few more minutes, they dodgy got the hang of it.

Trotterhoof's group then followed the other sleighs ridden and driven by the Witch's cronies and their yule goats and reindeer as they rode away into the snowy landscape but eventually, the group broke away from the crowd and disappeared down a path of their own… effectively escaping the Witch's palace and eventually the palace grounds.


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22- a close call!**

 **Meanwhile**

Back at the cave in which Kushanku and company had taken shelter with Blaze the Phoenix, all the members of the crowd were now asleep. They were all huddled together and in their fur coats to keep each other warm while the youngest members were tucked away by their parents and carers in some of the coats or under the wings in the case of the birds so that they were protected from the cold as well. Somewhere in the sleeping crowd, Kushanku was huddled up to Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira while Crystal was comfortably tucked under her mother Rubyfeather's wing. Mensa and Snowwing the Skvaders were also huddled together with Shadewing the Bat, Dahlia the Jackalope kit, and Quill the Hedgehog, and Emberflame was in her lamp also asleep. Although she was an ideal source of heat for the group in the cave, she knew that she would not be able to provide it for very long and had decided to remain in her lamp due to the deadliness of the cursed cold to her health. For a Pyro or other fire sprite to be out in the freezing magically induced winter air for too long was as deadly as being like a fish stranding itself out of water, and Emberflame did not want to risk her life by keeping her time outside of her lamp to a minimum. Outside the cave through the almost-completely sealed entrance, the blizzard and its winds seemed to have eased but the snowfall was still thick as white flakes of cold snow continued to flutter through the darkness of the night. However, something else was about to lurk outside the cave's sealed entrance… with sinister intentions.

While Kushanku and the others were asleep, there was movement amongst the Rabbits nearby. The three Rabbit kits, all of who were younger than Kushanku and his two brothers and sister, had been stirred awake from a dream. One of them, the older male Rabbit kit, then let loose a yawn, wriggled out from his makeshift bed and stood up, his eyes half-asleep. Sleepily, he began to examine the crowd of sleeping forms, among them Blaze who slept with his beak tucked in to his back feathers on an elevated rock. Like most birds and also Griffins and Hippogriffs, Phoenixes, Rocs and Thunderbirds slept with their beaks buried into their back feathers. Only a few birds, such as Penguins, did not do this. The Rabbit kit then turned his gaze towards the opening of the seal of rocks built up at the mouth of the cave, his erect ears twitching like they would do in our world's rabbits. As the Rabbit kit then gazed at the hole and the snow till falling outside, two of his sisters who had also woken up and had crept out of their makeshift bed, came up to him when suddenly, the three Rabbit kits heard a sound coming from outside.

"The wind's pretty much gone," whispered one of the younger female kits when she did not hear any howling of the wind outside and that it had died down to nothing more than a whisper.

"Shh," hushed her older brother as he began to listen on a certain sound coming from outside. The two younger sisters cocked their ears to listen. It sounded like faint jingling.

"Do you two hear that?" whispered the older Rabbit brother, enthusiasm welling within him. His two younger sisters, their ears also picking up the jingling noise, also excitedly nodded. It was then that the jingling noise increased in loudness outside and eventually stopped. The three Rabbit kits gazed at each other and smiled for they knew one famous figure who had made those noises whenever he drove through the snow. And those Rabbit kits were so keen on meeting him for the first time in their lives.

"Father Christmas!" said the trio of Rabbit kits in a hushed voice and together and making sure not to disturb the other sleepers by quietly hopping by or over them, the trio began to make their way towards the entrance, their mother and other siblings too deep in sleep to notice their disappearance. However, the three young Rabbits' movement hasn't gone unnoticed by someone else. As they passed by Kushanku and his siblings and his adopted Cheetah brother Sandstorm, Kushanku stirred. The white-haired Nekomata let loose a yawn before turning his head to examine the sleeping forms of the other animals and creatures including Blaze who was on a rock. However, when his eyes picked up movement from near the sealed cave mouth, Kushanku bolted fully awake and drew in a gasp before quickly but carefully scrambling to his feet to avoid disturbing Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira, and hurried over to the three Rabbit kits as they neared the hole in the stack of rocks blocking the entrance to the cave to keep out the blizzard.

The three Rabbit kits then climbed up the rocks and were prepared to crawl through the hole to outside when suddenly, a whisper shouted, "Hey, where are you three going?"

At this, the three Rabbit kits jumped slightly and turned to see a metallic icy blue, grey and white fork-tailed Cat hurry towards them. Kushanku then stopped before the three Rabbits, a frown on his face.

"You know you're not supposed to leave the cave until tomorrow morning as ordered by Mr Blaze," he whispered, a flash on the other sleeping forms of the rest of the group as he spoke in a low voice and making sure that he did not disturb anyone. The Rabbit kits, however, were too flooded with excitement to be reminded of Blaze's command to stay inside due to the dangers out in the open.

"But Kushanku," said the male kit as his two sisters flanked him, "Father Christmas is outside. We wanna meet him."

"He could have presents for us," said one of the younger sisters. As she spoke, the sound of jingling rang from outside again, adding fuel to the fire of the three Rabbits' excitement, but awareness within Kushanku.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" said the other young female Rabbit, "Let's go!"

Then before Kushanku could protest, the three young kits climbed up to the hole, squeezed through it and left for outside. Kushanku, a huff of frustration at the Rabbits' disobedience igniting within him, climbed after the Rabbits and followed them. However, as the Nekomata's forked tail disappeared through the hole in the rocky seal, Blaze happened to stir and turn a sleepy gaze in the direction of the quartet's last location but the moment the Phoenix's eyes saw the two branches of the tail of a certain magical Cat species vanish through the hole, he immediately jumped awake in alarm. Emberflame, who had also seen Kushanku leave after the three Rabbit kits from her lamp, also jolted awake in horror.

Outside, Kushanku followed the three Rabbit kits as they excitedly ran across the snow through the thick cloud of falling snowflakes. The wind had dropped but it was still very cold and dark, and the visibility was further reduced by the thick mist of snowflakes. Kushanku fought through the snow after the three Rabbits, barking their names until he found the three of them standing in a row and gazing at something in the distance. At this, Kushanku flashed them a gaze of wonder before paralleling it with theirs as he heard the jingling noise again. Because the three Rabbit kits were so engrossed in listening to the jingling bell noise as well as their desperation to see Father Christmas in person, they were too blinded to the potential danger about to unfold. It was then that the older, male Rabbit kit's eyes picked up a shadowy form through the thick snowfall.

"Sisters, Kushanku, LOOK!" he squealed excitedly with a paw point. His two younger sisters and Kushanku followed his point and sure enough, their eyes found the shadowy form as well. The form was shaped like a sleigh, like that of Father Christmas and ahead of the form were four-footed creatures with branch-like extensions clawing at the air. Kushanku immediately recognised these creatures: _reindeer._ He had been told by Dashiell and Honeycomb, his adopted Cheetah parents that Father Christmas drove around Narnia on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and as he gazed at the reindeer-like shadow forms ahead of the sleigh, the figure in the sleigh itself then rose. However, due to the darkness and the thickness of the snowfall, its features were obscured but still the three Rabbit kits continued to gaze at the figure. Then the trio launched into a bunny run towards the figure, prompting Kushanku to follow them once again.

"Seriously, we shouldn't even be OUT HERE!" shouted Kushanku as he struggled to keep up with the three Rabbit kits as the deep snow hindered his attempts to run, "What will Mr Blaze…"

Suddenly the Nekomata trailed off when his eyes found the figure as it then pulled out a large black thing from the back of the sleigh. The three Rabbit kits also gazed at the figure as t pulled the thing, which turned out to be some sort of sack, onto the snow by its sleigh.

"Prezzies!" squealed the two female rabbit kits in sheer excitement as they gazed at the sack. Their older brother also jumped up and down like a human kid whenever he or she got excited at seeing an ice-cream van or a sweet shop. Kushanku also saw the sack but then he began to examine the figure itself. He saw that the figure was hooded and wore a robe, much like Father Christmas but then he noticed something else. Two curved structures rose from the head of the figure and the figure itself appeared hunched, like a Hag. Furthermore, the fingers looked long and lanky and the figure moved about in a sinister fashion. Kushanku, despite having never seen Father Christmas in person his entire life, knew that Father Christmas wouldn't move like that, nor did he have such ugly looking figures or curved structures, horns, rise above his head like a Goat's, as they did not match the description of Father Christmas given to him and his siblings and adopted Cheetah siblings by Honeycomb and Dashiell. A suspicious look came on the Nekomata kit's face.

"Wait a second…" he murmured to the hypnotised Rabbits as the horned figure then advanced towards them with its sack. However, as you will know, Father Christmas, the REAL Father Christmas I mean, has been locked out of the land of Narnia by the Witch's winter spell. And this creature had traits that the REAL Father Christmas did not have, such as the lanky fingers that resembled claws, the horns on its head, and a hunchback. You've probably heard of a certain Christmas creature in certain European folklore in our world, a creature that hunts down children that had been badly behaved at Christmas to punish them, rather than reward unlike Father Christmas. However, due to how dark, corrupted and evil-tainted the air of Narnia had become due to the Witch's dictatorship, this creature was one of the creatures that had made itself at home in the winter spell-stricken Narnia, and was a child-snatcher posing as Father Christmas to lure naïve young Beasts and creatures to take to an unknown demise. So not only is the judicial system corrupted because of Jadis, but the land of Narnia itself as well.

As Kushanku continued to gaze at the horned figure as it advanced towards them with its sack, the three Rabbit kits continued to gaze at the sack in pure excitement, an excitement so thick that it blinded them completely to the danger about to unfold. Then what happened next sent everything flying into chaos. Back inside the cave, Blaze and Emberflame were taking some of the rocks down with the help of some of the other creatures such as Shadewing and the Rabbit mother who had noticed three of her kids missing to widen the hole when suddenly, a scream exploded from the dark, snowy outside.

"KUSHANKU!" screeched Shadewing.

"MY THREE BABIES!" cried the Rabbit mother. In the background, the other young Rabbit kits, the siblings and cousins of the three missing kits, were crying hysterically for the safety of their three missing siblings/cousins. The shockwave travelled through the rest of the group members and jolted them awake but before chaos could erupt within the cave, Blaze barked orders at them to remain inside. Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira were especially panicked for they had found that a certain Nekomata had gone missing as well. Nonetheless, they stayed in the cave with the others as ordered by Blaze until the rescue operation was complete.

Kushanku stood rooted to the spot, extreme fear paralyzing him and inflating his eyes out of their sockets, and every hair on his body, especially the white mop-like hair cascading down the sides and back of his head, spiked out like a Hedgehog's quills. Because he was so stricken by immense terror, he was too rigid to come to the three Rabbit kits' aid as the Rabbit kits struggled to fight against some of the minions of the Father Christmas impersonator, which turned out to be a Goat-like figure dressed in a Father Christmas-like costume, and its minions were indeed toys but they were not the sort of toys aby child, whether human or Talking Beast, would want to play with. These toys were living, twisted demented versions of the toys we are often familiar with, such as teddy bears, dolls and Jack-in-the-boxes, and these twisted creatures were attacking the Rabbit kits and trying to bind them for their master to come and take away. Kushanku looked on in paralyzed horror as he watched the demented teddy bears, dolls and other toys, all of them releasing evil, squeaky cackles as they chased and attacked the three screaming Rabbit kits, before he himself was leapt upon by some minions of the Goat-like figure resembling treats often baked at Christmas: gingerbread figures. However, the Nekomata was still rigid from extreme fear to defend himself from the marauding gingerbread figures as they then knocked him down into the snow and began to bind him using thick ropes resembling vines. While all this happened, the bipedal Goat-like figure dressed in a very ugly rusty red-brown robe looked on with menacingly red eyes from under the hood as its minions set to work in binding the four victims, three of them screaming and the other frozen in an ice block of fear. However, the evil toys and gingerbread men were not going to get very far for something was zooming in towards the scene through the snow, the distress cries of the three Rabbit kits as the toys attacked and bound them having attracted attention, and that attention and thus rescue was slicing through the snowy dark air in the form of a fiery comet.

Emberflame, despite the serious risk of the winter spell to her health, came charging through the dark, the flames forming her entire humanoid body emanating and sweeping outward and behind from her like a fire cape as she charged towards the scene. Her fire eyes were ablaze with the fire of fury, like the rest of her body, and behind her, Blaze the Phoenix was rocketing, his wings just starting to ignite fire, the characteristic of every Phoenix. Then as soon as the two fiery pairs were near the wicked living toys attacking the three Rabbit kits, Emberflame raised a fire arm and shot a stream of flames right at the little army of demonic bears, dolls and other toys, setting them alight and driving them away. With stunned and terrified squeals and their fur or hair set ablaze, the toys dispersed from the trio of terrified Rabbit kits who were trembling violently from the attack, but Emberflame continued to rush at them and shoot more flames to try and incinerate some of them to ashes. While she sought to the toys attacking the three Rabbit kits, Blaze went straight for the gingerbread men attacking and binding Kushanku who was still paralysed by fear and as he neared the Nekomata kit and his would-be captors, the Phoenix, a loud screech of fury exploding from his beak, transformed his body to a bird-shaped comet of fire. Then as a literal bird of fire, Blaze charged towards the gingerbread men, flew right over them and engulfed them completely in flames. The gingerbread men all cried in extreme terror as their candy bodies ignited and began to burn, resulting in a group of little fireballs running around and trying to put out the fire. While the gingerbread men were thrown into a fiery panic, Blaze turned his attention on Kushanku and used some of his flames to break the vine-like ropes binding his paws together, snapping them and freeing the Nekomata kit. Nearby, the Rabbit mother, together with three Badgers and Quill who had come to help, seized the three petrified Rabbit kits.

"Take those kits back to the cave, NOW!" bellowed Blaze, still in his fiery form, as he continued to incinerate some more gingerbread men and more toys with Emberflame. Quill, the Rabbit mother and the three Badgers obeyed and, with the three Rabbit kits in their paws and with Emberflame who was weakening greatly from the winter air, scurried back to the cave where the others were waiting. While they did that, Blaze turned to Kushanku and barked, "Kushanku, COME ON BACK TO THE CAVE!"

However, Kushanku was still paralyzed in the ice block of terror to even respond. Then a very large jack-in-a-box which had a long and thick body resembling that of a large serpent, such as an anaconda or python in our world or a Basilisk in Narnia, appeared from behind the bipedal Goat figure and lunged at Kushanku and Blaze, its mouth opened wide and ready to swallow the Nekomata and Phoenix but Blaze, an extremely ferocious screech exploding from his beak, flared up and blasted the giant python-like jack-in-the-box and set it ablaze, stopping it in its tracks and sending it retreating back to its master and the sleigh with the other incinerated toys and gingerbread men. Blaze then turned to Kushanku once again and barked at him to move it but still the Nekomata was unresponsive. His fur and head hair were still puffed out and his eyes were still inflated out of their sockets.

"KUSHANKU!" bellowed Blaze urgently, before he turned to face the giant, hunched Goat-like creature. The figure then began to take large steps towards the pair, its red eyes glaring menacingly in the darkness of its hood and a long tongue snaking out and flickering at the air which shuddered slightly as a hiss escaped the creature's hidden mouth. As it advanced towards Kushanku and Blaze, more evil toys appearing from its bag and its sleigh and released evil cackles into the dark, wintery air. Just visible in the darkness were the creature's feet, which resembled the hooves of a Goat and its hands were lanky, bony fingers ending in long claws similar to those of a Wendigo. Blaze, terror at the beast igniting within him, then screeched at Kushanku to get moving.

"KUSHANKU, GET A MOVE ON!" bellowed the Phoenix and with that, he changed back into his red and gold feathered form, tackled into the Nekomata's chest to snap him out of his fear-induced paralysis and charged at him to get him moving, "NOOOOW!"

Kushanku, his muscles now free of the paralysis, did exactly as he was told and charged in the direction of the cave with Blaze hastily following. The pair charged through the falling snow with Blaze helping Kushanku along by carrying him so that the snow did not slow him down and did not stop until they were safely back in the cave. The pair dived through the hole and once they were both inside, some of the animals, among them Shadewing and Mensa, quickly sealed off the hole to completely block the entrance until the wicked Father Christmas impersonator had gone. Emberflame was back in her lamp while Blaze was puffing and panting and checking over Kushanku and the three Rabbit kits as their mother laid them down with the other Rabbit kits with Quill and a Badger. Then Kushanku who was also breathless and was being fussed over by Shadewing, Rubyfeather, and a very frantic Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm, finally managed to find the words to say.

"B-b-but Mr Blaze," said the Nekomata, "The R-R-R-Rabbit kits said that the j-j-j-jingling noises were F-F-F-Father Christmas..."

At this, Blaze shot him a furious look. "It is one of the _sly tricks_ of those snow creatures who have made Narnia their home thanks to that evil Witch's winter spell," he growled, making Kushanku flinch and lower his head and ears in shame as he realised his disobedience. The three Rabbit kits, who were still trembling, also flashed Kushanku a shameful look as they were bathed in the angry glare of their mother and some other older members of the group. Blaze continued, "Honestly, Kushanku, HAD WE NOT HEARD those three Rabbit kits' DISTRESS CRIES and SAW YOU LEAVE THE CAVE AGAINST MY ORDERS TO STAY HERE UNTIL THE MORNING…" Kushanku flinched again as the Phoenix swept on, "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN…" Blaze then trailed off, not wanting to mention what would have happened to the Nekomata kit and the three little Rabbits had he and Emberflame not got there in time. Kushanku's eyes then began to ooze tears and he broke down, his paws flying to his face. Blaze then flashed from anger to sympathy but retained his sternness as he watched the Nekomata erupt into tears and sobs.

"But thank the Lion he has allowed us to rescue you four in time," said the Phoenix, "But next time, make sure you obey my commands to stay with the group," he then turned to the Rabbit mother as she continued to scold the three Rabbit kits for leaving the cave, "And Faline, make sure you have your kits at your side _at all times,_ until we arrive safely at Gandalf and Kyukon's base."

The rabbit mother, Faline nodded and continued to rebuke her three Rabbit kits who were now beginning to ooze tears as shame consumed them. After all, they were the ones who had got Kushanku into trouble which resulted in all four of them almost getting caught by the monster that resembled Father Christmas. Then one of the birds, an Owl and a Bird Harpy peered through a crack in the stone seal.

"I believe that Father Christmas imposter has gone, Blaze," the Owl said.

"Yeah, we certainly cannot hear any more bell jingles," said the Harpy.

"Well, we'll stay here and leave that cave mouth completely sealed until morning, just to be on the safe side," said Blaze as he gazed at the still-sobbing Kushanku as Emberflame and Shadewing comforted him and hugged him, "But until then, let's get back to sleep."

With that, the group of animals prepared to do so. As everyone prepared to settle down, Nyarth began to ask Blaze some questions.

"Who was that figure, anyway?" he asked. Blaze turned to him, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira with a dark look on his face.

"That was Krampus," he said in a low voice, "The opposite to Father Christmas. It seems that he has made himself at home in this winter-trapped land thanks to the Witch's winter spell," his face then morphed into a look of outrage, "and because there has never been a Christmas since that beast Jadis had stolen the throne from Narnia's rightful line of kings and queens and had locked it in this permanent winter, it seems that Krampus has taken the opportunity to use everyone's despair of ever seeing Father Christmas again to lure and catch victims, especially young ones, to take away to an unknown demise. Though you may have heard or know of stories of him dragging off naughty kids for punishment during the Christmas period, it is not actually the case due to the devastating effect Jadis has thrown over Narnia with her inhumane dictatorship and winter spell."

Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira shuddered while Kushanku, his eyes still weeping tears, then began to tremble violently, and the tremors of this terrifying fact were also felt throughout the rest of the group as well, and they knew that Blaze was not lying when he had warned them of the temptations and wicked creatures in the surrounding snowy lands lurking here and there and his emphasis on staying together. And they had almost lost four of their younger members to one such monster, among them a vitally important member of the group to whom the Great Lion himself had spoken in a dream and had tasked to help in this job. Troubled, the group prepared to return to sleep and prepare for departure at daybreak at Blaze's orders, the fright at the problems the group will be facing having already begun. And there will be plenty more on the way from here until they get to Gandalf and Kyukon's base, and after a stay for a while there, from there to Archenland to escape Jadis's tyrannical rule until the Great Thaw would come.

As for Kushanku, he had learned his lesson from this frightening experience and had vowed to stay with the group at all times at all costs from now on until they reached Gandalf and Kyukon the Kitsune's base.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23- More horrifying facts about the Witch and her cronies**

 **Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town**

The snowflakes continued to drift in cascades through the darkness of the night even though the winds had dropped. Because of this, visibility had been vastly reduced to a range of no more than a few metres from any observers, and it was extremely cold. As the snowfall continued to cascade, a swooshing noise sliced the air apart as a blur shot through the snowflake-saturated darkness. Ahead of the blur was a bright neon blue and yellow light with a few sparks flashing from it and around the glowing sparking figure, were several darker figures still dressed in black cloaks like those of the Hags and Banshees while a few of them still had invisible cloaks covering most of their bodies. The sparking, glowing figure's light briefly bathed the surroundings briefly as it and the others with it passed by with the sled. Trotterhoof the Pig, Cyril the Hippogriff, Desdemona the Griffin, Link the Peryton, Milky Way the Pegasus and Thundersparx the Raiju who was the one emanating the light so that the others could see where they went in the dark, continued to drag the sled containing Alexandrite and Padparadscha the Nekomata, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, and Molayne the Dog in the driver's seat through the darkness, the blades of the sled slicing through the white snow and causing the swooshing sound. The group had been sleighing for several hours now and at the moment had no idea of where they are due to the darkness and the thickness of the snowfall, despite Thundersparx's bright light acting as a torch or flashlight to guide them. Furthermore, the group was getting very tired and hungry from the hectic escape from the Witch's palace and surrounding grounds.

As the group continued to run along, Thundersparx managed to pick out a suitable rest stop amongst the trees and bushes running alongside the path they were running on.

"There, we'll rest in that gap covered by the thick clutter of trees and branches," said the Raiju. With that, Trotterhoof and the other pullers followed the Lightning Cat-Wolf until they stopped at the gap. As soon as they had done that, Trotterhoof and the other pullers de-reined themselves while Alexandrite, Molayne, Padparadscha or Paddy for short and Obsidian jumped down from the sled. Next, the group pushed the sled into the den before going in themselves for they knew that there could be Dryads on the Witch's side patrolling through the dark winter night for any suspicious activity. Because of this and because of the freezing temperatures, Trotterhoof and his group decided to keep their Banshee disguises on them for warmth and to disguise their true identities from potential patrollers who might spot them, while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way kept their invisibility cloaks wrapped around them for the same reasons. Then as soon as the group had settled down for a rest in the shelter apparently constructed by the branches and twigs interwoven like a den, Obsidian went to the sled's cargo section and pulled out a large sack before dragging it to the rest of the group with two paws holding the bag and the other four pulling her body and the load along.

"I didn't realise that these sleds had a large stash of food stowed in the back," said Obsidian in amazement as she dragged the sack, opened its mouth and began to distribute the food contained within, which were mostly fruit, vegetables and nuts of best quality (apparently kept by the sled's real owners in case they wanted to stop for a lunch or dinner break), amongst the others and they began to eat.

"I hope there is no meat in there is there?" asked Thunderpsarx rather nervously as he received some grapes from Obsidian. As the Wampus Cat shook her head to confirm that there wasn't, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne exchanged confused glances while Milky Way looked on.

"Yes, Thundersparx and Obsidian are vegetarians," said the Pegasus.

"But I thought they would be meat-eaters as well as eaters of plant flesh," said Alexandrite. However, the Nekomata flinched when she was faced with highly offended looks from the Raiju and the Wampus Cat.

"Are you mocking us for being vegetarian?" said Thundersparx in a low voice. At this, Alexandrite threw on an apologetic look. "S-s-sorry, I was just surprised at you two being wary of meat…" she began but Milky Way rebuked her. Molayne then looked on, a suspicious look at the possibility of why Thundersparx and Obsidian were so sensitive around the subject of consuming meat forming on his face. Then Cyril, while munching on an apple, then began to examine the surroundings of the den outside. Despite the reduced visibility caused by the thick snowfall and the darkness, the young Hippogriff felt a sense of familiarity well within him. However, that familiarity also brought a dull ache with it.

"This is definitely the road to our home village and neighbouring town," said the Hippogriff, "We've been past this area when the Witch took us to her palace with Soran and the others."

"Which hometown are you from?" asked Milky Way as she ate some apples.

"Green Leaf Village," replied Trotterhoof as he ate another apple, "And its neighbouring town is named Purple Flower."

"We expect both those areas to be reduced to a slaughterhouse site by now," whimpered Desdemona as she feared the worst, especially for a few certain individuals who were now former friends of Soran and company, and Molayne shuddered at the thought of four of those individuals who were the same species as Alexandrite and Padparadscha. Thundersparx then gazed at Trotterhoof's group as he ate some nuts and carrots.

"I believe you seven are from the family of the latest victor of the HORRID Fighting League, am I right?"

"Yes we are," said Trotterhoof.

"My cousin Soran was the one who won this decade's slaughterhouse event," added Molayne as he ate a few potatoes for there was no meat in the sack like Obsidian had found.

"And I believe you three are from one of the families of the previous victors, am I right?" asked Link. Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way nodded.

"We're from the family of a Raiju named Lightningflash," said Milky Way, before turning her gaze to Thundersparx as his sparking ears fell sadly, "and he is the father of Thundersparx here."

Shock tore through Trotterhoof's group and Molayne even dropped the potato he was eating. THIS was reminiscent of Molayne's problem regarding Soran.

"That's just like how Soran is Molayne's cousin here," said Paddy with a gesture to the flabbergasted Molayne, mentioning the point.

"How have you three been living with that family for the past ten years?" asked Alexandrite. At this, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way prepared to launch into an explanation, and Thundersparx decided to go first.

"We haven't _technically_ been living with our family during the ten years since my dad Lightningflash had won the previous Fighting League," said the Raiju, "We have been living in hiding most of the time."

"Hiding!? That sounds like an extreme option!" blurted out Molayne.

"Where have you been hiding all that time?" asked Trotterhoof.

"We've been hiding in a large tree hollow and log in the forest just outside the Witch's palace," explained Thundersparx, "Since we have retained our beliefs in the Great Lion which is, as you will know, an extremely forbidden subject (an even greater wave of shock tore through Trotterhoof and his group), and that we wanted to spy on the lifestyle of the Witch and her cronies and what effect it had on our family and the family and the victor of the first Fighting League, as well as keep any arousal of any suspicion from our now uncaring family at bay, we have decided to 'remain nearby' so to speak."

Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne then began to listen intently as the Raiju continued, "We only went back to our house to 'celebrate' important events like the Fighting League event and the anniversary of the Witch's 'coronation' when in reality she has actually usurped the throne according to one of her cronies when they were talking about the Witch's history…"

"Go on," said Trotterhoof, eagerness to learn more boiling within him and the other six.

"And during the course of those ten years since the Witch has picked up from our town, called Brown Autumn Leaf, and had us settle into this luxurious house after Lightningflash had won the Fighting League until your family moved in," said Milky Way, "we have been examining as much of the Witch and her cronies' lifestyle, and the effect of the Witch's 'better life prize' on our own family and the family of the victor of the first Fighting League," the Pegasus's face turned dark, "And believe me, what we found wasn't good."

"Did Lightningflash have any friends that he helped before he was dragged away by the Witch to be in the Fighting League?" asked Paddy.

"Yes," said Milky Way, "He was very close friends with a Nekomata couple named Frosty, who was named for his icy blue, white and silvery fur, and his mate Ferntail. Ferntail was expecting a litter of kits and was thus pregnant at the time the second Fighting League was due to take place…"

"Lightningflash, Frosty and Ferntail were running a hideout for Aslan and Golden Prophecy believers to keep them safe from the Witch and her cronies," said Obsidian. This prompted glances to be exchanged between Trotterhoof and his group. Icy blue, white and silvery fur? There was one young Nekomata who had two of those colours in his pelage, and the siblings also possessed some of these colours as well. Obsidian then continued when Link asked, "Did Lightningflash and many of you other family members go through a downfall change since Lightningflash won the past Fighting League?"

A very dark look came upon the very dark grey, almost black, and fire red-orange marked Wampus Cat's face. "Yes," she said in a low voice, "Since that Witch had returned to our town to pick us up, the winning of the Fighting League has caused a very ugly transformation in the older Raiju and his attitude, which only worsened when we settled into our new home on the Witch's palace grounds in this improved house with better food, warmth and other luxuries we did not have back in Brown Autumn Leaf."

"Their care for the other Narnians had been swallowed up by the incredibly toxic convocation of snobbery, uncaring, and extreme pride on looking down on the other Narnians who have to continue to suffer with the poverty and freezing cold of the winter curse, along with the extreme heartbreak of losing their loved ones to the Slaughterhouse League," said Obsidian.

"And over time," continued Thundersparx, "They have become more and more uncaring, carefree, and totally addicted to the rich food given to them by the Witch and their cronies, and of course they got fatter, and fatter until they are no longer recognisable."

"We have got a glimpse of the first victor and her family as well," added Milky Way, "And believe me, the results on that family were the same…"

"We have been trying to convince Lightningflash to think of the other Narnians when we settled into our new home," added Obsidian, "But to our utmost dismay, they wouldn't listen and told us to forget 'those lowly impoverished rats', and to focus on starting a new life…"

At this, Molayne shot the other six in Trotterhoof's group a horrified look. "That's exactly what happened to Soran and our other family members, guys."

"And to add vinegar to the open wounds," said Milky Way, at which Thundersparx and Obsidian sadly and guiltily backed away to allow the Pegasus to explain, "We found that most of the meat served to us were from the Talking Beasts…"

"WHAT!?" shouted Alexandrite.

"Did you three know it at the time before you found that out?" asked Trotterhoof. Milky Way gazed at the Pig.

"At first, no," she said, before her gaze turned to the trembling Obsidian and Thundersparx, "we weren't aware of it at all for the Witch's cronies never told us of the meat's origins, and those two…"

She trailed off when she saw the two begin to tremble with guilt all the more. Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne looked on with sympathy but Alexandrite and Molayne had already arrived at one possible conclusion even before Thundersparx had found the courage to say it.

"We… we…" said the Raiju, a tear beginning to well in his eye while Obsidian also began to sob, "We've been eating whole dishes of that… meat for… some months… until…" Thundersparx then began to weep and break down.

"You overheard some of the Witch's cronies talk about the meat being from Talking Beasts," said Paddy. Milky Way shook her head.

"Not just that," said the Pegasus as she went over to Obsidian and Thundersparx to comfort them, while Alexandrite and Molayne flinched harshly, "During one spying trip during our ten years on the Witch's palace grounds, we have managed to get a glimpse of how the Talking Beast meat's origins."

Trotterhoof was about to ask but Milky Way continued, saying the answer before he could even ask the question.

"We managed to find the slaughter site and while we examine it," the Pegasus's face turned very dark with disgust and dread, the skin under her facial fur going pale, while Obsidian and Thundersparx, who already knew this, put their paws to their ears but insisted Milky Way continue to explain their findings to Trotterhoof and company, for they felt that they SHOULD know this, "We were forced into hiding when a group of Banshees, Wendigoes, Wolpertingers, Xenojaws and Black Dwarfs… came in with some… some…" Milky Way then began to break down as massive tears fell from her eyes."

"Go on," said Trotterhoof gently. Milky Way mustered up the strength to explain while Obsidian and Thundersparx kept their ears closed, their eyes still oozing tears.

"M-M-Most of those animals had been… T-T-Talking Sheep… Pigs…" said Milky Way in a broken voice, "D-D-Deer… Pigeon, Ch-Chickens… B-B-B-Bovines… and they were f-f-f-forced by those evil cronies of the Witch against… their will… cries… a-a-a-and protests… to… the slaughter site… and… and… and…" the Pegasus trailed off, not wanting to say anymore. However Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne had already deduced what Milky Way, Obsidian and Thundersparx had seen happen to that group of Talking Beasts, but the moment the deduction welled within them, it sent even greater revulsion tearing through all seven of them, and Molayne and Alexandrite felt very sick. Dropping the food they were eating, the Dog and the Nekomata darted off to disgorge while Trotterhoof and the other four shuddered very, very violently. Then Thundersparx, after wiping tears from his eyes, looked up at the seven former members of Soran's family, "Since then, Obsidian and I have rejected meat and have become strict vegetarians."

"We even went against eating the meat of dumb animals," put in Obsidian, her eyes stained with tears.

"Alexandrite? Molayne?" asked Desdemona when she noticed that two of the seven members of Trotterhoof's group were missing.

"I believe they've ran off to be sick somewhere," said Obsidian in a fragile voice. At this, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Trotterhoof heard the sounds of someone vomiting nearby, so Trotterhoof left to check on them, leaving the other four to continue to listen to Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way's backstory.

"And I believe those family members of yours simply told you to stop being stupid and say that the meat is delicious, even though it came from those poor Talking Beasts?" asked Paddy rather nervously. Obsidian, Thundersparx and a very tearful Milky Way, nodded. Paddy shot Cyril, Link and Desdemona a horrified look.

"That's just like our OWN family members when Mr Trotterhoof found out that the meat had come from those poor Talking Animals," said the pink, red and orange Nekomata and Alexandrite's sister in utter horror.

"The deliberate killing of another Talking Beast and the consumption of their meat is a VERY… SERIOUS… offense," said Milky Way as soon as she had recovered enough to speak, "Aslan had strictly forbidden us Talking Animals from killing and eating one another. It is ONLY the meat of dumb beast that should be eaten, NOT the meat of Talking Animals."

"You're NOT to blame," said Desdemona fiercely, "You weren't aware of it at the time."

"And neither were the rest of us until Mr Trotterhoof overheard those Banshees talk about where the meat had come from," put in Cyril with Link and Paddy nodding in agreement. Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way just gazed at him, Paddy, Link and Desdemona very sadly. Then moments later, Trotterhoof returned with Alexandrite and Molayne who, despite feeling better after being sick, still looked a deathly pale green colour under their facial fur and their faces laced with nausea. Link went to fetch some more fruit, veg and nuts from the sack but Obsidian said, "Save the rest of the food. We might need it later on," prompting the Peryton youngster to leave the sack alone and return to the group. Then the group resumed the story.

"Wat did you manage to observe of the Witch and her cronies?" asked Trotterhoof. At this, a look of outrage flared up on Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx's faces, the upset over the subject of the meat from Talking Beasts pushed aside for now.

"Oh, that bunch of gluttonous cockroaches and flies!?" snarled the Raiju, his mane sparking slightly, "During mealtimes, especially celebrations such as the Fighting League or the Witch's anniversary of usurping the throne and conquering Narnia, they would have extremely large and lavish feasts."

"Their tables were saturated, and I do mean SATURATED with all kinds of food," said Obsidian, "and the way they ate it was absolutely DISGUSTING!"

"Yes," added Milky Way angrily and disgustedly, "They would gorge themselves until overfull and then they would leave to somewhere to throw it all up and then return to the tables to stuff their bellies with even MORE food, often repeating this process five or six times."

"So they are EXTREMELY wasteful," said Thundersparx as a very horrified and disgusted Trotterhoof and his group listened.

"So let us get this straight," said Trotterhoof, "The Witch and her cronies… are going through TONS of food while all the NARNIANS out here are STARVING!?"

"That's right, Trotterhoof," said Obsidian.

"Since they get so much of the food from the Narnians from this 'ninety-percent food and self-grown crop offering' law," said Milky Way, "They end up with an excess amount of food which they love to wastefully go through."

"They honestly live like sheer gluttons," put in Obsidian angrily, "And the victors and their families who have been completely consumed by the charm of the Witch and her so-called generosity are no different."

"Huh, a sadist in every sense of the word," muttered Trotterhoof spitefully, "She sure seems to love finding new ways to cause suffering and sheer oppression to us Narnians, ever since she came to power and locked our country in this Eternal Winter…"

"What became of Lightningflash's former friends Frosty and Ferntail and their friends after him and his family moved to the Witch's palace grounds after he had won the Fighting League?" asked Cyril.

"Some months after the second Fighting League," said Milky Way, "Lightningflash, without a second thought, revealed to Jadis of Frosty and Ferntail and their hideout's whereabouts and that the Nekomata couple was housing Aslan believers which led to the Witch dispatching Romulus, Ganondorf, Malefor and their band of Wolves, Lizard-Men and Manticores to hunt down the Nekomata couple and their friends and slaughter them…"

"WHAAAAT!?" shouted Desdemona in disbelief.

"Did Ferntail have her kits by then?" asked Trotterhoof, the other five looking on in equal disbelief.

"We don't know but since the gestation period of a Nekomata is around six months," said Thundersparx, "And Ferntail was nearing her time in giving birth to her and Frosty's kits a few days after the Fighting League, I should imagine so but we don't know what has happened to their kits but we believe they may have been slaughtered in the attack on the hideout…"

"Sounds like the heavily pregnant Ferntail was especially in danger of being selected for the Fighting League at the time," said Alexandrite in utter horror.

"She indeed was," said Obsidian, "For Frosty's family had been one of the Witch's randomly selected families. Thankfully, the brother of Frosty had been chosen to be thrown into the Fighting League arena and not the pregnant Ferntail," a sad sigh left the Wampus Cat's mouth, "We're horribly sorry for that Nekomata who had died in the Fighting League but it certainly was a close shave for Ferntail and her kits, as not only would Frosty have lost his mate, but his soon-to-be-born kits as well."

"Anyway, coming back to my dad's betrayal of that Nekomata couple and their friendas, that was the final leaf for me, Obsidian and Milky Way," said Thundersparx angrily, "So we sneaked out and found ourselves this hollow and log and lived mostly there for the next ten years, spying on the Witch and her cronies, examining the consequences of the luxurious lifestyle they had offered as a prize for the Fighting League victor and their families as well as their ultra-rich and luxurious lifestyle they themselves led…"

Alexandrite turned to Trotterhoof, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne and said, "That's reminiscent of how Soran had betrayed Kushanku and the other villagers shortly after he and us had moved into this improved house on the Witch's grounds, folks."

"Absolutely it is," said Trotterhoof seriously. Milky Way's ears then fell.

"The very concept of the most valuable things Aslan has commanded us to carry out from the very beginning, such as love one another, friendship, caring for one another, helping one another and living together in peace and harmony," said the Pegasus, "are an absolute rancorous ANATHEMA to the Witch and her cronies, but the Witch most especially. That sadist finds them as _repulsive_ as a rotting carcass stuffed with flies and maggots."

"With the Fighting League event the Witch has established to occur once every ten years amongst other corrupt laws the Witch has passed since her coming to power around thirty-five years ago," said Thundersparx, "Jadis and her minions have taken a sickening liking to seeing friends and family members gorily slaughter each other in the bloodbath of the arena of death, all in the name of entertainment and for the offer for this 'better life free from the cold and its implications' at the expense of everything else."

"And to ensure that the selected fighters DO fight convincingly in the Fighting League such that the over-the-top and gory bloodbath can result," added Obsidian, "Jadis seems to have enchanted the food at the banquet she and her cronies have set up for the participants with a very evil spell to ensure that the fighters kill each other without any second thoughts whatsoever, even if their victims happen to be their best friends, their own sons, daughters, nephews, nieces or other family relatives, or a highly vulnerable Narnian."

"That explains why Soran was so keen on leaving that Cheetah cub Gingerfur to his fate in that icy lake," said Molayne, before turning to Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way, "And possibly Lightningflash's thoughtless slaughtering of many of the other participants in the slaughterhouse arena."

"Possibly including Mr Shadewing's son Firewing," added Paddy, "Since the Bat roost was also selected to have one of theirs thrown into the previous Fighting League as well…"

Then thoughts for Kushanku and the others in Green Leaf Town bubbled within Trotterhoof so the Pig stood up, finished the last of his apple and walked off to rein himself to the sled.

"Well, I'd like to thank you three for telling us your story but I would like us to go to our home village ASAP," said Trotterhoof as he put on his reins. Cyril, Desdemona, Cyril, Link, Thundersparx and Milky Way finished their meals and did the same while Obsidian, Alexandrite, Molayne and Paddy packed the sack containing the rest of the food into the sled's cargo compartment and climbed into the seats.

"We've got serious worries for a group of villagers we know, amongst them four Nekomata kits named Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, a Cheetah cub named Sandstorm and his remaining family members; his father Dashiell and sister Amberpaw, and Farfella the elderly Fairy and her grandson Patchwork."

"I reckon Jadis' cronies will have seriously ransacked and decimated those two towns after your family member had betrayed them and told them of some of those villagers' belief in Aslan as well," said Thundersparx with concern.

"Anything to do with the Great Lion is also an anathema and rancour to the Witch as well," put in Milky Way as she reined herself up to the sled and adjusted her invisibility cloak covering her body. Then as soon as all ten were either reined up or in the sled, the group got moving again and they left the abandoned den and disappeared into the dark, snowy night in the direction of Green Leaf Village, Thundersparx's glowing head leading the way and 'flying' ahead of the others like a giant firefly in the darkness.


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24- a startling revelation and a terrifying encounter**

Trotterhoof and company including their three new friends, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, Thundersparx the Raiju and Milky Way the Pegasus, continued to hurry along towards Green Leaf Village, dressed in their Hag-like or invisibility cloaks, the metal sliders of the sled slicing through the snow like long knives. As the either rode in the sled or pulled the sled alo0ng through the snowy darkness, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne were still baffled and astonished as to how their three new friends had managed to stay alive for ten years since their family had moved onto the Witch's grounds in a new and vastly improved house with better food, warmth and other luxuries they totally did not have in their original home before the second Fighting League, as well as keep their beliefs in Aslan to themselves all that time for belief in the Great Lion was an absolute abomination to the Witch on her grounds. It was clearly a brave feat the trio had been on, especially when they went out to spy on and observe the Witch and her cronies and their activities, and if they had ever been caught, they would have either been turned to stone, like those unfortunate animals and other creatures in the Witch's courtyard statue collection, or put to death very painfully and violently, but despite the thin ice Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way have been treading, their ten-year knowledge of the Witch's activities will be invaluable. However, pushing these thoughts aside, Trotterhoof and the other six with him had their thoughts set on returning to Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town to reunite with Kushanku and the others with him, not knowing that Kushanku and the other villagers had left at first.

As they rushed down the path with Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Thundersparx with his glowing head, Link, Desdemona and Cyril pulling on the sled and Paddy, Alexnadrite, Molayne and Obsidian riding in the vehicle with the bag of food they had found in the cargo part, the familiar outskirts of Green Leaf Village, Trotterhoof and his group's former home, melted into view through the dark, snowy air.

"Here we are," called Trotterhoof and with that the pullers of the sled slowed down until they stopped.

"So this is where you used to live before being picked up by that Witch after your Dog family member won this decade's Fighting League?" asked Thundersparx.

"Yes," said Desdemona as she removed the reins from her head and back so that she could freely enter the village without pulling the sled along, "This is Green Leaf Village. A Nekomata friend of ours lives here too."

"With a family of Cheetahs, one of who was a cub who was slaughtered in the arena of death, sadly," said Link. He shuddered at the flashing memories of the gory scenes at Dashiell's house once again. Then after the group had de-reined themselves and Alexandrite, Obsidian, Padparadscha and Molayne had dropped from the seat of the sled and onto the snow, the ten began to cautiously approach the entrance to Green Leaf Village, being aware of any of the Witch's patrollers walking about and lurking in the snowy darkness. The snow was cascading through the dark air, riding a breeze that was piercingly cold, but before it had been an outright blizzard but Trotterhoof and his group, in their black Hag-like or invisible cloaks, were protected from the freezing temperatures though they still shuddered from the cold but they had one aim to accomplish and that was finding Kushanku and the other villagers.

"I honestly don't like the looks of the forests in this winter-locked country," murmured Milky Way as she gazed fearfully at the snow-covered, leafless trees. These trees' branches resembled frightening, crooked claws that stretched menacingly from their branch and into the air, giving them the appearance of scary monsters leering at Trotterhoof and company. 'Exactly like that horrible oversized bone-white beast's glare and her tyranny,' thought Milky Way fearfully. Pulling her gaze from the frightening claw-like branches and twigs that made her hair bristle and the feathers in her wings ruffle, Milky Way followed the others. However, as the group soon took their first steps onto the snow-covered ground of Green Leaf Village, a sharp gasp of extreme disbelief and horror entered the mouths of Alexandrite, Cyril, Link, Paddy and Molayne while Trotterhoof shuddered, his jaw held wide open and his eyes beginning to ooze tears. Thundersparx, Milky Way and Obsidian came in.

"What is it?" asked Thundersparx but when the Raiju's gaze landed on what was horrifying Trotterhoof and his group; he also drew in a sharp gasp while Obsidian and Milky Way raised a paw and a hoof respectively to their mouths in horror. Stretched out before the group of ten animals through the snowy darkness; was a disaster zone. The entire village of Green Leaf looked as though a massive snowy hurricane had torn through it. The doors to the various dens and houses were torn off and tossed aside, and the area in the middle was littered and strewn with various objects, mostly pots and pot shards, pieces of furniture, and stones and other objects, and the snow in the clearing was perforated and sliced with holes and mini-valleys with snow lumps scattered all around them. They appeared to be footprints and sled tracks, indicating that someone had been here and had either fled or had possibly ransacked the dens and houses. As they examined the debris strewing the distorted snow of the area, Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne rushed off in the direction of a certain den, fearing the worst.

"Trotterhoof," called Thundersparx and with that, the Raiju followed with Obsidian and Milky Way not too far behind.

"Kushanku," called Trotterhoof, "Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Dashiell!"

"Sandstorm, Shadewing, guys!" shouted Alexandrite as the group rushed along towards Dashiell's den, its door ripped off from its hinges and casted aside. As the seven stopped in the doorway with Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way catching up in their invisibility cloaks Trotterhoof; his trotters smothered with snow and his face and Banshee-like cloak caked in icy frosting of the snowflakes, peered into the den. However, to the horror of the Pig and also the Griffin, Hippogriff, two Nekomata, Peryton and Dog accompanying him, there was no-one inside; only a bombsite. The table and chairs were smashed to pieces and overturned, the sofa was absolutely shredded with pieces of fabric torn off and thrown about the floor, pieces of pebbles and wooden figures, presumably the toys of Kushanku and the other kids living with Dashiell and company, were sprinkled chaotically all over the floor of the main dining area, the curtains were torn off the windows and also thrown aside, and the magical TV was in shattered pieces all over the floor before the tattered sofa like shards of ice. Ignoring the bombsite of a place, Trotterhoof and the others entered the den and began to spread out to search for any survivors. Trotterhoof, Cyril and Link went to search the main compartment of the den while Alexandrite, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne left for the corridor leading to the sleeping quarters. However, as the quartet turned up in the sleeping quarters, they were met with a horrific scene.

"Crying crows," murmured Alexandrite in horror while the other three were stuck for words. The sleeping quarters was as bad as the main compartment and looked as though a wild, dumb animal had been on a rampage within it. The quilts were torn wide open, their feathery contents spilled out and scattered all over the place while the beds were smothered with claw holes with fabric torn from them. The walls were also slashed with claw marks and the thin curtains were torn off the windows much like the curtains in the main living quarters, and Emberflame's lampstand was knocked over, its glass shattered and its pole severed cleanly into two pieces. It was obvious that some extremely strong creature had been here for Alexandrite and the other three knew that smaller creatures like Wolves wouldn't be strong enough to snap a lampstand like a twig like that. But despite the state of the beds and the room, Alexandrite, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne began to try and search the ransacked room hoping to find any sign or trace of Kushanku and the others but as they checked under the tattered quilts, ruined beds and the rest of the destroyed contents of the room, calling Kushanku and his three siblings' names and the names of the other family members. As they did that, Molayne began to feel extreme devastation and anger towards his cousin Soran and his family for betraying the villagers of Green Leaf to the Witch boil dangerously within him, the warning signs showing up by the tears welling in his eyes and his trembling body.

"If Kushanku and the others… had been killed…" growled the Dog but Desdemona came in to try and comfort and assure him.

"Oh, don't start ranting and railing about Soran and the others now, Molayne," said the Griffin in an edgy voice. She, along with the two Nekomata were also distraught over what Soran and his family had done, but they were working hard to keep the urge to lose their tempers and let them erupt at bay so that they could keep their focus, but it was extremely difficult, especially as Padparadscha sat down on one of the tattered beds and began to sob her heart out, the remorse finally breaking out of its restraints and overwhelming her.

"I can't believe we DID THIS!" she wailed, "I can't believe we LEFT Kushanku and the others to THEIR FATE!"

And with that, she entered an uncontrollable sobbing fit, prompting Alexandrite, Molayne and Desdemona to halt their search and sit with her, the rage and guilt also overwhelming them as they feared the worst. Then as the four huddled together and began to sob out loud, Thundersparx entered the sleeping quarters from the corridor, a look of sympathy lacing his face as he watched the quartet break down. This was exactly how he felt towards his own family when they betrayed a lot of close friends to the Witch after settling in with her after his father, Lightningflash, had won the previous Fighting League ten years ago. Then the Raiju began to tremble with rage, his neon blue and yellow fur bristling and sparking like electrically charged Porcupine spines, a trait all Raiju possessed whenever they were furious, outraged or severely startled.

"That Witch certainly IS a _liar_ and the _Queen of lies_!" hissed the lightning Cat-Wolf like creature under his breath and through gritted teeth, "She _always_ has been from the beginning and will continue to be, and cruelty, sadism, greed, watching Narnian families and friends turn against each other for a 'better life' in these slaughterhouse leagues she has invented, and everything else are her BEST FRIENDS and TRADEMARK WEAPONS! Not to mention _destruction_ being one of her closest friends as well. That Witch is an OUTRIGHT DESTROYER…"

As the Raiju then began to let his anger against the Witch boil over such that he was now flashing quite large bolts of electricity from his mane and tail, he felt his right back leg land on something metallic. At this, Thundersparx stopped sparking and trembling with fury and turned to look at what his foot had touched. When he saw what looked like a piece of metallic yellow and gold material, Thundersparx, curiosity welling within him and pushing his anger against the Witch to one side, waked over to it and picked it up in a front paw to examine it closer. It was a sparkly yellow and gold tag, based on a thread of red string looping through a small hole in the top and it was in the shape of a lion. Thundersparx flinched as this item ignited familiarity within him. He then turned the lion tag around and found writing on it. The writing, which was metallic red with its font in fancy, neat style for it had been carefully and very artistically engraved in the tag, read:

 _Aslan, the Creator of Narnia, the Lion above all Lions and the True King above all kings, commanded us to love each other; help, discipline and support each other and live in harmony with each other through even the most difficult of times…_

However, great tears welled within Thundersparx's eyes and distorted the light entering them, rendering him unable to read the rest of the writing as his heart was pricked by this writing. Then with tears falling in large globs from his eyes and splatting before his other front foot, his ears drooping and tail lowering, Thundersparx sat down and continued to gaze tearfully at the tag. His breathing spiralled out of control as the urge to cry enveloped him.

"What is it, Thundersparx?" asked a voice. At this, the Raiju flinched and shot the speaker, which was Trotterhoof who was flanked by Cyril, Link, Obsidian and Milky Way, a startled, tearful look. Behind Thundersparx, Alexandrite, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne, after taking some time to let the emotions spill out to equalise the pressure within them as evident in their tear-stained eyes, came in. Thundersparx then showed the other nine what was making him weep, prompting the other nine to gaze at it. Then recognition, as well as shock and horror, swept over the nine animals but it took on two different forms. For Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne, they recognised this yellow and gold metallic Lion tag to be one of Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi's precious possessions, but it had somehow been stashed away by Dashiell and Honeycomb for they did not want anything to do with Aslan in the den, but for Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way, who were older and were thus adolescents, they had seen this tag attached to a certain pair of Animals' bag when they were a very young Raiju cub, Wampus Cat cub and Pegasus foal respectively. Obsidian then broke the silence.

"Ferntail and Frosty's Aslan reminder tag," murmured the volcanic glass-grey black and fire-orange red Cat vaguely resembling our world's mountain lionbut with six legs instead of four. Trotterhoof shot the Wampus Cat a horrified look while Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne flinched.

"Are you meaning to say that this Aslan reminder tag that belongs to Kushanku and his three siblings…" began the Pig but then he realised a startling connection and his mouth dropped open. The Pig also flinched while the other nine looked on.

"Mr Trotterhoof," said Alexandrite in alarm.

"What is it?" asked Molayne. Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Paddy just exchanged glances and said nothing. Then Trotterhoof gazed at Thundersparx and then at Obsidian and Milky Way, "HANG on a MINUTE! Th-th-those four KITS… c-c-c-could they be the KITS of FROSTY AND FERNTAIL, the two Nekomata whom Lightningflash had BETRAYED around TEN YEARS AGO!?"

This sent alarm tearing through Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx, all grief pushed aside.

"Are you meaning to say that some, if not ALL, of Ferntail and Frosty's kits are still alive!?" retorted Thundersparx hopefully and in disbelief. Trotterhoof was about to reply when suddenly, the ten felt the air temperature suddenly plummet. At this, the ten immediately adjusted their Banshee disguises and invisibility cloaks over their heads to block out the lowering temperature from their bodies. But as they did that, the lights also appeared to drop as though a large cumulonimbus cloud had suddenly come over the land.

"Now what!?" snarled Trotterhoof in frustration. Then Obsidian, dread welling within her, rushed over to the sleeping quarters and peered out of the window. Because she was wearing an invisible cloak, she looked like a head floating through the air for the magical cloak covered her body.

"Obsidian," cried Alexandrite and with that she, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne followed. Thundersparx (who packed the Aslan reminder tag safely away in his cloak) followed with Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Cyril and Link. As the ten then peered out of the windows of the sleeping quarters, they saw that everything had suddenly gone darker than it actually was. Furthermore, the winds and the snowfall riding them to have picked up speed but that speed increase was sudden. All these factors combined sent a wave of fear washing over the group, but Obsidian seemed to know the cause of this sudden change in atmosphere. It was clear that something abnormal was approaching and only she was aware of it for she seemed to have recognised these signs.

"What's happening!?" asked Alexandrite fearfully.

"I don't know but the winds have suddenly increased," said Thundersparx as he struggled to see through the blizzard. The other seven also struggled to see as the torrent of snowflakes battered against their faces, and the air was abnormally cold, so cold that the whiskers on Alexandrite, Paddy and Obsidian's face and the budding antlers on Link's head began to form icicles. Then a new sound set foot within the howling winds. Obsidian, despite the snowflakes battering against her face and her whiskers becoming a mini icicle display, gazed at the source of the new sound, which turned out to be wing flaps, but those wing flaps were saturated with terror. Obsidian then managed to catch a glimpse of a few silhouettes of a few small wood birds shoot past, but she knew from the sounds of their wings that something sinister was coming.

"Oh, NO!" blurted out the Wampus Cat.

"What is it?" asked Thundersparx.

"A monster afoot?" asked Trotterhoof while the other six shuddered. Obsidian shot the other nine a confirmatory and serious glare.

"Yes, we gotta get outa here," she said in a dark voice and with that, she dropped from the window and onto the tattered bed. The other nine did the same. Obsidian turned more serious. "We gotta leave NOW," she and the other nine then tore from the sleeping quarters, through the corridor and entered the main living compartment of Dashiell's ransacked den, "That sudden drop in temperature, the unexpected transformation of the snowfall into a full-blown, freezing blizzard and the appearance of the darkness, alongside the sounds of startled wood birds are all indicative that Krampus is coming. We gotta get out of this deserted village NOW!"

With that, she ushered the other nine out of the den before following herself as soon as all nine of them were present and correct. Back outside and with the blizzard beating against them and the very dark fog-like air reducing their visibility to only a few metres, the ten hastily began to trudge through the snow in the direction of the sled. Thundersparx led the way with his glowing electrically charged head acting as a torch and beacon for the others but because the darkness was so thick, it was making it difficult even for the Raiju to keep himself visible in the black blanket but the group still struggled on through the black blizzard.

Obsidian had encountered Krampus before when she and her biological family consisting of her parents and brother were on a hunting trip for some food. During their outing, which had been during the day, the air around them had suddenly plunged into darkness, as though the sun had been eclipsed, and a blizzard suddenly appeared with the drop in temperature, sudden snowfall and increase in winds. Obsidian's mother had described Krampus to her daughter and son as being the polar opposite of Father Christmas, often told in stories of how he would come and punish badly behaved children over Christmas. However, based on this experience, Obsidian knew that Krampus did not do any of this but rather pose as Father Christmas to snatch unwary victims away, in particular young Narnians, to an unknown demise, and due to Jadis being in power, it was obvious that Krampus, like every other snow monster, had made his home in the winter-trapped, corrupted country. Obsidian had managed to survive her terrifying encounter with the beast, who resembled a terrifying shadow of Father Christmas complete with a red coat, a sleigh and with toys but unlike Father Christmas whose toys and other gifts were cheery and fun, Krampus's toys were demonic, terrifying and outright nightmarish. To add, Krampus was a horned creature with long claws and bony fingers, hoofed feet and a hunched back, and his toys were living creatures who served their master and helped him to seize and capture unwary victims by posing to be harmless toys, unlike Father Christmas's toy gifts. Some of these toy-based minions included nightmarish teddy bears and dolls, a giant Jack-in-the-box that Obsidian described as being like a giant Basilisk, and fiendish gingerbread figures and other candy-based creatures. Krampus and his cronies had snatched Obsidian's family while she hid in a fallen log, placed there by her mother while her father and brother confronted the enormous horned figure. However, they were overpowered and captured, along with Obsidian's mother and Obsidian had never seen them again and had become traumatised for life. Now she was itching to get her nine friends to safety before Krampus could appear and capture herself and the other nine and she was not going to allow that to happen.

As the snow continued to batter the ten Animals with the wind making them stumble, the ten managed to find the sled despite the thick darkness and as soon as they had done so, Alexandrite, Obsidian, Molayne and Paddy climbed into the seat while Thundersparx, Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Cyril, Link and Desdemona reined themselves with the four riders' help. It was not easy for the winds continued to batter them and yank the reins in their direction, making them flap about and render them a challenge to attach them to the six pullers.

"Hurry!" cried Obsidian urgently as she helped Thundersparx get his reins over his head. Milky Way and Cyril stumbled as the blizzard's wind knocked them off balance but they managed to regain their footing and rein themselves. Then as soon as Trotterhoof, Link and Desdemona had put the reins on themselves with the help of the other six, all ten were good to go but before the pullers could set to pulling the sled, the eyes of all ten of them picked up a frightening dark shape as it rushed past the devastated Green Leaf Village. The sounds it made were the slicing noise of metal on snow, the pounding of hooves also on snow, and the dark shape resembled a hunched figure with long, curved goat-like horns snaking out from its head. Below the shape was a large sleigh like that of the Witch and the pounding noises were made by the reindeer rushing ahead of the main shape. The sight of it sent extreme chills coursing through all ten creatures. Alexandrite, Padparadscha and Obsidian let loose cat screeches while Molayne let loose a frightened howl and hid in the cargo section with the sack of food. Desdemona let loose an eagle cry while Trotterhoof let loose a Pig squeal and Milky Way, Cyril and Link, a neigh escaping from Milky Way's mouth, bolted into running, and Thundersparx let a flash of lightning erupt from his mane into the dark air as the thing terrified him very greatly, nearly shocking the other five pullers in the process. Then in a terrified rush to escape the creature, the six pullers charged away like startled dumb wildebeests in our world with a cheetah after them. However, within moments, the pullers and the sled carrying Obsidian, Alexandrite, Paddy and Molayne disappeared in a flash in the direction of Purple Flower Town as Krampus continued sleighing past and into the distance, thankfully not spotting Obsidian's group, and as soon as the beast was gone, the darkness thinned out, the blizzard and winds subsided, the chill in the air was lifted and the snowfall returned to its usual pace.


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25-** **finding survivors in Purple Flower and another hurried escape**

Some moments after their terrifying near-encounter with the Father Christmas-like snow beast Krampus in Green Leaf Village, Trotterhoof and company had arrived in Purple Flower Town. As Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Obsidian, Thundersparx (with his electrically charged head aglow to serve as a torch of the others) and Milky Way slowed to a stop in their sled with six of them pulling it and the other four riding in the vehicle, entered the entrance to the town, which was bigger than Green Leaf Village and had more houses, dens and a Beaver dam nearby for it was near a stream which had frozen over due to the winter curse, Trotterhoof called for Thundersparx to move his glowing head to a sign which was covered in snow. This sign was the town's display name, and as Thundersparx moved his glowing head to provide light for Trotterhoof to see the slab, Trotterhoof bashed the slab as hard as he could to shift the snow from the top and the front with a front hoof. Around the group, it was still snowing but not in a blizzard, and the winds were low. As soon as the snow had been knocked off the display board of the town, some of the letters engraved into the wood began to appear, albeit partially. The words read:

P-URPLE FL-WER –OWN

Some of the letters were still partly smothered by the snow but Trotterhoof, together with Alexandrite, Cyril, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona and Molayne, knew that this village was Purple Flower Town. As the seven then de-reined themselves or got down from the sled, Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way looked on.

"Why are we here, anyway?" asked Milky Way as she and Thundersparx de-reined themselves also and Obsidian dropped from the seat in the sled. Trotterhoof did not reply and began to venture into the snowy land of the town, calling for Thundersparx to be his light source. Alexandrite and the other five of Trotterhoof's group followed. Because Trotterhoof's group was still in their Banshee disguises, they resembled some of the Witch's Hag, Shadow and Banshee cronies from a distance while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way looked like floating disembodied heads for they still had their invisibility cloaks surrounding their bodies, and Thundersparx even resembled a glowing Fairy with a few sparks jumping off his exposed face and mane from a distance. The ten of them were all still badly shaken from their near encounter with the Father Christmas counterfeit, but most especially Obsidian who had lost her entire biological family to the beast as a young Wampus Cat cub, so she was most traumatised by the creature. Furthermore, she was fearful that Krampus might make his return and sleigh through Purple Flower Town which would force another frantic escape, so she was on the constant lookout for the bipedal Goat-like beast dressed in Father Christmas-like robes and the changes in the atmosphere he often brought with him, such as the shroud of thick darkness, massive blizzard and the drop in temperature. While Obsidian kept an eye out for Krampus, Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Milky Way and Thundersparx began to examine the decimated town, when they felt a wave of sheer horror and disbelief tear through them. Some of them gasped while the others flinched, and Molayne hid behind Desdemona and Cyril.

The space of Purple Flower Town stretched out before the group through the snowy dark night was a scene of devastation much like Green Leaf Village, but there was more destruction. The houses and other buildings, among them a shop, had been levelled to piles of rubble in the snow, and there were pieces of debris littering the snowy clearing. However, unlike Green Leaf, Purple Flower had another component in its devastated townscape which Trotterhoof identified as corpses based on some of the red stains in the snow around these objects, and those corpses were partially buried in snow and were scattered about the townscape of Purple Flower like deceased soldiers on a battlefield.

"The towners of Purple Flower," murmured the Pig in utter horror.

"And some of the villagers from Green Leaf," added Alexandrite in a low voice. As she said this, Link went over to some of the carcases and brushed off some of the snow covering their faces with a front hoof. However, as he managed to uncover the identity of those bodies, the Peryton fawn flinched. Tears began to form in his eyes as he gazed at the carcases and identified them, and he began to tremble violently.

"Skimflipper, one of our Penguin friends from Green Leaf," whispered Link tearfully. Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Trotterhoof, Desdemona, Molayne and Cyril then felt a wave of remorse come over them once again and they began to break down, along with Link. Sobbing, the seven grouped into an embrace with Obsidian and Milky Way offering their condolences.

"My cousin Soran did this," sobbed Molayne through his tears as he hugged Trotterhoof, "He was the one who told the Witch who then sent some cronies to destroy both these towns."

"He had been bewitched by that Queen of lies and destruction to cause this mess," said Obsidian, "Similar to how Lightningflash had betrayed Ferntail, Frosty and the other members of our town, possibly including that Bat roost…"

As she said this, Alexandrite and Paddy, after managing to pull themselves together but still weeping, broke away from the embrace and began to run into the devastated townscape of Purple Flower.

"Paddy, Alex!" called a tearful Trotterhoof as the two colourful Nekomata dressed in Banshee-like disguises left the group. Thundersparx, who was also tearful, looked on.

"I believe they are trying to look for some survivors," the Raiju said.

"In THIS devastation!?" shouted Desdemona with a gesture of her talons to the townscape, "The chances of ANYONE surviving the Witch's cronies' attacks are incredibly SLIM."

Then Cyril, Link and Molayne broke away from the group and followed the Nekomata sisters. However, as the three passed another of the corpses, the Hippogriff, Peryton and the Dog flinched as they identified the corpse to be a Monkey, but it wasn't just any Monkey.

"That's Miss Rosemary," murmured Cyril as he recognised it. Then Milky Way came in and looked over the Monkey's carcass.

"Looks like she has been attacked by some wild beast," said the Pegasus.

"More like one of the Witch's cronies," said Molayne in a teary, edgy voice as the grief and anguish threatened to erupt again. He then began to examine the other carcases scattered about the clearing in the town and managed to pick out two Hedgehogs, a Jackalope and a Beaver amongst the variety of fallen creatures. Cyril, Milky Way and Link also examined the carcases when Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Desdemona came in and also shuddered and wept.

"Rosebush, Thorn, Rosemary… a-a-and Hopper… and Chiseltooth," murmured Trotterhoof as he gazed at the fallen corpses of two Hedgehogs, the Monkey, the Jackalope and the Beaver. Thundersparx then turned sadly to the Pig while nearby, Alexandrite and Paddy peered into one of the partially destroyed buildings.

"I-I-I'm so sorry, Trotterhoof," said the Raiju sadly.

"It seems that Miss Rosemary and the other Green Leaf Villagers had tried to seek refuge in Purple Flower but both they and the Purple Flower towners had been decimated by that group of horrors sent by the Witch…" said Desdemona but then a horrible thought ignited with her and the Griffin threw on a horrified look, her ears sweeping back and her beak dropping open, "D-d-don't tell me that… that… Kushanku and the others with him are possibly…" however, she trailed off, not wanting to mention it.

"Are you meaning to say that Kushanku and the others could have been…?" asked Link when suddenly, Alexandrite's voice rang out.

"GUYS," called the Nekomata with a variety of purple and green shades to her pelage.

"We've found some survivors!" came Paddy's voice after this. At this, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof, Molayne, Milky Way, Thundersparx and Obsidian shot hopeful gazes at the sisters and took off in their direction. Alexandrite emerged from the partially torn-down shack-like building and stood to one side, her relieved gaze on something as it, or rather they, crawled towards Trotterhoof and the others wearily and shakily. Paddy, however, was trying to rescue something else from the rubble in the shack for she had heard crying belonging to a young Animal or two. While she did that, the others gazed at the crawling forms, which turned out to be a pair of big Cats with lithe bodies, long tails, small heads, long legs and a scatter of black spots thrown over their orange pelt. One of the Cheetahs was an adult male while the other was a female cub, around the age of Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy Link, Desdemona and Molayne and of course Kushanku who Trotterhoof and the others with him were still frightened for.

As soon as the two Cheetahs had stepped shakily and cautiously out of the shack, Trotterhoof said, "Dashiell, Amberpaw! You're alive."

However, when the two Cheetahs, who were Dashiell and Amberpaw, the only two remaining family members of Sandstorm and adopted Cheetah family of Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, stepped out and laid their eyes on Trotterhoof and the others with him and saw their Banshee/Hag/Shadow-like suits, as well as the floating heads of a Lightning Wolf-Cat, Wampus Cat and a Pegasus, shock tore through them and Dashiell jumped defensively in front of Amberpaw, a hostile look on his face.

"Who are you HIDEOUS HAGS!?" bellowed the Cheetah as he assumed a defensive stance, "GET AWAY FROM US or I'll SHRED YA TO MINCE!"

"WHOA, WHOA," cried Trotterhoof and with that, he pulled back the hood of his black cloaks and revealed his ears and more of his head. Alexandrite, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way did the same and soon, Dashiell and Amberpaw who hid behind him instantly recognised the group excluding the invisibility cloak wearers but as they did, a bolt of stun struck them like lightning.

" _Trotterhoof… Cyril, Link, Desdemona_ …" gasped Dashiell in awe.

" _Alexandrite… Molayne…"_ added Amberpaw as her eyes scanned the Nekomata and the Dog. Trotterhoof and the other five with him smiled and nodded. Dashiell then began to examine the six in disbelief.

"B-b-but how did you m-m-manage to escape that tyrannical Queen's grasp?" he asked.

"She's NOT a QUEEN!" snarled Thundersparx bitterly, his mane sparking as anger rose within him.

"She's a WITCH!" added Obsidian in a voice acidified with rancour against Jadis.

"Yeah, a White Witch to be exact," put in Milky Way spitefully. Trotterhoof raised a hoof to the trio in invisibility cloaks to tell them to calm down before turning to Dashiell, "It's a long story but to give you a clue, we have used black curtains and quilts to dress ourselves as Banshees or Shadows or Hags and stole one of the sleds…"

"I can see that," growled Amberpaw with sarcastic impression as she examined the cloaks.

"And we have been using invisibility cloaks to hide ourselves," said Thundersparx. However, Dashiell ignored the Raiju much to the latter's indignant shock.

"Do you two know what happened here?" asked Trotterhoof. At this, a scowl formed on the faces of Dashiell and Amberpaw and they turned round to stride a few steps away from the group.

"We tried evacuating Green Leaf Town to here, Purple Flower," explained Dashiell in a growl before turning to face Trotterhoof and the others with him again. Amberpaw did the same as Dashiell continued. "But unfortunately, a group of Jadis's cronies, sent by their Queen herself, came and devastated the entire place.

"Yes," put in Amberpaw, both shakily and wit resentment, "They burned down many of the shacks, dens and houses with the aid of the Hellhounds and with torches, slaughtered ANYONE they saw and ransacked the place in order to search for that STUPID Nekomata and his belief in that oversized cat who, unfortunately, went in a different direction with some of the villagers, after some firebird…"

At this, Trotterhoof and his group examined the partially torn down shack and saw that it was blackened, indicating that it had also been burned to the ground. This was also true of many of the other buildings in the town but Trotterhoof and the others had failed to notice it at first due to the snowy dark night air. Dashiell continued.

"But during the chaos and slaughter, Amberpaw and I managed to hide in an underground room of this destroyed shack and we waited until that bunch of horrible creatures had left."

"Is Kushanku anywhere?" asked Trotterhoof. At this, Dashiell and Amberpaw shot the Pig a bitter scowl and refused to answer.

"He asked you a question, Cheetah," said Thundersparx. Then Dashiell finally gave in and spoke but what he said next ignited shock in Trotterhoof's group.

"The deaths of all the other towners and villagers, including Rosemary the Monkey, Chiseltooth the Beaver, Hopper and Daisytail the Jackalopes, and Thorn, Rosebush and Spikeball the Hedgehogs, is ALL Kushanku's fault and doing. If THAT NEKOMATA hadn't kept his beliefs in that STUPID MYTHICAL LION or whatever Cat it is, this wouldn't have happened…"

"Yes, he is the one who brought this devastation on us," put in Amberpaw in agreement.

This prompted confused glances to be exchanged between Alexandrite, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof, Molayne, Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx for they hadn't been there to witness what had happened after the Witch had come to take the first six and Padparadscha, along with Soran and the others in the family while the latter three had spent ten years on the Witch's grounds. However, the first six were outraged at what Dashiell and Amberpaw had just said.

"Well, whether the Witch's cronies' destruction of this town and Green Leaf Village had something to do with Kushanku and his belief in Aslan or not," said Trotterhoof angrily, "I believe Kushanku might have sensed something coming when Soran and us were taken by the Witch, and had done the right thing in evacuating as many of the villagers as possible and saved them from this devastation," the Pig gestured a front hoof to the decimated town including its carcases, "but it is NOT his fault that Soran had betrayed you guys to the Witch…"

"We're going to go out and try and find him and the other survivors, including his three biological siblings Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi, anyway," added Alexandrite. At this, Dashiell and Amberpaw just turned their backs on the group and strode away again.

"You lot go ahead," growled Dashiell angrily and bitterly, "We're not gonna have anything to do with that Nekomata and his stupid childish fairy-tale beliefs anymore…"

"After what he has put us through anyway…" added Amberpaw.

"But Mr Dashiell, he's your _adopted son!"_ blurted out Desdemona, making the two Cheetahs stop and pause. However, the two continued to walk away.

"Just leave," snapped Dashiell angrily, making the group flinch with disbelief. Trotterhoof went to protest but Thundersparx stopped him.

"Look, let's just leave the two Cheetahs. They're too stubborn to listen…" he said. Just then Padparadscha emerged with two bundles in her paws. They were two Otter pups and they were crying for their parents. Trotterhoof turned to the pair of crying Otters in Paddy's arms.

"Looks like we've got two replacement members for our ride out to search for Kushanku and the other survivors," said the Pig. This made Dashiell and Amberpaw stop. Then Molayne gazed at the two Otters for he knew these two baby individuals.

"Citron and Eureka!?" he gasped in surprise, "But where are their parents?"

"I believe either they had left with Kushanku or are slaughtered by the Witch's cronies in this massacre," said Paddy as she gazed at the two crying Otter babies, who were named Eureka (the female) and Citron (the male), both who had yellow and orange fur. At this, Milky Way searched for the bodies of the two Otters' parents amongst the strewn carcases and found a pair of larger Otters, both of who had orange and yellow fur, laying a few metres away from the shack.

"I believe that's them over there," said the Pegasus. At this, Trotterhoof went over to examine the carcases closer and after he had registered their identity, he looked up at the others and confirmed it with a tearful nod. This prompted a convergence of saddened gazes onto the crying Citron and Eureka as they wailed in Paddy's arms.

"Their parents must have hidden them in that cupboard and the Witch's cronies did not notice their presence," said Paddy with a nod to where she had found the two pups.

"Then that means that they're orphans," said Thundersparx with sympathy, before he reached into his invisibility cloak and took out the gold and yellow metallic Lion tag, "Just like Ferntail and Frosty's kits…"

At this, Dashiell and Amberpaw rushed over and glared incredulously at the tag in the Raiju's paw.

"Hey, where did you FIND THAT!?" shouted Dashiell and with that, he attempt to seize the tag from Thundersparx's paw, only for him to jerk it back to make Dashiell's attempt to snatch it miss, "I-I-I thought I had thrown it away because it was about that forbidden subject on that Lion…"

"Yeah, it's nothing but a piece of trash," added Amberpaw.

Thundersparx pierced Dashiell and Amberpaw with a furious glare.

"This 'piece of TRASH…' is Frosty and Ferntail's Aslan reminder tag," he growled; his mane and ears sparking as he got angry, "I cannot BELIEVE that you would attempt to throw it away…"

"And it's the last piece Kush…" what was his name and the names of his siblings again?" asked Milky Way.

"Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi," said Alexandrite as she and Paddy wrapped Citron and Eureka in some of their black cloaks to keep them warm.

"That tag is the last piece those four kits have of their parents," continued Milky Way. As she spoke, Obsidian kept an eye out for Krampus when suddenly the Wampus Cat flinched at the sounds of wing flaps in the air, indicating the sound of frightened dumb (non-Talking) wood birds, as well as some other dumb critters, such as squirrels, rush by.

"Not to mention the only piece they have left to also remind them of the Great Lion…" continued Milky Way.

"RUBBISH!" roared Dashiell furiously, "It's JUST A PIECE OF WORTHLESS METAL!"

"Guys," murmured Obsidian nervously as she continued to observe the frightened dumb birds and squirrels as they continued to rush by, "We'd better return to the sled…"

However, the others were too locked in their argument with an especially stubborn Dashiell and Amberpaw to even hear the Wampus Cat's warnings at first, and Thundersparx was especially outraged at Dashiell's lack of respect for Ferntail and Frosty, their sacrifice to protect the kits who they now know to be Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, and, most importantly, Aslan himself.

"You have NO IDEA of WHAT STRAIN those four kits' PARENTS had to go through to protect their four babies…" shouted the Raiju right into Dashiell's face, his mane sparking all the more.

"And if you want to hear a HORRIFYING FACT," put in Milky Way, "FERNTAIL was almost SELECTED FOR THE PREVIOUS FIGHTING LEAGUE when her family was CHOSEN BY THE WITCH to have one of their members chosen and thrown into that ARENA OF DEATH… while SHE was STILL PREGNANT with those FOUR KITS!"

"Yes, while _pregnant…"_ added Thundersparx in agreement. This made Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne shuddered at this again and Paddy tried to calm the now-wrapped up Citron and Eureka as they continued to wail and cry for their parents. Then suddenly, everything was plunged in to total darkness, much to the horror of Trotterhoof and his group, especially Obsidian who knew what this meant, and to the surprise of Dashiell and Amberpaw. Then the winds skyrocketed and the snowfall turned into a full-blown blizzard, and the temperature was lowered to below-freezing. As this happened, Dashiell and Amberpaw began to shudder violently for they did not have any protection against the freezing cold.

"NOW WHAT'S GOING ON!?" bellowed Dashiell as he shook liked a leaf with Amberpaw huddling against his side for warmth. Then Trotterhoof came in and threw some of his black quilts from his Banshee/Shadow disguise over the Cheetah's backs and began to drag them from the shack.

"That's Krampus and he's returning," said Trotterhoof as he did that and began to struggle against the massive wind surge, "If we don't get out of this town, he'll see us and kill us. We've gotta move it now."

"K-K-K-Krampus!?" snapped Amberpaw with fear and from the cold.

"No time to explain!" replied Trotterhoof in a loud voice as the howling winds would have drowned out his normal talking voice. Then the group began to struggle through the darkness and the howling blizzard once again. Paddy tucked Citron and Eureka against her chest to protect them from the lethal cold and rode on Milky Way's back for she could not move by herself with the two Otter babies in her paws, while Thundersparx, his face screwed shut as the freezing blizzard and winds battered his glowing face, began to lead the group to the sled, struggling against the force of the winds.

As the blizzard gusted through the devastated remains of Purple Flower Town, some of the charged pieces of the buildings were blown away and the corpses of the slain animals who had evacuated to here only to be massacred by the Witch's cronies, the result of Soran's betrayal of them to the Witch herself after he had settled into his new, and improved home with the rest of his family, began to freeze over. The group continued to struggle against the freezing winds and the extreme darkness was making seeing things very difficult for the visibility had been reduced to no more than arm's length. Cyril managed to avoid stepping onto a log and falling down, and Desdemona almost tripped over a large stone jutting from the snow. Paddy continuously had Citron and Eureka clasped against her chest with her face buried over the two Otter babies to protect them from the cold that could easily freeze them to death if they remained exposed to the air for even for a few seconds while Trotterhoof pulled Dashiell and Amberpaw, both covered by his cloak, along with Alexandrite pushing behind. Then after a few terrifying minutes, the group made it back to the sled. The moment they did, Padparadscha (with Citron and Eureka in her paws), Obsidian, Alexandrite, Molayne and Ambwerpaw and Dashiell climbed into the seat of the sled while Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Milky Way struggled to rein themselves up to the vehicle but the moment the six had managed to get the reins onto them, the sounds of pounding heavy hooves and the slicing of metallic runners on snow erupted through the howls of the winds.

"HURRY!" shouted Obsidian as the six pullers struggled to get a running start. As the pullers finally got going despite the blizzard battering their faces, Amberpaw, who was under Obsidian's invisibility cloak for Trotterhoof had handed her and Dashiell to the Wampus Cat for warmth while he went to rein himself to the sled, turned round to look behind but the moment her eyes landed on a pair of gleaming red eyes as they pierced menacingly through the dark blizzard as the creature approached in his sleigh, the young Cheetah let loose a massive scream of extreme terror, the most extreme terror she had ever felt in her life for the creature was amongst the most terrifying monsters she had ever encountered. Dashiell also saw it and also screeched but then the sled jolted into action as Trotterhoof and the other five pullers launched into a frantic dash to escape Krampus's presence.

The group then swerved through the disaster zone of Purple Flower Town and hurried into the darkness, moments before the terrifying Father Christmas-like shape of Krampus with his massive horns curling upward from his head, his glowing red eyes piercing through the dark blizzard from under his hood and his equally frightening sleigh and reindeer appeared and sleighed through the remains of Purple Flower but thankfully again, Krampus had failed to notice Trotterhoof and company as they disappeared frantically into the dark night.


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26- the journeys resume the next morning**

 **Morning**

As the sun rose into the Narnian sky to chase away the night, the snow had pretty much subsided and the darkness was melting away. In a certain cave, a certain group of animals were packing their things to prepare with getting moving again for it was now safe to resume the journey. However, the frightening events of last night, but most especially the terrifying encounter with Krampus leading to the near-capture of three of Faline the Rabbit's young kits and Kushanku was still fresh on the group, especially the said three youngsters themselves and they had vowed to stay with Blaze the Phoenix and the others at all times. And what's worse, Emberflame's efforts to drive away Krampus's minions to rescue Kushanku and the three Rabbit kits had nearly cost the Pyro her life for she had been exposed to the cursed wintery air which was deadly to Pyros and other fiery beings. The next time she tries to utilise her fire abilities out of her lamp of safety in the future, she might not survive, so it was important that she stayed in her lamp.

While everyone was packing up in the cave and preparing to move on with their journey to Gandalf and Kyukon the Kitsune and their base, Blaze was checking the group with a stern look while nearby, Kushanku, the shame of almost getting himself and the three Rabbit kits caught by the wicked Krampus last night and disobeying Blaze's orders to stay in the cave still gripping him, was slowly helping Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira to pack their sleeping equipment and also distribute breakfast consisting of the meagre supplies of food the group had managed to stock up during their departure from Green Leaf Town. However, it wasn't much, but it was barely enough to feed all the mouths in the group for breakfast, and Blaze knew that he would have to guide the group to the next stock of food when lunch drew near.

"I can't imagine the enormity of that Witch and her cronies' food stock at their wicked palace," muttered Nyarth as he received nothing but an apple and a very small fish, "It certainly was a lavish feast when the…"

"Nyarth, PLEASE!" shouted Mensa the Skvader nearby as she tended to her son Snowwing and Dahlia, the daughter of the (now deceased) Hopper and Daisytail, "Let's not discuss anything, at all about the Witch and her devilish stuff, okay?"

"Yes, we've heard quite enough of that beast and her abominable things as it is," put in a Pterosaur nearby as he tended to some young Archaeobirds. Nyarth sighed and went to eating the tiny fish and the apple. Next to him, Kushanku had just put the bruised banana he had received to give to some of the group members and sat down on a nearby stone, his eyes beginning to ooze tears as his guilt and shame got the better of him, but boiling with the guilt and shame was his anger at the three Rabbit kits for leading him to disobey Blaze's rules in the first place. Since the group had woken up, the son and the two daughters of Faline had tried to apologise to Kushanku for getting him into trouble last night but the Nekomata had shot them an extremely bitter glare, rejecting their apology in the process, and walked away, and hadn't spoken to the three Rabbit kits from then till now.

While Kushanku continued to weep and sulk, Shadewing came by.

"Hey, Kushanku," said the Bat and with that, he put his wing around the Nekomata's back, "Aren't you going to eat something?" and with that, he offered the kit an apple slice. Kushanku flashed the piece of fruit in the Bat's other wing and returned his tearful gaze to the floor.

"I-I-I still feel ashamed about last night when those three Rabbit kits and I were almost caught by that wicked Father Christmas-like monster last night," he said through his tears, before anger rose to the surface and he glared bitterly at three of the Rabbit kits as they ate some carrots with their mother Faline and the rest of their brothers, sisters and cousins, the same three that had got him into trouble, "All because of those three's refusal to stay in the cave as Mr Blaze ordered us and their insistence that we see 'Father Christmas' which turned out to be Krampus."

Shadewing opened his mouth to speak but then he closed it again for he could not construct an answer to this as Kushanku just breathed a sad sigh and resumed staring at the floor. As the Bat tried to comfort the Nekomata, Quill came by with Farfella the Fairy and her grandson Patchwork, whose butterfly-like wings were patterned in such a way that they resembled a patchwork of various butterfly patterns. The wings were mostly black and white streaks and spots, though there were spots of yellow, lime green, red, orange and blue thrown into the pattern as well. Farfella's wings were also resembled a patchwork but the colours were fainter due to her age. Narnian Fairies could live well over a hundred years and Farfella was over 120 years old, which was a good old age indeed, and her age was also clear on her skin which was strewn with wrinkles and bags were visible under her dainty eyes. Farfella then shot Kushanku a dark look.

"That Krampus beast is a sly one, 'e is," said the Fairy in a creaky, elderly voice, characteristic of an old woman, "As are the other monsters that roam this cursed land the Witch has turned it into. A young Wampus Cat lost her father, mother and brother to that creature ten years ago, rendering her an orphan."

Shadewing, his wing still slung over Kushanku's back, looked up at the Fairy, "That's Obsidian, isn't it?" he asked, "She's been taken away by that awful Witch when Lightningflash won the previous Fighting League, along with Lightningflash and the rest of his family…" a wave of sadness struck him again as memories of his son Firewing dying in that dreadful league rose to the surface. Then a scowl came upon Quill's face as the Hedgehog offered a piece of orange to Patchwork, who took it and ate it.

"It's _abominable,_ I can tell you," said the Hedgehog bitterly, "Selecting hapless animals to throw into an arena to bloodily and gruesomely fight to the death like mindless beasts for some better life. I would have rather _died_ of starvation or from the freezing cold than be selected to fight against other Narnians like a dumb, feral animal."

"Have any creatures ever committed suicide when they were forcibly selected by the Witch to participate in the Fighting League?" asked Sandstorm nearby. Farfella turned to the Cheetah cub.

"Yes, it has been known to happen," said the Fairy sadly, "But due to how tempting the offer of this better life is by the Witch, it is extremely rare."

"Yes, that Witch is the Queen of temptations and the Ultimate Temptress," said Blaze with a dark look on his face, "Once you're in her grasp, there's barely any chance of escape. That is why those who are selected for these gruesome Fighting Leagues barely have any second thoughts when they are pitted against each other. All they could think about is the prize…" Kushanku, Shadewing, Quill, Patchwork, Sandstorm and Farfella gazed at the Phoenix fearfully but they knew this fact to be true. Jadis was indeed a powerful Temptress, and her temptations were almost irresistible. Then Blaze moved on, "Anyway, enough on that subject. Let's finish our breakfast and get prepared to resume our trek," his eyes then turned to Kushanku who was still weeping, "And Kushanku, I can see you have learned an extremely important lesson regarding last night although it had been especially painful and I hope you don't disobey my safety rules ever again. So if you catch any of the youngsters wandering away from the group next time, be sure to tell me and NOT to go after those youngsters yourself, lest you end up in a dire situation with those kids with potentially no hope of rescue this time."

Kushanku shuddered and nodded to this warning. Then managing a small smile despite his tears, the Nekomata got up, had some of the food and prepared to help get the group moving from the cave. Then soon, the group had abandoned the cave and was moving again. Emberflame's lamp was being carried by Mensa and Kushanku was behind Blaze and in front of the group with Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi flanking him, Rubyfeather and Crystal the Parrots just behind him and the other members of the group following him as they followed Blaze through the woods and away from the cave.

 **Meanwhile**

Trotterhoof and his group consisting of Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne and also Thundersparx, Milky Way, Obsidian and now Dashiell, Amberpaw, and baby Otters Eureka and Citron as well, had woken up from their sleep. The group had found shelter in a secluded burrow in the woods to spend the rest of the night, but now they were just having breakfast by eating some more of the food from the sack in the sled's cargo space. As the group ate with Paddy feeding the baby Otters some mashed up fish she had found in an abandoned hut near a frozen stream and Dashiell and Amberpaw were eating the meat of two dumb pigeons they had managed to kill, Trotterhoof was gazing into the now-light wood with a worried look while eating an apple. The snow had stopped and the sun was out but it was still partly cloudy, and the group was still dressed in their black rag and invisibility cloak disguises.

"What's up, Mr Trotterhoof?" asked Cyril when he saw the Pig gaze into the distance like that.

"I'm hoping that Kushanku is alive, and if he is, I'm wondering where he and the others with him, including Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, could be."

Upon hearing the names of the four Nekomata and his only other surviving cub, Dashiell walked grumpily over to Trotterhoof and Cyril and glared at them.

"Alive, huh?" asked the adult male Cheetah with little care, "Well if he is alive, I'm not gonna be talking to him again."

"Yeah, especially after what trouble he has brought upon a lot of us with his stupid beliefs in some mythical fat cat with a mane…" put in Amberpaw scornfully. At this, Trotterhoof snapped his gaze to Dashiell and shot him a glare.

"Don't you EVER blame Kushanku for the slaughter the Witch had brought on the towners of Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town, Dashiell," snapped the Pig, "THAT was Soran's doing. Kushanku himself could well have been amongst the other slaughtered villagers and towners in that disaster zone of a town, you know."

"And throughout our escape from the Witch's palace; THAT thought had been on our minds the ENTIRE TRIP!" added Alexandrite.

"The Witch had hoped to slaughter that Nekomata kit and the others with him to do away with their beliefs in Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy in that patch of Narnia," put in Desdemona as she ate an orange with Link and Molayne, "And because he's likely disappeared, it seemed that the cronies sent by the Witch had decided to ransack both Green Leaf and Purple Flower and slaughter anyone and everyone they could find."

"And we're still surprised that YOU two, as well as Eureka and Citron," said Alexandrite again, a nod to the two baby Otters in Paddy's arms and care, "had managed to survive the massacre."

Dashiell just turned round and walked a few steps away from the group. "Well if Kushanku hadn't believed in that stupid mythical Cougar or whatever that mythical Cat that thing is…" growled the Cheetah.

"Lion and that 'thing' is a HE!" snapped Obsidian as she ate some apples. However, Dashiell ignored the Wampus Cat and turned round to face Trotterhoof and the others with him again, his face saturated with bitterness, "that massacre wouldn't have happened then, would it?"

"Well even if he didn't…" said Trotterhoof but then he trailed off as he ran out of words. The Pig then closed his eyes and raised his front hooves, "Look, we weren't there when the massacre happened and when Kushanku and some of the others had left, okay?"

"Yeah, you were settling into your stupid new home and your 'better lifestyle prize' with that stupid Dog after he had won that Fighting League and killed Gingerfur," grumbled Amberpaw as she swallowed the last of her pigeon meat, not noticing the reaction of revulsion of Thundersparx and Obsidian nearby as she ate it right in front of the pair, "While WE are left to continue to face starvation, this FREEZING weather AND the heartbreak over the loss of our family member…"

"A LOT of other Narnian families will have been plunged into the stabbing cold of heartbreak over the loss of their loved ones who have been forced from them and into that arena of death as well, Cheetah," said Thundersparx as he ate a banana.

"The name's Amberpaw, Spark-Wolf," retorted Amberpaw making Thundersparx wince at the foul attitude of Dashiell's daughter. Then Dashiell gazed at the Raiju and Obsidian as they continued to eat some more fruit.

"Aren't you two gonna include some meat in your breakfast?" asked the Cheetah when he saw that the pair were eating only fruit and vegetables and with that, he offered the pair the remaining pigeon carcass.

"Dashiell," said Trotterhoof, wary of the repulsed looks appearing on Thundersparx and Obsidian's faces, as well as an angry look on that of Milky Way, while Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne looked on warily. However, Dashiell ignored the Pig and continued to offer Obsidian and Thundersparx the pigeon. Then an offended glare formed on Obsidian's face.

"We don't eat meat I'm afraid," said the Wampus Cat with Thundersparx nodding in agreement. At this, Dashiell's face formed a surprised look as he lowered the pigeon while Amberpaw just let loose a scoffing laugh.

"Disturbed at the idea of eating the meat of even the simplest of dumb animals like dumb woodpigeons eh?" said the Cheetah cub, "I've never known a Lightning Wolf or a Wampus Cat go off meat completely like that."

"Amberpaw, you're offending them," said Link. At this, Amberpaw and Dashiell gazed at Obsidian and Thundersparx and saw that the two were glaring at them with offended looks on their faces, before those faces were turned away while Milky Way was glaring at the two Cheetahs with an angry look at their insensitivity.

"It's not nice to mock us for not eating meat like that," said Thundersparx in a low voice.

"Why don't you eat meat?" asked Dashiell. Then Molayne came in, a look of disgust on his face.

"Do you wanna know, Mr Dashiell?" asked the Dog.

"What do you want us to know?" asked Dashiell as Amberpaw glared at Molayne bitterly. But nothing could prepare the two Cheetahs for what Molayne said next.

"The meat of Talking Animals is on the menu of the Fighting League of the victors and their families, and some of us had actually been eating some of that meat without being aware of its source origins at first," he said boldly and without hesitation. This sent massive revulsion tearing through Amberpaw and Dashiell.

"You're KIDDING US!" shouted Dashiell in disbelief.

"We're not," said Milky Way, "In fact I, and Obsidian and Thundersparx here," she nodded to the Wampus Cat and the Raiju who glared at the Cheetah's with tearful looks, "have seen a group of Talking Animals get forcibly taken and slaughtered, against their wills, by some of the Witch's cronies and then subsequently butchered, their meat being…"

"STOOOOP!" screeched Dashiell, making Milky Way stop and the others jump. The screech also disturbed Citron and Eureka and the two Otter pups began to wail, prompting Paddy to try and calm them. Then there was a moment of silence as Dashiell and Amberpaw took a minute to regain themselves, but Trotterhoof and the others could see that the two Cheetahs had been horribly disturbed by this revelation, until finally, Obsidian broke it.

"We're honestly not kidding, you two," said the Wampus Cat sadly, "We've seen it all."

"And for several months we've been eating the meat of those poor Talking Beasts WITHOUT even knowing the meat was from those poor Talking Beasts to begin with," said Thundersparx with remorse in his voice.

"S-s-s-so you're saying th-th-that…" stammered Dashiell, "the victors and their families are… eating the meat of… Talking Animals?"

"Yes, as are the Witch and her cronies," said Milky Way darkly.

"You're HONESTLY unaware of how LIMITLESS the list of the Witch's traits, such as cruelty and sadism, are," said Thundersparx. Dashiell and Amberpaw looked up at the Raiju as he hardened his gaze, "It's true, Cheetahs. We've seen it all during our time on the Witch's grounds from when we moved in with Lightningflash after he had won the previous Fighting League… until we met Trotterhoof and the others here."

"That's ten years straight," said Obsidian before her face hardened, "with the only times being with Lightningflash and the others were for special events and other times to further conceal our spying and during our spy trips also, we've seen far worse behaviours of those HORRIBLE monsters and their White Witch queen that are TOO HORRIBLE to even mention."

"Queen? I'd say she's like their _goddess_ , Obsidian," said Milky Way. Obsidian nodded in agreement to this.

"Did I just hear that right?" asked Dashiell, "You three… have managed to remain hidden and spy on the Witch and her cronies… for TEN YEARS STRAIGHT!?"

"It still amazes us how you have managed to resist that Witch's temptations while you were living on that tyrant's palace grounds and while you were learning about her and her cronies' lifestyle all that time…" said Desdemona but Milky Way flashed her a smile.

"We trusted in Aslan to help resist those temptations, Desdemona," said the Pegasus.

"Yes, it was only by his strength that we were able to avoid getting drawn back into the 'better life' and getting ensnared by the Witch's 'lavish' food and other things," put in Thundersparx. Amberpaw hissed disdainfully under her breath when the pair mentioned the Lion.

"'Aslan' doesn't exist, Pegasus and Raiju," said the Cheetah cub spitefully. However, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way ignored her, knowing the pointlessness of trying to argue with the Cheetah cub with her bratty attitude. Dashiell was about to express his amazement but then his negative opinions on Aslan's existence when suddenly, Obsidian's sensitive ears picked up the sounds of footsteps outside. At this, the Wampus Cat froze and commanded everyone to be quiet with a gesture of her front paw and a "'Shh!". Everyone, including Amberpaw and Dashiell froze while Paddy calmed Eureka and Citron.

"What is it?" whispered Cyril. Then Trotterhoof's ears picked up the sounds of feet, or rather _paws_ , treading over snow just outside the shelter the group had used to spend the rest of the night.

"There's something outside," said the Pig in a low whisper. This sent shivers coursing through the bodies of the younger members and also Dashiell, Obsidian and Milky Way.

"I-I-I hope it's not who… or what… I think it is…" said Obsidian with a gulp. Then Thundersparx rose to his feet and proceeded to follow Trotterhoof.

"Stay here, folks," said the Raiju as he followed the Pig to investigate the footsteps, "I smell something foul around here."

Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (who had Citron and Eureka in her paws), Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Dashiell, Amberpaw, Obsidian and Milky Way nodded obediently and stayed put while Trotterhoof and Thundersparx left them and slowly crept towards the entrance of the shelter, exactly where the paw-based footstep sounds were coming from. The group huddled together.

"I hope it's not one of the Witch's patrollers," whispered Desdemona to the others, "Based on the sounds of those footsteps, it must be a lone four-footed patroller."

"Perhaps a Wolf or a Hellhound?" asked Cyril in a low voice.

"Well, we'll find out when Trotterhoof and Thundersparx intercepts whoever is out there," said Milky Way seriously. The others then fell silent and watched as the Pig and Raiju crept slowly closer to the entrance to the shelter.

Trotterhoof and Thundersparx, both of who were covered by their Banshee-like and invisibility cloaks respectively with only their heads exposed, continued to creep towards the entrance until they finally stopped just short of the opening outside. There they listened intently. The footsteps, which were indeed of a four-footed creature, sounded again but abruptly stopped. However, a shadow loomed just outside the entrance. Clearly there was someone out there, and close by. Trotterhoof gazed at Thundersparx as the latter said, "Let me intercept the unknown, unwanted guest first."

Trotterhoof cautiously nodded as the Raiju then prepared his electricity and crouched to leap out at whoever was outside. In the shelter, Alexandrite and the others watched on nervously as Thundersparx readied his attack. Then after a few more tense moments, Thundersparx sprang into action. The neon blue and yellow Wolf-Cat, most of his body covered by his invisibility cloak, launched himself out of the entrance and fired a bolt of electricity from his head. Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Dashiell, Amberpaw, Obsidian and Milky Way all jumped into the air as a massive howl of shock and pain following the spark of lightning erupted from outside. Then Trotterhoof launched himself out of the entrance and pounced onto the thing that Thundersparx had zapped.

"OOOW! WHAT THE-!?" shouted the thing as it was flattened into the snow under the weight of the Pig dressed in a ragged Banshee-like cloak of black blankets and curtains. Then Thundersparx rushed in and slammed a paw onto the thing's face. In the shelter, the sound of paws and talons pounding on snow erupted as Alexandrite and the others hurriedly rushed to the entrance to see what Trotterhoof and Thundersparx had caught. As the thing was writhing under the Pig and the Raiju's grasp, the painful sting of the zap from the latter's lightning strike still lingering sharply on its shoulder, the thing which had silky black fur and features which Dashiell identified were indicative of a Wolf and based on its size, a young one, apparently a young adolescent, as well, began to protest.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" bellowed the Wolf angrily as it writhed under the weight of the Pig and Raiju, "GET OFF ME WILL YA, OR I'LL BITE YA TO MAKE YA!"

Trotterhoof, however, did not budge while Thundersparx seized the Wolf's nose and yanked the Canid's eyes directly into his own.

"Not until you mean us NO HARM, you INTRUDER!" snarled the Raiju hostilely, his mane sparking furiously as he got angry. At this, the Wolf's eyes, which were like shiny onyxes bordered by menacing snowy white-grey rings for the pupils were dilated with the shock and surprise, met with the Raiju's. The moment they did, the eyes flashed from surprise to a look of suspicion and outrage.

"So THERE you are, Raiju," growled the Wolf, which was a male, when he recognised Thundersdparx under the invisibility cloak, "Where have you BEEN for the past ten years? We've been looking all over for you," his eyes then travelled to Trotterhoof and then to Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Dashiell, Amberpaw, Obsidian and Milky Way, "and when I saw you lot through the bushes, I initially thought that you were Hags or Tenome taking a break until I saw that you had those two Cheetahs with you…" he eyed Dashiell and Amberpaw as he said this. Trotterhoof, at this, pressed a hoof onto the Wolf's head side and pushed the Wolf's head partially into the snow.

"We get it now," growled the Pig, "You're one of the Witch's cronies, but bad move, Wolf. You've just walked into a trap and NOW you're OUTNUMBERED!"

Thundersparx nodded and sparked in agreement while Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Obsidian and Milky Way put on threatening poses as they also glared at the Wolf, making the Wolf tremble violently.

"And WE will not hesitate to SEVERELY INJURE YOU if you TRY AND CALL FOR HELP!" roared Obsidian threateningly, her orange-red markings glowing brighter, much to the alarm of Dashiell and Amberpaw and the surprise of the others apart from Milky Way. It was clear that Obsidian was a breed or subtype of Wampus Cat called a FIRE Wampus Cat. However, she did not have fire powers, and her markings glowing brighter like flames was just an expressive trait like Thundersparx's electric sparks whenever the Raiju got angry or frightened. Trotterhoof then shoved his snout into the Wolf's face in a threatening manner.

"Now you will DO AS WE SAY when we release," hissed the Pig directly into the terrified Wolf's face, "Or things WILL get ugly."

The Wolf, seeing no choice, especially as Tundersparx backed up this threat with more lightning flashes from his mane and Alexandrite and the others hardened their threatening poses, but to comply, nodded and within moments, Trotterhoof slowly crawled off the Wolf and allowed him to stand up. As the Wolf did so, the Pig and the Raiju kept their threatening poses in case the Wolf did ever try to call for help. As soon as he had shaken himself to shed the snow from his fur (sending it flying everywhere in a powdery rain), the Wolf glared angrily at Trotterhoof and Thundersparx and then scoured the glare over Alexandrite and the others.

"What are you lot doing dressed like Hags in those black outfits anyway?" growled the silky black Canid fiercely as he scanned the makeshift Hag cloaks of Trotterhoof's group, before his eyes examined the invisibility cloaks covering Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx, leaving only their heads and fronts exposed, "not to mention the use of special equipment that ONLY her Majesty the QUEEN and HER HIGHEST RANKING FOLLOWERS, are allowed to use," his eyes travelled to Dashiell and Amberpaw and then to Citron and Eureka in Paddy's paws, "not to mention THOSE four being with you…" the Wolf then threw on a shocked look, before a look of pure outrage came upon his face.

"WHY are you lot hanging out with these NARNIANS!?" barked the Canid, "You should be back with your families and the victors! Your life in Narnia is NO LONGER relevant to you now. And besides that, it's a GREAT OFFENCE to our QUEEN to abandon her gift of a better life and to throw her immense generosity back into her face…"

None of Trotterhoof's group answered verbally however, but they gave their answer against this statement with extremely fierce glares saturated with extreme hatred, disgust and outrage. The Wolf flashed a look of angry surprise.

"You're not ashamed of abandoning our Queen?" he said. The moment he said that, Thundersparx strode towards the Canid like a sauntering Cougar, his mane sparking furiously and his eyes blazing with bitter disgust.

"ASHAMED!?" snapped the Raiju as he sparked and approached the Wolf, scaring him greatly and making him back away, "Let me tell you something, Wolf. The so-called ' _Queen_ ' isn't who she says she is."

"She's the _Empress of the High Lands_ ," snapped the Wolf as he continued to back away from the sparking Raiju, "And by the way, my name's Nanu, Thundersparx, and I've been sent by her Majesty to find you and bring you back to the palace grounds…"

"We're not going ANYWHERE, Wolf," snarled Obsidian fiercely as she sauntered towards Nanu on all six of her limbs, her head fur spiked out and her fiery orange-red markings blazing threateningly. Then Milky Way, Alexandrite, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne joined the Wampus Cat and Raiju and began to approach the Wolf in a threatening manner as well while Paddy remained with Dashiell, Amberpaw, Eureka and Citron. Nanu continued to back away from the small group of angry animals until finally, he found himself cornered against a dip in the large trunk of a massive tree. Then Alexandrite spoke.

"I don't think you realise it but your 'Queen' is outright EVIL…" said the Nekomata fiercely, "EVIL in EVERY sense of the word."

"Yes, absolutely," said Milky Way. Nanu then pressed himself against the bark of the tree and formed a look of outrage on his face as the group continued to close in on him, poised to attack him if he dared flee or call for help.

"Her Majesty is NOT evil. She's a heroine who has helped us to win the war that had ravaged Narnia…" he barked but his would-be captors refused to listen and budge.

"SHE'S no HEROINE!" snapped Thundersparx, his mane sparking violently, "She's a USURPER! SHE stole the throne from Narnia's rightful line of kings and queens and took the throne for HERSELF!"

"And besides that, she is a sadist, eats Talking Beasts for her meals and does NOT care for the Narnians' wellbeing whatsoever."

"The only persons she cares about are herself and her followers," put in Molayne.

"And she oppresses everyone else with this slaughterhouse Fighting League," added Alexandrite, "this wintery curse, AND the corrupt laws she has passed on us…"

"You've got it ALL WRONG!" snapped Nanu angrily, "Her Majesty RESCUED us from that war. The reason why she had locked Narnia in this Eternal Winter is so that she could keep away those FOUL humans that had caused it. Have you not seen Romulus's promotion of the Fighting League this decade? It explains everything. True it was a pyrrhic victory but it was worth it in the end."

Silence fell among Trotterhoof and Thundersparx's group but it wasn't a convinced silence, it was a silence saturated with rage, and the knowing that the promotion for the Fighting League was all an outright lie, especially after what they had seen of the event itself as it was broadcasted across Narnia on the magical TVs, for Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way had been watching the event at their family's new house before meeting Trotterhoof and the others after Soran and his family including them had moved in shortly after Soran had won the event. Nanu continued his protests.

"You see, that Decadal Fighting League event is to honour our mighty Queen once every ten years for helping us win the war," said the Wolf, "as well as the ninety percent offering of your monthly food delivery and any indoor grown crops you had…"

These words were deflected from the ears of Thundersparx and company for they, especially Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way, who had been observing EVERYTHING in the Witch's palace and grounds for ten years since moving into their new home with Lightningflash and the rest of their family after the previous Fighting League after Lightningflash had won it, knew full well that these statements were outright lies, especially based on the observations a certain Raiju, Wampus Cat and Pegasus had made. In the background, Paddy looked on with a glare while Dashiell and Amberpaw just looked on in confusion. Eureka and Citron continued to rest in Paddy's arms, having finally calmed down.

"It is clear that you have NOT been observing what OPPRESSION and UNTOLD SUFFERING that tyrant's rule has had upon EVERYONE in Narnia, apart from her followers and her Fighting League victors and their families very much," snapped Milky Way fiercely.

"Yeah, you've been wrapped up in the extremely WASTEFUL luxuries of your so-called leader and her followers all your life, and hadn't even stopped to think of the Narnians outside the Witch's palace grounds," snarled Obsidian before her voice began to break, "N-n-not to mention gorge yourself on the meat of some of those poor Talking Beasts."

Nanu was absolutely stunned. Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way had been living with Lightningflash and the rest of the family (who were, by now, very obese from so much lounging around in the luxuries bestowed upon them by the Witch, including the overly excess amount of food) and no-one, not even the Witch herself, had had ANY idea of where the trio had been spying on them all that time. But then it dawned upon Nanu; the trio had been hiding and wandering about the Witch's grounds and buildings under her and her cronies' noses very often, only returning to Lightningflash's house for 'special events' such as the Fighting League to further cover up their spying. Then Desdemona ran off, seized something from the back of the sled in the shelter, and hurried back over to the young Wolf.

"We tell you what, we'll discuss this on the way," said the Griffin as she handed the something, a piece of rope, to Thundersparx and Obsidian, "We don't have time for this riffraff here in this spot. We wanna get moving and find Kushanku and the other remaining villagers."

Then without hesitation and against Nanu's protests, Thundersparx and Obsidian set to binding the young Wolf's feet together while Cyril, Link and Trotterhoof left to get the sled ready. As he was being held down by Alexandrite, Milky Way and Molyane while Obsidian and Thundersparx tied his feet together Nanu flashed a horrified look at the group.

"You've pinched one of our SLEDS-!?" he began when Thundersparx snapped his jaws shut and tied it up tightly with another piece of rope, but not too tight so that Nanu could still breathe. After he had been tied up, Thundersparx unsympathetically glared into the stunned young Wolf's eyes.

"Enough talk, Wolf," said the Raiju flatly and with that, he nodded to Obsidian and Alexandrite to pick up poor Nanu and carry him to the sled. Then as soon as Cyril, Link and Trotterhoof had returned with the sled and had reined themselves up to it with Paddy climbing in with Eureka, Citron, Dashiell and Amberpaw, Obsidian tossed the bound Nanu into the cargo section of the sled, behind the seat. As she did that, the Wolf snarled, growled and writhed in his bounds furiously and tried to speak but could not for his jaws had been bound shut. Then Obsidian and Alexandrite sat with him in the cargo section to keep an eye on him and make sure that he didn't escape. Then as soon as Trotterhoof and Thundersparx had reined themselves, and everyone else had climbed into the sled or had attached themselves to it with their reins, the group was off.

As the sled was pulled along, Nanu trembled, frightened at what he had just landed himself into, and bewildered at how Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way had managed to spy on Jadis and the other creatures by hiding right under their noses and beaks for TEN YEARS despite being present with their family for special events like the Fighting League, and how Trotterhoof, Cyril, Link, Alexandrite, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne bore such an amazing resemblance to the Hags, Shadows and Banshees who often wore black ragged cloaks. However, he knew that he could not do much to escape now for he was under the watchful hawk-eyes of Obsidian and Alexandrite for one, and he was too outnumbered and inexperienced for he was only an adolescent Wolf to get himself out of this mess but deep down, Nanu did have second thoughts and doubts about the Witch and her rule, and was clearly troubled at how far the Witch was taking things with the Narnians and their suffering, but those second thoughts were still buried under the Wolf's current loyalty to the wicked pseudo-Queen and his superiors for he was still young.

But he was beginning to question the Witch's right to rule Narnia and what she was doing to the country and its inhabitants but we will find out whether he will either go down that road or keep his loyalty to the Witch and her cronies later.


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27- suspicious hunches and a trickster afoot**

 **Meanwhile**

"What COULD HAVE HAPPENED to THOSE SEVEN TRAITOROUS DESERTERS!?" cried a certain Dog from one of the victors' massive houses in extreme fury, accompanied by the sound of smashing porcelain against a hard wall as the Dog had thrown something made from that material. In that house, Soran, who was greedily scoffing on some highly luxurious Dog-suitable cake made for him and his family by the Witch's cronies, looked on as his father Growler furiously threw another plate at the wall and shattered it in a mighty smashing sound, sending shards of more porcelain raining down onto the floor below the impact point, "Her Majesty's gonna KILL US if she finds out that TROTTERHOOF and the OTHER SIX HAD DISAPPEARED!"

As Growler threw a third plate against the wall and smashed it violently, creating more porcelain shards, Silver-Ears came in. nearby, the Goats were lounging in a bubbling pool filled with warm water and also eating, but they were immersed in too much over-enjoyment to even flash a sliver of concern. They and Silver-Ears, as well as many of the other members of Soran's family, were already showing signs of the seriously negative effects the Witch's rich food supply and constant lounging in the excess of luxurious bestowed upon them by the Witch since Soran's emergence as victor of this decade's Fighting League, and Growler's mate and Soran and Zira's mother was fatter than she had been when the group had moved in from overindulging in the massive abundance of food. The weight gain was also obvious on Soran, the Goats and Growler.

"I have already told Ganku the Tenome of Trotterhoof and the other six's disappearance and she has reported it to the Queen, dear," said Silver-Ears, "and she has initiated a strict search for the seven to be caught, brought back here and put to death."

Growler shot his fattening mate a furious glare as she continued to speak. Soran continued to gorge himself on the cake as his parents spoke, not carting about the situation. The uncaring attitude Soran and his family had was indeed the result of the enchanted food and place given to them by the Witch and it was likely that they will continue to spiral down this path of death until they died.

"And when those seven traitors are caught, the Pig and the young Peryton will be slaughtered and their meat butchered for us to eat," said Silver-Ears.

"I also heard that a Wampus Cat, a Raiju and a Pegasus from Lightningflash, the previous Fighting League victor's family had also disappeared mysteriously," said Growler. Silver-Ears formed a wicked smirk on her muzzle, "Well, they're gonna be dealt with as well and the Pegasus perhaps killed and her meat butchered for us to eat as well."

Growler, however, just indifferently turned round, returned to the sofa and pressed a button installed into one of the piece of furniture's arms to ask for more food, for the craving for the lavish food had welled within him yet again. As he did that, Silver Ears left to wait for the food's arrival.

Moments later, a door opened and a group of hideous Banshees entered the house with a trolley full of lavish meat, fruit, vegetables and plenty of desserts (cakes, pies and the like). This food was so, so, SO moreish that its smell and appearance was enough to attack anyone within its vicinity to come and want to take a bite out of it, but because of who had made and prepared it, that one bite would be a potential one-way ticket to gorging oneself until they ate themselves to death. As soon as they were in the housed, they distributed the dishes before Siler-Ears and Growler and the two Dogs began to dig in. After they had done this, one of the Banshees began to talk with the others.

"I didn't like Her Majesty's reaction this morning, girls and boss Púca," she said. Her voice sounded so much like creaking wood in a haunted house that if you were to listen to it, your skin would crawl and your nerves would shudder. One of the other Banshees, a large Hag-like creature with bone-white skin crisscrossed with scratch-like scars, enormously bulging eyes sat in its own socket and had a sickly green iris surrounding a tiny, ugly pupil, giving the Banshee the appearance of someone possessed, and long, black messy hair cascading from her head down to her shoulders turned to the Banshee that spoke, her very ugly eyes laced with understanding. She was the leader of the Banshees and was named Púca, and she was one of Jadis's right-hand creatures, along with Gollum the Black Dwarf, Romulus the Wolf, Malefor the Manticore and the other leaders of the various hideous beasts that were fiercely loyal to the Witch, apart from the Narnians who had fallen to the wicked tyrant's side.

"I'm not surprised," said the large, bug-eyed Banshee, "Three of Lightingflash's family members, along with some of those from Soran's family here, have not been seen since this morning."

"How could they have disappeared so mysteriously, Púca?" asked another Banshee. Púca, at this, directed her scar-carved, bone-white, sickly green bug-eyed glare of outrage towards her and said, "I don't know, but I don't like it one little bit. They're giving our mighty Queen the ultimate dishonour by throwing her prize of better food, shelter and life from the cold back into her face. It is important that they are captured and killed as soon as possible."

A wicked smile formed on another Banshee's face. "And although our Queen has taken the throne from those useless human Kings and Queens of Narnia, she's still our heroine, isn't she?"

"More than that, she's a GODDESS," said Púca. As the Banshees spoke, Soran gazed at the Banshees and continued eating his cake, too wrapped up by his uncaring attitude to listen.

"So that is why EVERYONE, including ALL Narnians, must honour her in every single way," said Púca, "whether they like it or not. Her Majesty is the true Queen and always will be."

The other Banshees let loose a "Yes, absolutely!" in unison as they agreed to this. Then Púca moved on, "Anyway, enough on that, let's focus on serving our brilliant victor and his remaining family more of this delicious food and then return to her Majesty's palace for the meeting."

The other Banshees nodded, took the desserts from the trolley and served them to Soran and his family. As soon as the Dogs and their family members were eating more of the food, despite possibly being full, the Banshees packed up and left with their trolley. Growler and Silver-Ears then settled down to the most gluttonous indulgence they had ever had in their lives, all thoughts for Trotterhoof and the others' absence forgotten as they focussed on enjoying their 'improved life' (which was really more of extreme overindulgence to the death).

As the Banshees left Soran and his family's home, they were met by a Bunyip, an ugly water-horse called a Kelpie, and a furless, skin-and-bones-like Dog-like beast called a Chubacabra. Kelpies were horse-like water creatures that had glowing amber eyes, bedraggled, messy seaweed-like manes and tails and very dark green furless skins, while Chubacabra resembled Canids lacking any muscle under their skins and had furless skin, fangs like a Sabre-Toothed Cat, and gleaming, menacing onyx-like eyes. Most Kelpies were loyal to Jadis but very few were against the Witch, but most, if not all, Chubacabra were fiercely loyal to the tyrant, were absolutely obedient to her commands and rules, and shared her bloodthirsty taste for sanguinary battles between Narnians such as that in the Fighting League, the meat of Talking Beasts and her other sadistic traits. As the two ugly water creatures and the furless, gaunt Dog-like creature met the Banshees, Púca saw that the trio's faces were laced with sheer excitement.

"Oh, Púca, there you are," said the Kelpie, its Horse-like mouth widened into a devilish Horse's grimace.

"We have some excellent news," said the Chubacabra with the Bunyip nodding in agreement. A smile formed on Púca's ugly, white, scarred face and the other Banshees with her also replicated it.

"Excellent, you three," said the lead Banshee, "What's the news?"

"Have the patrollers found the two Kitsune Chroniclers yet?" asked one of Púca's underlings. The Kelpie, Chubacabra and the Bunyip shook their heads.

"No, sadly," said the Kelpie, "But Her Majesty has come up with a very ingenious plan to catch any believers in the Great Lion and the Golden Age Prophecy."

The Banshees' smiles widened devilishly.

"Let's hear it," said Púca.

"Her Majesty has sent out a group of creatures who specialise in trickery and deception to pose as innocent creatures that are either abandoned or are needy," explained the Chubacabra, "so that they could dupe any Narnians that they encounter and be taken in to be adopted."

"Where they'll spy on the families of those Narnians," continued the Kelpie, "and report back to us and Her Majesty of any sign of any belief in the Great Lion or the Prophecy. Once that is done, Her Majesty will send out her Police groups, such as Romulus and his team, to find and dispose of those traitors or capture them and bring them to the Queen herself for the Queen to deal with instead."

Intrigue travelled through the Banshees as they relished this sneaky idea.

"Then that means those potential traitors have nowhere to escape for one thing," said one of the Banshee underlings, "AND any traitorous uprising will be nipped in the bud for another."

"That's correct," said the Kelpie. Then it, the Chubacabra, the Bunyip, and Púca and her underlings with their empty trolley, turned and left in the direction of the Witch's palace, cackling on the way.

"I certainly ADORE our mighty Queen," said the Kelpie as it left with the group, "There's absolutely no end, at all, to her creativity, ingenuity and slyness in dealing with those lowly Narnian worms."

"NOTHING at ALL is impossible with her," said Púca wickedly. The others nodded in agreement as they continued towards the palace.

 **Meanwhile**

Sometime later, Kushanku and company continued to follow Blaze the Phoenix as he led them along. The snow had stopped and the sun was out but it was still as cold as ever. The terrain had changed to an uphill ascent for the leg of the journey was on the side of a hill that was covered with a forest. The trek was very difficult not only due to the deep snow but also the incline of the terrain, and the walkers were puffing and panting as they were forced to force in more effort into their legs, and the majority of the youngsters were being carried in the arms or the backs of the older members, and Buck the Horse was carrying some of Faline's kits, nephews and nieces, including the three that had almost got themselves and Kushanku caught by Krampus yesterday, on his back. As the Horse puffed and panted as he struggled to pull his whole body along with his hooves in the snow, he launched a series of complaints to Faline.

"I cannot believe… the sheer number of… kids you… have been having… Faline!" muttered and gasped the Horse, "How many… have you… got? Thirteen or something (puffs, pants)?"

"Twenty-eight," said Faline as she held two of her baby kits in her arms while another adult Rabbit, her sister, walked along with three more baby Rabbits in her arms, "While my sister here has twenty."

Nearby, a Pterosaur shot the two Bunnies an astonished look, especially at the number of older kits walking behind them like a crowd of schoolchildren on a tip, as well as the around ten or twelve more on Buck's back.

"No wonder your family is a massive task to deal with," said the Bird-like Winged Reptile, "Talk about the phrase, 'Breeding like Rabbits'."

Ahead of the Pterosaur, Nyarth and Satoshi as they helped carry Mensa's son Snowwing and Rubyfeather's daughter Crystal as they walked alongside their respective mothers flashed an unsurprised look at Faline and her sister and their large number of Rabbit kits. It was true. Much like our world's rabbits, some Narnian Rabbits had massive families with large numbers of offspring. Also, much like our world's rabbits, Narnian Rabbits lived in burrows called warrens and formed clans. Each clan had a lead male Rabbit, called a Chief, and his mate. However, due to the conditions caused by the Witch's winter spell over Narnia and its effects, especially the Fighting League set up by the Witch to occur once every ten years, these living behaviours of the Narnian Rabbits had largely been reduced or abandoned and they had been forced to have less offspring, usually a quarter of the number they would normally have, due to food shortage (for a massive family with a lot of youngsters would need plenty of food indeed) and the fear of losing one of their beloved kits to the arena of gory death in the name of entertainment for the sadistic Witch and her cronies, and Faline had lost her oldest son, who had been an adolescent, to this immoral event for Faline's family had been forcibly chosen by the Witch and that Rabbit selected to be sent into the arena. As tempting as the 'better life' prize was, Faline would rather die of starvation or from the cold than live on the Witch's grounds as uncaring creatures blinded by the Witch's enchanted food and other stuff, and she was still very heartbroken by the loss of her older son, though she had managed to put it aside to concentrate on getting to Gandalf and Kyukon's place.

The group continued to struggle along, many of them complaining of tiredness and exhaustion as they ascended the hill, and many were complaining of the difficulty of the trek but still Blaze urged them along, only stopping for the stragglers lagging behind the group to catch up with the rest. It was important for these stragglers to keep up with the others for they were more vulnerable to temptation by potential patrollers of the Witch, especially after Kushanku and three of Faline's kits were almost lost to Krampus last night, and the youngsters were especially the most vulnerable. However, the adults were just as vulnerable as the younger members as well, and the group was about to pass another temptation spot as they neared the top of the hill. As the group continued to struggle against the pull of gravity with puffs and pants escaping their mouths from the increased effort needed to climb the incline, a cottage sat not too far away from the group. This cottage was situated at the line of trees marking the edge of the hill forest and was made of gingerbread, sugar icing and other substances associated with desserts such as biscuits, cakes and sweet pies for the gingerbread walls were decorated with a variety of colourful sweet discs, shepherd's crook-like canes and other sweets. Near the cottage to its right was a hole in the snow which led downwards into the ground like a rabbit hole. Stood at the front of the cottage was a short, chubby humanoid creature with long pointy ears, chubby arms and legs, and a stocky build in his body. A few wart-like growths dotted his face and he had slightly bulging eyes. This creature which slightly resembled a Goblin from the Witch's army of cronies was standing outside the cottage and the rabbit hole, but was in fact a Dwarf, and he appeared to be a friendly creature searching for passers-by to come and meet him. As the Dwarf was examining the surroundings, his eyes landed on a group of passing creatures as they followed a red, orange, gold and purple firebird as it hovered ahead. At this, the Dwarf felt a wave of excitement and began to approach the group to get their attention.

"Hey you lot," called the little humanoid with a wave of his arms, drawing the attention of some of them towards himself, "where are you going?"

At this, some of the trekking creatures stopped. Kushanku, however, flashed a glance at the Dwarf and continued walking after Blaze for he had not forgotten the very painful lesson he had learned last night about disobeying the wise Phoenix's commands. Akira, Nyarth (who carried Crystal) and Sandstorm also followed but Satoshi (who carried Snowwing), stopped alongside some other creatures including Buck the Horse with some of Faline's offspring on his back and turned to look at the Dwarf.

"Where are you guys going?" asked the Dwarf again.

"We're off to find someplace where a pair of wise Kitsune lives for refuge," said Satoshi, "Alongside countless other Narnians called by the Lion…"

As Satoshi spoke, Blaze stopped the others following him and gazed at the Dwarf as he continued to hold the attention of some of the group members, among them one of Kushanku's brothers and Mensa's son, and Kushanku, along with Mensa, Shadewing and the others, also stopped. The Dwarf continued.

"Well, I have a very important message for you guys," said the Dwarf, before gesturing to his candy house and rabbit hole, "you guys need to see something very important. I have a treasure trove down this hole for you to dig…"

Satoshi and the others with him, among them some of Faline's offspring put on hopeful looks and exchanged glances but Buck began to usher the group along.

"Come on, folks," said the Horse, "Blaze is waiting for us and shouting for us to move it."

"But Buck," said Satoshi, "That Dwarf might be right…"

"What if he…" began Snowwing but he trailed off as Buck gazed at the Phoenix and saw that his face had twisted to a look of disgust, awareness and suspicion as it glared at the Dwarf.

"I honestly don't like the look on Blaze's face, Satoshi, guys," said the Horse, "I've a feeling that this Dwarf is not what he seems. Let's get moving before we're subjected to more temptation."

With that, the Horse returned to following Blaze along with Satoshi and some of the other creatures. Faline also seized some of her kits to get them moving, fearing for their safety, and the other older members did the same to the other youngsters with Mensa coming to seize Satoshi and Snowwing to drag them away. However, a few of the creatures remained, and a few of the stragglers turned up. The Dwarf then began to change tactic.

"If you guys continue to follow that firebird," he shouted, "Something HORRIBLE will happen to you. It's not safe to continue to follow him and that firebird cannot be trusted. However, if you come over to me and enter this rabbit hole, you will be safe. And besides that, the treasure you will reap from that mine underground will bring you happiness and other wonders."

However, Buck called back at the Dwarf and shouted, "We're not here to argue with you, you Witch's crony. We've got more important things to focus on than listening to your stupid trickery."

"I'm NOT one of the Witch's cronies," snapped the Dwarf, "In fact, I haven't even heard of the Witch at all."

However, Buck and the others refused to listen to him and continued on, under Blaze's command, but a few of them had broken away from the group and had approached the Dwarf, convinced by his words that following Blaze was dangerous. Then, against the others' protests, the little group went towards the rabbit hole and disappeared into it with the Dwarf following them. Now whether they had fallen into a trap or had been captured by the Dwarf, I cannot say but one thing was clear: they were never seen or heard of again. This revelation sent shivers down the rest of the group's spines and they hurriedly continued their following of Blaze, desperate to get out of the vicinity of the tempting trap. However, Quill, as he herded some of Faline's young kits along, flashed a glance back at the candy cottage.

"He certainly was a trickster alright," he said, "He's been trying to get us to stop following Blaze and bait us into his trap in that rabbit-like hole."

"He's also indeed one of the Witch's cronies," said Farfella the Fairy darkly as she rode on a Peryton doe's back with her grandson Patchwork, "and a big scammer. I wouldn't be surprised if so many other naïve victims had fallen for his tricks."

"What about those that had gone over to him, Grandma?" asked Patchwork.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to help them," said Farfella sadly, "We can't risk our own safety to rescue those stubborn and foolish creatures and lose track of Blaze over there. It's too dangerous."

Patchwork, at this, shuddered and ducked lower into his grandmother's arms as though he expected the Dwarf to come and call for more of the creatures to break away from Blaze's trail and return to his candy cottage. Thankfully, he didn't and the group continued their journey after Blaze, who had obviously been fully aware that the Dwarf had indeed been a scammer and a trickster.

Some more time passed and the group had reached the top of the hill and had begun their descent down the opposite side. Unlike the uphill side which required more effort to ascend, downhill was easier to manage for you went with gravity rather than against it. however, due to the snow, it was hazardous and the group had to take extreme care not to slip which would result in them careening dangerously down the slope and potentially slam into any obstacle on the way down, and if any of the creature at the back were to slip, they could cause a domino effect on the others and EVERYONE would slip down the slope.

"Steady, folks," said Blaze as he hovered ahead, "This slope's really slippery."

The creatures obeyed and took one careful step after another. Shadewing hung onto Mensa while she carried Emberflame in her lamp and Rubyfeather while Kushanku, Snowwing, Crystal, Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm joined paws/wings with some of the other youngsters and had formed a sort of chain to slow each other down and support each other as they made their steady descent. Behind them, the rest of the group with some of them carrying the smaller kids, such as Buck with some of Faline's kits on his back, also took care but as they moved down the downward side of the hill, some of them were still upset over the loss of some of the members to the Dwarf back at the candy cottage and the rabbit hole. It was clear that the Dwarf was one of the Witch's cronies, for he had been reported to have taken advantage of the suffering Narnians' desperation for food, shelter and warmth from the constant winter in the past and had scammed them into a trap. Either his victims had been led into a literal trap or he had enslaved them, or he had turned them over to Jadis and her other cronies so that they could be sent to the slaughterhouse on the Witch's grounds to be killed and processed for their meat, but whichever the outcome, this Dwarf was extremely dangerous, and one of the many dangerous creatures to live in this winter-stricken land, and Blaze knew that there were several more temptations the group must face before meeting Gandalf and Kyukon in their base where the group, alongside hundreds other Narnians, will take shelter, receive a proper education on Narnian's history, proper training and prepare for the next stage of their journey to Archenland, but that trip will be more treacherous but we'll not talk about this until later.

As the group continued to make their careful descent, with some of them slipping but managing to gain control of their balance at the last minute, until they finally reached the bottom of the hill, Blaze commanded the group to stop and wait for the stragglers to catch up and so that they could rest briefly. During this respite, Nyarth began to talk about the Dwarf and the candy house while some of the other creatures began to examine the path ahead for anything suspicious and that could pose a threat to the group. Even though they were safe under Blaze's supervision, caution still had to be exercised for there were plenty of Jadis's minions lurking in every corner of the forest and other objects surrounding the group.

"Just who was that Dwarf, anyway?" asked Nyarth. Farfella turned to the older brother of Kushanku.

"His name is Sméagol," said the elderly Fairy, "And he used to be one of the Dwarfs who believed in Aslan, or supposedly."

"Did he turn away and become loyal to the Witch?" asked Satoshi. Farfella's face turned dark.

"Yes," she said in a low voice, "He had been charmed by that evil Snow 'Queen', had abandoned his friends and had taken up the role of scamming desperate Narnians to catch for the Witch for various unmentionable roles."

"He used to be a good Dwarf, didn't he?" asked Sandstorm.

"Yes, sadly," said Farfella, "But due to his change of allegiance from Aslan to Jadis, he had become corrupted and completely evil. He had even betrayed his friends and own family to the Witch and had them put to death or turned to stone," the Fairy breathed a sigh, "A lot of Narnians had fallen for Jadis's charm for many reasons; either out of fear of her wrath for disobeying her 'rules', becoming chosen animals for the gory Fighting League, or to escape the freezing cold. Two young twin Elves, a brother and a sister, had narrowly escaped that horrible Dwarf's trap when he tempted them with his candy house…"

As the Fairy talked, another of the animals of the group, a Guinea Pig, saw something in the distance while the group continued to wait for the stragglers to catch up, which they eventually did.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Mrs Farfella but I'm seeing a desperate looking animal over there," said the Guinea Pig and with that, he pointed a front paw. Farfella, together with Sandstorm, Nyarth and Akira and Satoshi nearby, followed the Guinea Pig's point and saw the creature as well. Farfella took out a pair of spectacles on a stick, called a lorgnette, and moved it over her eyes to enhance her vision of it. Due to being an old Fairy, her vision had slowly become less acute so she had to use glasses or her lorgnette at times whenever she needed to read or focus on something in the distance. As the Fairy focussed her aging eyes on the creature the Guinea Pig had found, she saw that the creature was indeed an animal and it had glinting purple-black fur based on how it shone in the frosted sunlight, and based on its features, it appeared to be a Canid.

"Looks like a Fox," said the Fairy as she withdrew her lorgnette and put it away in her coat, "and it doesn't look in good shape."

Then a Falcon came forward and gazed at the creature with her sharper eyes.

"More like a Kitsune," she said, "based on its metallic fur for regular Foxes do not have a metallic sheen in their coat."

"Gandalf or Kyukon?" asked Nyarth.

"No, Nyarth," said Farfella, "They are over nine-hundred years old and have _nine_ tails. This one only has one, and thus is only a youngster."

"Or perhaps adolescent?" said the Falcon. Then Blaze came in.

"Okay, everyone's here. Let's go," said the Phoenix.

"There's a Kitsune over there that looks like it is in trouble," said Farfella and with that, she pointed a finger at the Fox-like creature a short distance away. At this, Blaze followed the point and saw the metallic purple-black Fox, which was indeed a Kitsune for it had metallic fur, a trait lacked completely by their drabber ordinary Fox cousins. The common fur colours for a young Kitsune were metallic red, orange or brown but black and even rarer colours such as purple-black, were possible as well. Then Blaze saw that the Kitsune was limping with its front left leg raised off the ground but then the Kitsune happened to turn its gaze in the group's direction and as it did, the group saw that the metallic Fox's eyes, which were coloured amber, were laced with desperation.

"Oh, hello, guys," called the Kitsune when it saw them. Based on its voice pitch, it was a female. "C-c-can you help me please? I've injured my leg, very hungry and I have nowhere to go for I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere."

Kushanku turned to Blaze and said, "Shall we help her, Mr Blaze?"

Blaze, at first, put a talon on his beak and flashed a suspicious look.

"I don't know," replied the Phoenix, "Something doesn't feel quite right about that Kitsune."

"But she's injured, desperate, and stuck in the middle of nowhere, that poor thing, my dear Phoenix," said Farfella insistently, "and if she were to struggle up this hill and end up in the sights of that traitorous and wicked Sméagol, she could be tricked and potentially meet her demise at the hands of that evil Dwarf."

Blaze gazed at the Fairy with uncertainty when Faline the Rabbit came forward and took off one of her garments she had wrapped around herself to keep warm, along with Quill, Dahlia the young Jackalope and a Skunk who was medically trained.

"Well, let's not just stand here and allow that Kitsune to struggle on, especially if she's got an injured leg," said Faline impatiently as she rushed off with the Hedgehog, the young Jackalope and the Skunk with Farfella following. Kushanku, Shadewing, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Crystal and Nyarth also rushed off, alongside a few other animals.

"Guys," called Blaze and with that, he opened up his magnificent red and gold wings and took off after them. The other animals in the group also followed. Now that they were on flat terrain, they did not need to worry about the risk of slipping but the deep snow still made running very effortful and tiring.

As soon as the group had reached the Kitsune, Faline and Quill draped the metallic furred Fox in their garments while the Skunk began to take a look at her injured leg. As the other animals including Blaze gathered round, Faline asked, "Who are you, what is your name and how did you end up out here with an injured leg?"

"My name is Belladonna," replied the purple-black Kitsune as the Skunk examined her leg, which had a bleeding scratch and a small wood splinter buried in the skin, "and I was just taking a stroll with some friends when suddenly, I came across Krampus and was forced to flee. Everything just went dark, a blizzard kicked up and the temperature plummeted," the Kitsune winced as the Skunk handled the leg and sent sharp pains rushing through her leg.

"Sorry," said the Skunk as he searched for a tool in his medical bag to deal with the splinter. The Kitsune, named Belladonna, continued while the other animals exchanged concerned glances.

"I managed to escape Krampus but my friends hadn't been so lucky. Since the real Father Christmas had not been seen since Jadis came into power, they had been charmed by Krampus's looks and had been captured. I continued to run and run but tripped over a log and fell into a pile of sticks, one of which became lodged in my leg," the Kitsune gritted her teeth as the skunk proceeded to move the splinter from her limb with a pair of medical liars while Quill and Faline prepared a bandage and cleaned the scratch up with some sterile wipes soaked in saltwater, "After that, I was forced to wander alone, on three legs, which I had done for a whole day with nothing to eat at ALL the entire time, so I'm also hungry and exhausted…"

"Sounds like you've had quite a dramatic escape from that Father Christmas-impersonating demon-like creature," said Farfella as she helped Faline and Quill to clean the wound on Belladonna's leg and apply the bandage. Blaze and the other animals continued to look on.

"Yes," said Quill, "So has a young Wampus Cat named Obsidian when she was young. Sadly, it was her family she had lost."

"And some of us very nearly met the same fate," said Kushanku. He shuddered as he still remembered the Goat-like bipedal creature with the long horns, hunched back, lanky, bony fingers and gleaming red eyes under the tatty Father Chrsitmas-like hood, as well as the demonic toys and treats that attacked and almost captured him and three of Faline's offspring. Belladonna threw on a shocked look.

"You've encountered him as well!?" she blurted out at Kushanku. Then Blaze stepped in as soon as Quill, Farfella, the Skunk and Faline had finished bandaging the metallic Fox's front leg.

"There," said Farfella as she admired the bandage on Belladonna's leg, "You might want to hitch a ride on one of the Horses, Deer or Peryton's back if you want to come along with us as you'd not be able to walk with that injury until it heals."

"Thanks, my kind Fairy," said Belladonna as she gazed at her bandaged leg.

"Well, let's get a move on," said Blaze firmly as Faline led Belladonna to one of the Deer, a Doe, so that she could climb up onto her back and ride her, "The sooner we get to Gandalf and Kyukon's base, the better. And besides that, it will be time to look for some food for lunch any time soon…"

At this, Belladonna flashed a surprised look, as well as a hopeful and relieved one but she repressed it as she reached the Doe who knelt down for the Kitsune to climb onto her back. After Belladonna was on her back, the group got moving again. Kushanku gazed at Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira.

"That Kitsune, Bellatrix or whatever her name is has had a close shave with that Krampus beast just like me and the three Rabbit kits," he told his siblings.

"Krampus is causing problems for everyone in Narnia, alongside the other snow monsters," said Nyarth, before turning to Akira and Satoshi, "among them this Yuki-onna woman which we still haven't yet met…"

"Well, we'd rather not since she is after all a snow siren," said Akira. Satoshi nodded in agreement. "Yes, beautiful and elegant on the outside, a monster on the inside," he said.

"Just like that White Witch," said Nyarth scornfully to which his three siblings nodded in agreement. Then the quartet of Nekomata resumed following Blaze and leading the other group members, now including Belladonna the Kitsune on the Doe's back, along. However, Blaze seemed to have a small hunch about the newcomer Kitsune and was hoping that she was genuine and telling the truth. If she were genuine, the Phoenix will let her stay but if not, then Belladonna will have to be dealt with, and some of the other older animals also felt a little uneasy about the Kitsune as well.

In this Age of Winter, nothing and no-one outside the Narnians' villages and towns could be trusted at all.


	29. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28- more about the Witch's tyrannical dictatorship: slavery and labour zones**

An hour later, Blaze, Kushanku and the other remaining Green Leaf villagers had come to an abandoned hut, where they had lunch with the food they had found stashed in an underground cellar. As the group ate, Kushanku, as he munched on some nuts, said to Akira, Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm as they shared a large watermelon amongst themselves and some of Faline's kits, "I remember Desdemona the Griffin hiding some of the delivered food in a trapdoor under her bed back in Green Leaf Village until it was discovered and forcibly handed over to the Witch's patrollers…"

"Looks like the owner of the hut must have tried to do the same thing but has since abandoned his shack at some point," said Akira as she munched on some red seedy flesh of the watermelon.

"Or perhaps captured and taken to the Witch," said Sandstorm and after he said this, he spat out some watermelon seeds. As the Cheetah cub resumed eating his watermelon portion, Blaze was keeping an eye out on the surroundings and had seen something, or rather someone, familiar through the trees, while at regular intervals flashing glances at his group to ensure that no-one wandered off, as well as at the new member of the group, Belladonna the Kitsune. Nearby the metallic purple-black Fox, Shadewing was distributing more food from the hut amongst some more youngsters including Crystal, Dahlia and Snowwing while Mensa, Rubyfeather, Quill and Emberflame from her lamp checked over the other youngsters for any injury or that all were present and correct, but Kushanku could see the grief in Quill's eyes as the Hedgehog was clearly grieving the loss of his brothers Spikeball and Thorn and cousin Rosebush. Next to Quill and some of the other creatures, Belladonna was looking over the group. Sandstorm followed Kushanku's gaze as he kept it on the Kitsune as she also gazed at her injured and bandaged foreleg. Like some of the other creatures, but most particularly Blaze, Sandstorm was uneasy about the newcomer.

"I honestly don't think that Fox should have joined our group, Kushanku," said the Cheetah cub. At this, his four adopted Nekomata siblings shot him a "What!?" look.

"But she was injured," said Nyarth, "and alone and because of that, she was vulnerable."

"Yes, we couldn't just leave her or she could end up caught and killed either by some snow monster or possibly a snow-related hazard such as a blizzard," put in Akira.

"Mr Blaze has been flashing uncertain glances at her since she joined the group," said Sandstorm, "and because of that, I've arrived at the conclusion that she should be treated with caution."

"But she's honestly a very nice Kitsune," said Satoshi in disagreement while Kushanku shrugged, "she's been friendly towards Faline the Rabbit and comforted her over the loss of her son to the Fighting League…"

"We'll keep an eye on her," said Sandstorm, before the Cheetah cub's face hardened, "But I want you to know, if Mr Blaze finds anything… at all… out of line with that Fox, he will banish her from the group."

This made Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth flinch and Akira nearly spat out some of her watermelon as she almost choked on it but managed to stop herself at the last second, while Kushanku gazed at Belladonna who returned his gaze with a friendly but rather sad gaze, obviously from the disappointment from her injured leg. It was clear that the Kitsune had a very innocent look to her face, and she had seemingly been through a lot according to what she had told the group. Shrugging again, Kushanku resumed eating his watermelon when suddenly; he heard Blaze's voice rang out.

"Cumulonimbus, Brina!" shouted the Phoenix joyfully and with that, he opened his magnificent red and gold wings and lofted into flight in the direction of some figures as they emerged from behind a screen of leafless trees, two of them being magnificent Birds at the front. This excitement attracted the attention of the group members.

"Looks like Mr Blaze knows that lot," said Nyarth to the others and with that, he stood up and walked over to Blaze as he greeted the two Birds. Kushanku, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi joined him and watched on as Blaze excitedly chatted with the two Birds, one of which was a Thunderbird and the other was a Roc based on their features.

Thunderbirds were very similar to Phoenixes and had similar features and body build to them but they had a lot of key differences. First off, they were often yellow with a metallic sprinkle strewn through their yellow feathers but they also came in rarer colours such as metallic orange, neon yellow and even metallic aqua blue, navy blue or very dark purple but these colours were extremely rare, but Kushanku saw that the Thunderbird talking with Blaze had the latter colour, as well as almost-black wings, with some flecks of silver thrown over its plumage including its wings and tail. Thunderbirds had long, magnificent forked tails and in the same way Phoenixes could become literal flaming birds of fire, Thunderbirds could become birds of electricity but they were also able to generate small rainclouds, but due to the Witch's overpowering winter spell, this ability had been suppressed since Jadis had come into power. Rocs resembled giant Eagles and were bulkier and larger than Phoenixes and Thunderbirds and were often icy blue, white and grey, and they had the ability to generate ice and snow as they flew, which they sometimes did during the annual winter. However, like the Thunderbirds' small cloud generating ability, the icy abilities of the Rocs had been suppressed and although they were ice birds, the Witch's overpowering winter spell was stressful and hard for the Rocs, and they longed for the end of the Eternal Winter to come and were so strong believers in the Golden Age Prophecy.

After greeting and hugging the purple-black Thunderbird and metallic icy blue Roc, Blaze led them towards Kushanku's group. Behind the two newcomer birds, a group of creatures which appeared to be larger than Kushanku's group, followed around the screen of trees but then Nyarth, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi saw that the majority of the group led by the Thunderbird and the Roc were youngsters with few of them being adults. Of the adults, the vast majority of them were female and Sandstorm saw that many of them had bundles or baskets in their arms, wings or on their backs, and several others, all of which were live-bearing Mammals, had belly bumps, indicating they were expectant mothers, and many of those mothers were riding on the backs of Horses, Hippogriffs, Donkeys and a Winged Horse, a Centaur and a Unicorn, all of who were also young. Kushanku and his three siblings and adopted Cheetah brother blinked. They had never heard of Unicorns and Centaurs carrying others on their backs, and it was considered very rude and highly disrespectful to ride on the backs of these creatures without their permission for Centaurs and Unicorns were very noble creatures. However, due to how heavily pregnant the mothers, which were a Leopard and a Monkey, were on the backs of the Unicorn and the Centaur, Kushanku and his siblings arrived at the conclusion that the pair were only helping to carry the pregnant mothers due to the difficulty of walking through the deep snow with a brood of babies in their bellies. Kushanku then looked over the other creatures and saw a wide variety of them. There were chicks of various Bird species including Archaeobirds, Eagles, Falcons, Parrots and more; young Fauns, various young Mammals including Deer, Pigs, Rabbits, Bats, Dogs (which reminded Kushanku, Sandstorm, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth of Soran and his family much to their sadness), Cats and so on, one or two) and so on, and a few Reptiles, among them a Theropod, a Stegosaur and a young T-Rex.

"Looks like that lot might be orphans and widows," Kushanku and his siblings heard Shadewing speak to them. His voice sounded on edge as he was gripped by sadness for the group. Then Mensa the Skvader came in with her son Snowwing.

"I believe that Thunderbird is called Cumulonimbus and the Roc is called Brina," she said, her gaze on the said two Birds, "and according to them, those creatures they had been leading had been rescued from a heavy labour zone. I overheard them talk about the group with Blaze…"

Shock tore through Shadewing, Kushanku and his siblings.

"LABOUR ZONE!?" shouted Kushanku incredulously.

"That's absolutely right, young Nekomata," came a fairly deep voice. At this, Kushanku turned to the speaker and flinched when he saw that the speaker was the dark purple and black Thunderbird with the silvery flecks scattered throughout its plumage. Then Blaze came in and introduced the Thunderbird.

"Guys, this is Cumulonimbus," he said before turning to the Roc as it talked with some of the creatures from Kushanku's group, among them Quill the Hedgehog, "while the Roc over there is called Brina. They're two of Aslan's rescue and scout Birds who are leading this group rescued from the labour zone to Gandalf and Kyukon's base."

Disbelieving glances were exchanged between Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira.

"B-b-but I thought the Witch only had the slaughterhouse of the Fighting League, this winter curse, the unfair and corrupt government system…" said Shadewing but Cumulonimbus shook his head.

"No," said the Thunderbird, "The Witch and her cronies have set up several hefty work zones as well, mostly near areas where there are rich deposits of gold, diamonds and other precious minerals."

Still Kushanku and the others with him disagreed with the Thunderbird. However, their hatred against the Witch, especially that in Nyarth, ignited once again.

"That Snow Beast's cruelty certainly knows no bounds does it?" growled the Nekomata and Kushanku's oldest brother bitterly. Cumulonimbus and Blaze nodded in agreement.

"Absolutely not," sad the former, "in fact, these labour zones get even worse."

"How?" asked Shadewing. At this, Cumulonimbus dropped down onto the snow and sat down to explain. Blaze left to check on the others.

"I'll explain to everyone else who your evacuees are," said the Phoenix and with that, he walked away, leaving Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira to sit with Cumulonimbus as he opened up the story of the group of young creatures and pregnant mothers he and Brina had rescued and been leading.

"Those creatures we have been leading are from a large town called Blossom Trees and it is situated in a clearing with some trees, most of which are dwelt by Dryads and Hamadryads, growing nearby. It used to be a lovely community and everyone pretty much lived in harmony before the Witch usurped the throne and locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter we know today. However, Blossom Trees and the Dryads' home happened to be right on top of a rich deposit of various precious minerals and metals such as gold, diamonds, sapphires…"

"Gold, diamonds-?" began Kushanku.

"How could there be a deposit of those materials?" asked Shadewing.

"They're fossilized remains of the mineral plants that grow deep underground and are the source of food and drink for the citizens of an underground nation called Bism," said Cumulonimbus, "But that is beyond the scope of the story."

Kushanku and the others looked on slightly disappointed. They had heard of the underground nation called Bism for they had been told about it by some particularly old creatures, among them a Centaur, when Kushanku and his family had visited Purple Flower Town at some point before the events of this story. Bism was very deep underground and was inhabited by a variety of underground creatures, among them Fire Salamanders and Dragons, and very few overworld creatures had actually visited it. The underground ecology of Narnia was completely different from that of our world's underground system. First off, gemstone and metal-based plants grew and could be harvested for food and drink and when these geological plants die and are fossilized; they become the minerals like those of our world. Geological activity of Narnia seemed to have pushed up some of these fossilized remains of the gemstone and precious metal plants and became crumpled together to form deposits of gold and other precious minerals that could be mined as Cumulonimbus was about to note next.

"Anyway," continued the Thunderbird, "due to the rich deposit of those precious materials, the Witch had sent some of her cronies to set up a mine to extract those materials so that statues of Jadis herself could be built using those materials…"

"Statues?" asked Satoshi.

"Why statues?" asked Shadewing. Cumulonimbus hardened his Eagle-like gaze to a dark, stern one.

"So that images of the Witch could be distributed all around Narnia so that the oppressed Narnians could bow down and declare her as the true Empress of Highlands and Queen over all of Narnia…"

Disgust tore through the listeners.

"Wait a minute," said Mensa in shock, "Are you meaning to say that Jadis wanted the Narnians to WORSHIP HER like a GODDESS!?"

"That's right," said Cumulonimbus. Mensa then descended into a puddle of speechlessness as did Kushanku and the others. It was an unbelievable thing to learn.

"It seems to be yet another devilish tool of that Witch's dictatorship and oppression over the Narnians," murmured Mensa to herself.

"Then how come are there no statues made as of late?" asked Shadewing.

"We haven't seen any images of the Witch," said Kushanku.

"Statue construction was supposed to have begun shortly after Jadis had conquered Narnia and locked it in the Eternal Winter," said Cumulonimbus. As he spoke, Belladonna limped over curiously and stopped to listen as the Thunderbird, at first seemingly oblivious to the Kitsune's presence, continued, "but it had been delayed for some years for a rich deposit of precious materials had to be found for Jadis wanted her idols to be constructed out of the purest of gold, silver and other materials and encrusted with the purest of gems such as diamonds, and unfortunately, Blossom Trees happened to reside on top of one such deposit with the forest of Dryad trees growing on top…" Cumulonimbus's face then fell, "and this is where it gets inhumane."

Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira cocked their ears to listen to the information.

"When the towners of Blossom Trees and the Dryads were faced by a mining team of some of the Witch's cronies who wanted to harvest the minerals from the deposit, the former who wanted the latter out," continued Cumulonimbus, "the towners blatantly refused but of course that brought about dire consequences for the towners. Without warning one night," the Thunderbird then began to tremble, "a crowd of some of the Witch's cronies came and stormed the entire town of Blossom Trees, and gruesomely put to death everyone in their own houses, regardless of whether they were young or old, injured or healthy…"

Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira shuddered as Cumulonimbus continued, "And as for the trees of the Dryads, they were cut down and their wood harvested for the core of the Jadis statues. Few have survived the massacre but they have been turned into slaves. Then sometime after the Blossom Trees Massacre as Brina and I have named it, the Witch's cronies had set up a mine leading down to the deposit, have captured countless more Narnians, again regardless of their age, and have enslaved them to mine the materials."

"I reckon their living conditions were made intentionally squalid, am I right?" asked Sandstorm.

"Yes, little Cheetah," said Cumulonimbus, "and not only that, the cronies lived in lavish buildings they had forged from the former homes of the Blossom Trees towners, while the slaves were forced to live in nothing more than shambolic shacks, exposed to the freezing cold, and with barely little food and water. However, many were forced to work day and night without a SINGLE ounce of rest, one drop of water, or one crumb or sliver of bread, fruit or other food. In fact, they had been forced to work to the death. Furthermore, the cronies were merciless and brutal with their slaves, often beating them, whipping them and severely abusing them, and those slaves had been forced to work in highly dangerous conditions…"

"Are there any statues of Jadis being constructed now?" asked Satoshi.

"Yes, but only a few have actually been made," said Cumulonimbus, but then his face morphed into a look of disgust, "but the Witch, knowing how EVIL, DEVILISH and TYRANNICAL she is, wanted more statues of herself to be made and distributed throughout all of Narnia, and had commanded her cronies to fetch in more Narnians and force them to work harder and faster…"

"What about those young creatures and the expectant mothers or mothers with very young babies whom you have rescued with Miss Brina," asked Akira with a nod to some of the newcomers as they sat and ate some of the food with Kushanku's group while Blaze and Brina continued to explain to the other creatures the story of the newcomers, "How did they manage to escape getting enslaved to work to the death in the dangerous mining of those minerals and metals and in building these immoral Jadis idols?" asked Snowwing.

"We have been entrusted with those guys and kids by their mates and fathers, uncles and so on while they left with that group of Tenome to the Blossom Trees Mine one night," said Cumulonimbus as he looked over the rescued kids and mothers, "But it had been a very heart-breaking process but we had to get those youngsters out of the clutches of those horrid Hag-like monsters with eyes on their hands. As you will know, Aslan has tasked me and Brina in leading a group of Narnians to Gandalf and Kyukon the Kitsune's base for refuge before the big exodus to Archenland eventually…"

As Cumulonimbus spoke, Belladonna flinched with intrigue. It was then that the Thunderbird's range of sight caught a metallic purple-black form on its edge. At this, Cumulonimbus turned and spotted Belladonna, who flinched again, not expecting to be in the Thunderbird's piercing gaze.

"Who is that?" asked Cumulonimbus with a talon point to Belladonna. Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira turned to Belladonna and called the Kitsune over. Belladonna slowly and warily slinked over.

"This is Belladonna," said Shadewing, "We found her shortly after passing that wicked dwarf Sméagol's candy cottage and smaller precious mineral mine. As you can see, she has an injured leg and we couldn't bear to leave her as she was vulnerable…"

"I sadly lost my friends to Krampus but I managed to escape," said Belladonna and she showed the Thunderbird her bandaged leg. However, she was rather nervous as Cumulonimbus examined her closely and suspiciously. Then after a while of examining her, Cumulonimbus glared at Shadewing and the others.

"I don't like the sight of that Kitsune one bit," he said in a low voice. At this, Belladonna's eyes blinked with offense, especially as her eyes found several other Foxes, all of who were young and had reddish or brownish fur and metallic patches strewn through them, indicative that they were Kitsune cubs.

"B-b-b-but you have other Kitsune in your group," protested Belladonna fumingly, "so why not have me come along as well. After all, I do have an injured leg…" and with that, she showed Cumulonimbus her bandaged leg again. However, the Thunderbird was not convinced.

"There's something about you that I don't like at all," said Cumulonimbus firmly, "Most of all your behaviour…"

At this, Mensa jumped to Belladonna's defence.

"She's fine, Cumulonimbus," she said, "Let her come with us."

"After all, she's vulnerable on her own," put in Shadewing. Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira all squeaked in agreement but Kushanku wasn't so sure. Cumulonimbus glared at Belladonna for a while until finally, he reached his decision.

"Alright, but if she EVER steps out of line, she's OUT OF THIS GROUP! Understood?" said the Thunderbird angrily. Shadewing, Mensa, Snowwing, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, after flinching at the Eagle-like bird's shout, nodded. Cumulonimbus smiled in satisfaction before leaving to speak with Blaze and Brina. Belladonna glared after the purple-black Thunderbird.

"Who does that weather-bird think he is?" growled the purple-black Kitsune disgustedly, "A mind-reader?"

"He's just wary of you, that's all," said Shadewing, but then he saw that Brina, the ice Roc, was also glaring at Belladonna rather suspiciously similar to how Cumulonimbus and Blaze did when they had seen the Kitsune. However, she resumed talking with Blaze and Cumulonimbus.

"Let's finish our lunch and get prepared to move on," said Shadewing. Belladonna and the others sighed and with that, they resumed finishing their food portions and joined the group. Then as soon as everyone had finished their lunch, they resumed their journey with Blaze, Brina and Cumulonimbus at the front and leading the way, the two groups having merged into one and were now going to travel together.


	30. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29- Oh, no!**

 **Meanwhile**

Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx (who still had their black curtain and garment-made Banshee-like or invisibility cloaks), together with Dashiell, Amberpaw, Eureka, Citron, and Nanu who was bound by his paws so that he could not escape, but with his mouth now free so that he could talk once his captors were sure that he was not going to chew through his restraints to escape, continued to sled through the snow. A shower of the white cold stuff sprayed like a fountain from the runner blades as the sled shot past. Trotterhoof, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Thundersparx and Milky Way were pulling the sled while the others were in the seat or the cargo sections of the vehicle itself. As the pullers continued to pull the sled along, Dashiell had been examining the suits covering seven of the ten escapees from the Witch's palace.

"Huh, you certainly do look AWFUL in those black rags," growled the Cheetah disgustedly, "You bear such a strong resemblance to those horrid Banshees, Hags and the black, floating ragged ghostlike Shadows."

"Not to mention the three of you wearing those vanishing cloaks such that you resemble bodiless creatures," muttered Amberpaw as she examined Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way in their invisibility Cloaks.

"We intended to take on the appearance of a group of Shadows or Banshees, Mr Dashiell," said Paddy as she held Citron and Eureka the baby Otters in her cloaked arms, "so that we could blend in with the Witch's cronies during our escape or in Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way's case, sneak by unnoticed."

"Yes," put in Molayne, "A Pig, two brightly coloured fork-tailed Cats, an Eagle-like Beast with the hindquarters like those of a Lion, another Eagle-like Beast with the hindquarters of a Horse, a Stag with feathered wings and tail and a Bird's talons, a basalt black Mountain Leopard with fiery orange-red markings and six legs, a brightly coloured, sparking Wolf-Cat and a sparkly white Horse with magnificent feathered wings would stick out like black stones against the white snow."

"That sounded like an awesome idea," muttered Amberpaw sarcastically.

"Well, how else were we gonna get out of that horrible place that is actually the HEART of Jadis's tyrannical rule over Narnia, all its temptations and the hideous eyes of her cronies?" asked Alexandrite while Obsidian flashed Amberpaw an annoyed look, "We'd be caught and possibly put to death there and then if we were spotted," her gaze then turned to Obsidian, "not to mention how our Wampus Cat friend here with Thundersparx and Milky Way were to gather knowledge and observational evidence on the Witch and her cronies' lifestyle and their effects on the victors and their families…"

"And definitely not to mention where they get most of their high-quality meat from," put in Obsidian. When Dashiell Amberpaw's eyes rolled with the message of "Yeah right," the six-legged Cat hardened her glare, "You will not BELIEVE what we have witnessed. We've seen a variety of those poor Talking Beasts get forced into a slaughter area against their will… despite their desperate protests…" he eyes began to ooze tears once again, "and KILLED… MURDERED… and their meat BUTCHERED for food…"

"Eating the meat of another Talking Beast is absolutely barbaric at most," said Paddy as she continued to cradle the two baby Otters in her arms and flash a glare at Nanu as the Wolf continued to lie disgruntledly on his side in the cargo section of the sled. Then the pink, orange, red and the mix-of-the-three-coloured Nekomata flashed a gaze at Obsidian and then to Thundersparx as he continued to pull the sled with Milky Way, Trotterhoof, Link, Desdemona and Cyril, "and those two had been completely UNFORTUNATE to have consumed some of that meat without even knowing…"

"And when we found out about where some of the meat had come from, we had been badly traumatised by the revelation, especially by the fact that the rest of our family members including Thundersparx's own FATHER AND BIOLOGICAL FAMILY," shouted Obsidian in an edgy voice, "refused to believe us due to how much the Witch's charms had blinded them…"

"So that's why you and that electric Wolf-Cat over there refuse to eat the meat of even the Dumb animals?" asked Amberpaw. Obsidian nodded, but then the Wampus Cat's eyes flashed with offense when Amberpaw let loose a scoffing laugh while Dashiell just shrugged.

"Huh, there's nothing wrong with eating the meat of _Dumb_ beasts and animals, Six-Legs…" said the Cheetah cub but Molayne rebuked her.

"Her name's Obsidian!" growled the Dog.

"Whatever," said Amberpaw scornfully, much to another flash of Obsidian's tearful eyes. At this, a wave of hot outrage washed through the other three.

"Do you have to be so obnoxious?" hissed Alexandrite right into Amberpaw's face. Amberpaw was about to retort to the bright green, red and violet Nekomata to get out of her face when suddenly, Trotterhoof's voice called, "Hey guys; look at that."

At this, the riders in the sled, apart from Nanu (who had been silently and disgruntledly listening to the conversation all this time) all turned and gaze direction parallel to Trotterhoof's gaze as Trotterhoof and the other five pullers slowed the sled down to a stop.

"It's a _village_ ," said Paddy in surprise. At this, Nanu struggled to get up with his feet bound. Indeed it was a village. Just before the group was a collection of dens and houses, much like that of Green Leaf Village and every other village in Narnia, but it appeared to be populated for various small Talking Animal types (excluding Mice for Talking Mice did not exist at this time) were going about their daily village business. Some were shifting snow while some youngsters were playing about in more snow nearby. However, the group soon noticed the facial expressions of these creatures. Their gazes were not laced with enjoyment, but sadness and most especially, _fear._ Then Milky Way saw something standing in the middle of the village.

"What's that gold and colourful gem-encrusted statue in the middle?" asked the Pegasus and with that, she pointed a hoof, "There, erected on some sort of silvery pedestal."

"Looks like a statue of someone," said Trotterhoof. Then the others gazed harder at the golden statue and saw that it resembled a humanoid. The statue was massive, and its golden surface glinted in the permanent wintery sun. There were a variety of gemstones of various colours (diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, you name it) strewn over the figure's body, but most especially on its face, its crown and dress, and also around the pedestal on which the statue had been erected. However, this statue was not the statue of just anybody. Obsidian gazed harder at the statue but as recognition of who the statue was took hold, her fiery orange markings began to glow brighter and she began to tremble as rage took hold.

"That's…" hissed the Wampus Cat through her teeth bitterly when suddenly, Nanu's voice rang out and answered the question for her.

"Her Majesty the Queen and the Empress of the Highlands," said the metallic purple-black Wolf with pride. Nanu had managed to struggle to his feet despite them being bound together and gaze out of the sled and at the statue. All eyes turned to him.

"That's Jadis?" asked Padparadscha.

"Yes it _is!"_ snapped Obsidian with bitter rage as she glared at the golden, gem-encrusted statue erected in the middle of the village. Then the Wampus Cat began to tremble all the more as she watched some of the Small Animal villagers, most of them Squirrels then prostrate themselves (falling flat on their faces), before the golden statue of Jadis and utter praises and exaltations to it. Alexandrite blinked with surprise.

"They're _worshiping_ it!?" she shouted.

"Each village and town of Narnia was supposed to have had a statue of Her Majesty erected in their centres in order to honour our mighty Queen in addition to giving her ninety percent of their delivered food and participating in the Fighting League," said Nanu from the sled's cargo section, pulling the attention of the others, including Dashiell and Amberpaw but excluding Citron and Eureka in Paddy's arms for they were too young, from the statue, now revealed to be an _idol_ , of Jadis, to the Wolf as he smiled but was subsequently replaced by a frown of disappointment, "but due to the difficulty in finding the materials, that is, the deposits of gold and gemstones, that are used to make and decorate those statues resulting in the delay of the project, very few had ever been made so far," Nanu's gaze then returned in awe to the golden statue of Jadis, "but at least the few towns and villages that had received those mega-important statues are now complete and are able to worship our true Queen completely…"

"Don't you realise it, Nanu!?" snapped Thundersparx with a disgusted gesture to the idol in the village and the Squirrels prostrating themselves before and around it, "Those villagers are actually _worshiping_ a false idol, something Aslan absolutely does NOT tolerate."

Amberpaw and Dashiell let loose a scoffing laugh at this.

"In other words," said Trotterhoof, his glare dead centre at Nanu's eyes, "it is obvious that the Witch has taken the glory meant for Aslan himself for her own selfish, prideful, gluttonous, corrupted…" the Pig shook his head, "Oh, I could be here all day listing EVERY negative adjective that fits that corrupt BEAST of a Witch…"

"She's NOT a beast and she is NOT a Witch," snapped Nanu angrily much to the annoyance of the group apart from Dashiell, Amberpaw, and baby Eureka and Citron, "She's our HEROINE, our RESCUER FROM THE WAR! That is why her Majesty wants statues of herself erected in every village and town of Narnia besides giving her ninety percent of your food and honouring her in every other way possible," the Wolf nodded to the idol of Jadis once again and formed a smile of immense joy and admiration on his muzzle, "Just look at how MAGNIFICENT Her Majesty looks in that village in statue form. Hopefully, every other village and town will have a statue of her Majesty erected in their centres so that ALL Narnians will honour her by bowing to her. It would HONESTLY be AMAZING…"

However, despite Nanu's joyful praises and admiration of the Witch and the statue of her in the village, Milky Way, Obsidian, Thundersparx, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (that is, Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne just glared angrily at it, while Dashiell and Amberpaw didn't care for they were very well aware of how corrupt the Witch was, especially since three of them had seen it all for ten years.

"No, it would be HIGHLY OFFENSIVE to Aslan!" snapped Thundersparx.

"What are you talking about?" retorted Nanu, "The Queen is honoured through this method. I-I-I mean, look at it," he gestured with a nod to the idol of Jadis due to his tied-up paws.

"We… ARE… looking at it," growled Desdemona with sheer disgust and through a gritted beak.

"Yeah, that idol is a PILE of WORTHLESS TRASH!" shouted Molayne bitterly.

"There is ONLY one TRUE Monarch of Monarchs in Narnia… and THAT… is Aslan," said Milky Way, "and because of that, HE should be the one who should be worshiped, NOT Jadis. True a King or Queen of Narnia should be served and honoured as well but Jadis has ABSOLUTELY no RIGHT… to be Queen."

"It is ONLY Aslan who should be worshiped, like Milky Way said," said Link in agreement.

"Yes, both Jadis AND Aslan cannot be worshiped at the same time," put in Alexandrite, "There can ONLY be one LORD over all other LORDS of Narnia, so that means that one of the two, either Aslan or Jadis, is FALSE. And that of course would be the latter."

"And Aslan is a JEALOUS Lion and Ruler," added Trotterhoof, "who will absolutely… repeat: ABSOLUTELY… NOT… tolerate ANYONE ELSE stealing his glory and honour!"

Dashiell and Amberpaw just gazed at each other and shrugged while Nanu began to protest.

"But think of the good her Majesty has managed to bring upon us when she helped us to win that war over thirty years ago," said the Wolf, "I know her resorting to using a winter spell has caused a rather pyrrhic victory but she has managed to bring us out of the turmoil of that war and into a state of peace…"

"That's NOT what we've been observing," said Cyril, before his gaze turned to a certain Raiju, Pegasus and Wampus Cat, "and believe me, these three have been examining the entire HEART of that Witch and her cronies' lifestyle, their TRUE intentions and everything else associated with them for ten WHOLE years…"

"Including the making of those statues that would have been yet another MASSIVE burden for everyone in Narnia if they had been made and erected," said Thundersparx with a nod to the idol of Jadis in the village again, "which we forgot to mention during our talk with our seven new friends but we have overheard the Witch and her cronies discuss about this idol construction time and time again…"

"It is a PART of our honouring of our MIGHTY QUEEN!" snapped Nanu, "and besides that, she is called _Her Majesty,_ NOT by her real name. That is an UTTER offense to her that could land you into DIRE consequences if you addressed her by her actual name to her face," Nanu's voice then turned bitter, "As for this Aslan character you keep babbling on about, he doesn't exist. He's nothing MORE than a stupid sliver of imagination conceived to impose FEAR on everyone and BLASPHEME our MIGHTY QUEEN'S NAME! And this 'he's a Ruler above ALL Rulers of Narnia', thing? Yeah right! Well, his name is NOT as NOBLE as the name of OUR QUEEN and if he really existed, her Majesty will have SLAUGHTERED that lousy Cat and DONE AWAY WITH HIM!"

This sent extreme volcanic anger tearing through Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof, Molayne, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way and they began to tremble violently at Nanu's audacity to not only insult the Lion but also his name as well. Then Dashiell spoke up.

"Oooh, come on," said the Cheetah hoping to calm things down, but nervousness was fragmenting his voice, "Let's not let the argument on this unimportant subject escalate…"

However, as he spoke, Thundersparx stormed over to Nanu, cutting Dashiell off, and without hesitation seized the Wolf by the scruff of the neck. Nanu yelped in pain as he was then yanked close to the face of an enraged electric Wolf-Cat.

"You… listen to me… NOW!" growled Thundersparx directly into Nanu's face and with that, he began to spark his mane more to add to his threat, "YOU… absolutely DON'T… have ANY understanding what-so-EVER on these subjects such as the so-called Queen's true colours and intentions… Aslan himself… and you have absolutely no RIGHT to mock the Lion and denounce him as being lousy and powerless…"

"Thundersparx, please!" cried Paddy as she tried to soothe a crying Eureka and Citron as they were disturbed by the arguing, "Don't hurt him. It's not worth it!"

Thundersparx shot the Nekomata a glare for a minute with a terrified Nanu still in his front paw. Then the Raiju dropped Nanu into the sled's cargo, threw off his invisibility cloak, revealing his entire neon blue and yellow body and electric sparks jumping off of him, and turned volcanically towards the idol of Jadis. Then Thundersparx strode away from the sled and the others; intensified his electric bolts and with an extremely loud Wolf-Cat howl, the Raiju unleashed the most powerful jolt of lightning he could at the Jadis idol. Everyone including Dashiell and Amberpaw all jumped, yelped and hid in or behind the sled as Thundersparx zapped the Jadis idol with a massive lightning strike, hitting its base and pedestal on which it stood. The bolt of bright yellow electricity rocketed from the Raiju and struck the idol of the Witch's pedestal in a massive electrified BANG, startling ALL the villagers and sending the squirrels bowing to it into scurrying for cover. Then the jewels encrusting the idol exploded from the golden statue and the support holding the idol to its pedestal was shattered. Then Thundersparx withdrew his lightning attack and watched the idol of the Witch angrily and disdainfully as it toppled over like a massive tree, before it crash-landed and lay on its side like a golden log in the snow. The villagers looked on in utter horror and screamed while near Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and the others slowly peered out from in or behind the sled as the Raiju strode boldly over to his invisibility cloak, seized it and wrapped himself back in the vanishing cloth so that only his head and feet were visible once again.

"Aslan will CERTAINLY cause that disgusting Snow Queen and her pride to come crashing down just like that eventually when the Golden Age Prophecy comes true," said the Raiju scornfully as he gazed at the fallen statue of the Witch and as the villagers desperately swarmed over it and began to try and put it back together but to no avail.

"I don't think you should have done that, Thundersparx," said Obsidian worriedly.

"Yes, what if one of Jadis's minions had seen that?" put in Milky Way.

"Can't we just convict those villagers that that idol is wrong?" asked Molayne but then Alexandrite spotted a trio of very ugly Gnome-like humanoids coming in to investigate the fallen idol of Jadis.

"I don't think it's a good idea, Molayne," said the colourful Nekomata, "If those Goblins see us in these Banshee-like outfits…"

"Let's just move on before that happens," said Trotterhoof when he spotted a trio of ugly creatures then begin to investigate the fallen Jadis statue. At that, Thundersparx re-reined himself to the sled while the riders, including a very stunned and frightened Nanu, returned to the sled and before long, they were gone, but not before they were spotted leaving by some of the villagers. However, due to the disguises worn by Trotterhoof and the others, the villagers had come to the conclusion that some of the Witch's cronies must have come and had destroyed their Jadis statue, sparking serious confusion within them. Were some of the Witch's cronies turning against their leader? However, the three Goblins were completely outraged that someone had the audacity to topple one of their leader's statues.

 **Meanwhile**

Kushanku and the others with him, alongside their new friends and travelling companions which were a large group of young Animals, Animals with eggs and babies, and pregnant mothers rescued from a labour zone, continued to follow Blaze the Phoenix, Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird, and Brina the Roc. However, the snow had begun to fall again and the winds were picking up. Eggs in nests and babies wrapped in cloths were clasped by their mothers, parents, carers or older siblings and cousins to their bodies to protect them from the cold while the walkers continued to struggle through the snow. A massive trail of footprints, paw-prints and hoof-prints had been left behind the group in their wake, and as the winds continued to increase in speed and the snowflakes riding them battering everyone's bodies and faces, Brina, due to her species, the Rocs, being adapted to the winter months of Narnia, had deduced that a blizzard was imminent, so she told Cumulonimbus and Blaze that they had to lead the group through a nearby forest of trees to keep them out of the torrential downfall of snow and the freezing temperatures brought on by the winds. Soon, the entire group was travelling through the forest of leafless trees whose trunks and branches acted as buffers against the eventual blizzard. However, it was risky so Blaze and Cumulonimbus issued a very strict rule and command to the travellers that they stay close, or they'd get lost and risk themselves getting caught by the Witch's cronies. As they travelled along, Sandstorm, who travelled alongside Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira as well as Mensa the Skvader and her son Snowwing, Quill the Hedgehog, Dahlia the Jackalope, and Rubyfeather the Parrot and her daughter Crystal who rode on Buck the Horse back with several other kids while Rubyfeather carried the lamp containing Emberflame the Pyro, and Shadewing the Bat who travelled nearby and helped with some of the new travellers rescued by Cumulonimbus and Brina, gazed at the torrent of snowflakes streaming around the outside of the forest.

"I wonder if this Obsidian the Wampus Cat character would have developed an extreme fear of blizzards after what happened to her family at the clutches of that Wendigo-like Father Christmas counterfeit that almost snagged Kushanku and three of Mrs Faline's kits the other night," said the Cheetah cub. Nearby, Kushanku was travelling with the young Centaur and Unicorn both of who were male and who were carrying several of the heavily pregnant mothers on their backs, among them a Leopard and a Hare, and Belladonna the Kitsune was also walking nearby despite her bandaged front leg, helping to keep an eye on the younger members of the group. However, she was constantly being checked on by Blaze and Cumulonimbus at regular intervals and at times Brina as well for they weren't sure about this Kitsune at all.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she had," said Mensa as she travelled with Snowwing, "I would have developed a sheer phobia of blizzards myself if I had lost my parents and siblings to that hideous Krampus as a kit."

"That Krampus is a beast, I can tell you," growled Shadewing as he walked alongside a family of Platypuses consisting of a young adult male and his younger siblings and cousins, two of which had nests of eggs for Narnian Platypuses, like our world's platypuses, were egg-laying mammals, "Always preying on young kids and their desire to meet the real Father Christmas. Too bad that Wampus Cat had left with that Raiju who had won the previous Decadal Slaughterhouse Event ten years ago along with the rest of the Raiju's family…"

"Decadal Slaughterhouse Event?" asked Nyarth with confusion.

"A term I have coined for the Fighting League," said Shadewing, "which really isn't a Fighting League at all. A league is a competition, usually in sports, where no-one is gruesomely slaughtered unlike in the Witch's ten-year event…"

(Yes, Narnians can have sports events too)

"'Fighting League' is just a name given to that event to cover up its true colours, anyway," said Blaze at the front, "but 'Decadal Slaughterhouse Event' is a good name for it, Shadewing. I like it."

"It especially fits the gory massacre the Witch forces upon the participants in that Arena of Death one hundred percent," said Brina, "That's not just fighting. It's slaying each other like feral beasts all for some 'better life' and to destroy the hearts of Narnians whose family or group members have been forced into that arena."

The others nodded and murmured in agreement and continued to follow the trio of Elemental Birds through the forest, walking with greater ease for they were not as exposed to the blizzard as they were in the open. As the group continued to walk along, Kushanku and Sandstorm were talking with the Centaur and the Unicorn when Belladonna began to lag, seemingly exhausted.

"So the Dryads and the towners that lived near this precious material deposit had either been forced out of their homes and trees or slaughtered by some of the Witch's cronies, am I right, Clifford?" Kushanku asked the Centaur.

"That's right," said the Centaur named Clifford as he walked along with the Leopard and two other pregnant mothers on his back. Centaurs were humanoid creatures whose upper body resembled that of a Human but whose lower body was that of a Horse. Their common Horse fur colours were brown but they could also come in black, chestnut and reddish while their Human-body skins could be fair, tanned or dark brown. Female Centaurs were called Centaurettes.

"My clan used to live there alongside the herd of Unicorns from which Tesseract here is from," said Clifford with a nod to the Unicorn walking alongside him. Unicorns were often very white and sometimes had silvery sparkles strewn through their fur with their manes and tails also having a metallic sheen. Their distinctive feature was their single horns which jutted from the centre of the Horse-like creatures' foreheads. These horns, sometimes called alicorns, were often a metallic aqua blue in males but silver or silvery grey in females, and resembled a linear or straight twisted seashell. Rarely, Unicorns also had metallic yellow or golden patches on their bodies. Tesseract had one such mark on his left side and that mark resembled a distorted square or cube whose shape seemed to change with the viewing angle, much like an iridescent butterfly's wing. Tesseract then lowered his magnificent head.

"My herd and Clifford's clan, alongside the towners and Dryads who lived with us," said the Unicorn sadly, "used to be a harmonious community despite the consequences of the wintery curse the Witch has locked Narnia in. However, when that Witch's cronies came in and told us that we had to leave our town and land because they had discovered a rich deposit of Bism diamonds, gold and other precious materials right under where we lived and we refused, a massive pack of Wolves and Hellhounds were sent in and forcibly drove us out. I lost my entire herd, leaving me and my sister, Gypsum over there who is pregnant with a foal," Tesseract nodded to a female Unicorn somewhere else in the crowd, indicative of her metallic grey coloured alicorn, "as the three sole survivors of that herd…"

"While I'm the only survivor of my clan," added Clifford and with that, he wiped a tear from his eye as he began to weep and mourn the loss of his clan and his friends. Kushanku and Sandstorm gazed at the Centaur sympathetically when Satoshi looked behind and called out, "Hey Belladonna, you getting tired back there?"

At this, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Clifford and Tesseract and some of the others with them followed Satoshi's gaze and saw the metallic purple-brown Kitsune limping behind and some distance from the others.

"She should really keep up with the rest of us," said a Platypus with a nest of eggs with concern, "otherwise she'd end up getting lost and vulnerable to capture by the Witch's patrolling cronies or something else."

At this, Kushanku told Clifford to take the others along while he, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Tesseract (after handing his cargo of three pregnant mothers to a Horse) left to see to Belladonna.

"Don't stick around in that same spot for too long, you four," called Clifford as he watched the quartet rush over to Belladonna, "we'll be past that spot eventually."

However, the quartet was already out of earshot. Sighing worriedly, Clifford continued.

"What's the problem Belladonna?" asked Kushanku as he, Sandstorm, Tesseract and Satoshi gathered around the limping Kitsune, "Your injured leg bothering you?"

Belladonna sat down by a tree and said, "Yes. It's really hurting again."

"Would you like me to carry you?" asked Tesseract, "the group's moving."

"No, I'm fine," said Belladonna. Tesseract continued to insist but eventually he gave up at Belladonna's counter-insistence, but the Unicorn was worried, especially as he saw more of the group members walk past.

"Can you four find me a spot to rest please?" asked Belladonna as she limped on her injured foot.

"But we'd get left behind," protested Kushanku, "And Mr Blaze and the other two will NOT be pleased if they find we've wandered from the group."

"And besides that," put in Sandstorm, "It's dangerous to wander from the group."

"Well, I can't catch up with the others on this injured foot, can I!?" snapped Belladonna grumpily. She then limped away towards a tree not too far away from the passing group.

"Belladonna!" cried Kushanku and with that he, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Tesseract followed. Belladonna continued to limp and slumped down before a large tree to rest as the four gathered around her.

"Seriously, we need to _get going_!" protested Sandstorm, "Or we'd be left behind."

"J-just let me rest first," said the Kitsune tiredly as she gazed at the bandage on her front foot. Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Tesseract were clearly getting desperate for the group was still moving along but Belladonna was still insistent that she rest before continuing. This rendered the four torn between leaving Belladonna and catching up with the others, which would leave the Kitsune with her injured leg vulnerable to potential threats lurking in every corner of the forest, or sticking by Belladonna until she was ready to get moving again which would mean getting separated from the group, and as more of the group continued to pass by a few metres away, the quartet, especially Kushanku who remembered the previous time he had disobeyed Blaze's command along with three of Faline's kits, began to tremble as the tension between leaving or staying by Belladonna continued to increase. A few more minutes passed and soon, the last of the group had passed by but STILL Belladonna insisted that she have some rest.

"Seriously, Bella, let's get a MOVE ON!" cried Satoshi stressfully when he saw that the last of the others had walked on by.

"We're gonna get left behind!" wailed Sandstorm. Then Tesseract rolled his eyes and took off after the others to seek help.

"Unicorn, where are you going? Y-you can't just leave us here," cried Belladonna desperately as she watched the Unicorn leave. However, Tesseract was already out of earshot as he disappeared after the group. Within moments, Belladonna, Kushanku, Sandstorm and Satoshi were alone with the snow drifting and flowing with the wind around the tree trunks. Then Sandstorm tried to wriggle under Belladonna so that he could pick up the Kitsune and carry her on his back but Belladonna moved away and stopped him.

"We can't stay here," said Sandstorm urgently, "We have to catch up with the others."

"You're holding us and yourself BACK and putting ALL of us in GRAVE DANGER!" put in Kushanku as desperation began to dangerously boil within him.

"Look, we'll get MOVING as soon as I have had a little rest, okay!?" snapped Belladonna, making Kushanku, Satoshi and Sandstorm flinch, "Now please stick by me and allow me to rest. Then we'll get going."

The three Cats exchanged irritated gazes and sighed, but the urgency of catching up with the group was boiling within them and they wanted to leave but they knew they could not just leave this injured Kitsune behind or she would be vulnerable to whatever was lurking in the creepy, snowy forest, and those kinds of things were racing through the trio's minds. Could Krampus return and potentially catch them? Could any Dryad on the Witch's side spot them and call in any patrollers who were cronies of the Witch also? Or could any feral predator be lurking amongst the snowy forest of tree trunks and preparing to jump out at the four to catch for a meal? Kushanku, Satoshi and Sandstorm daren't guess the possibilities, but they knew that Tesseract the Unicorn had bolted off to fetch help. Hopefully he would be back soon. Thus, the trio made the decision to stay with Belladonna until Tesseract returned with assistance, hopefully from Blaze, Cumulonimbus or Brina, though Kushanku knew that the trio of Elemental Birds were quite wary of Belladonna and kept displaying flashes of distrust towards the Kitsune.

While the quartet continued to wait for Tesseract to return with help, a sound began amongst the howling noises of the wind and blizzard whistling through the tree branches and trunks, and this sound was picked up by Sandstorm. At this, the Cheetah cub froze and cocked his ears to listen to the noise.

"Shh!" he called to the other three. Kushanku, Satoshi and Belladonna shot the Cheetah cub a curious look.

"What is it, Sandstorm?" asked Kushanku. Sandstorm responded with a 'Quiet!' paw gesture. This prompted the other three to listen to the sound, especially as it grew louder. It sounded like a soothing song, and Sandstorm's mouth widened into an enthusiastic smile.

"Can you three hear that?" asked he to the other three. At this, Kushanku and Satoshi cocked their ears to the soothing song as its volume rose.

"It sounds like a…" began Kushanku.

"A woman singing," said Satoshi, finishing Kushanku's guess. Then Sandstorm walked away from the other three and began to follow the source of the sound, his ears glued to the song all the time. He was clearly enamoured by the melody of the beautiful song.

"It's… soooo… beautiful…" cooed the Cheetah cub dreamily. Then Satoshi began to become enamoured by the beautiful song as well. If this song were a material, it would be the finest diamond or glass or the purest of gold or silver in all of Narnia, and the melody of the song truly was as pure as those materials, and it had a soothing effect on the minds of Sandstorm and Satoshi. Kushanku also listened to the song and was aware of how melodic the music was, which led him to believe that the song was from a Dryad or a Sylph for he knew that those plant and air beings sometimes sung soothing songs, but this song was far more crystalline than any song he had ever heard from a Sylph or Dryad. However, the crystalline texture of the song's melody did not spark captivation within the young Nekomata, but a horrible feeling, especially after learning a very painful lesson from his encounter with and near capture by Krampus along with three of Faline the Rabbit's kits. Furthermore, he was wary of the potential danger Belladonna was in.

"You two," whispered Kushanku to his adopted and biological brothers, "Snap out of it. Don't let that song seduce you."

However, Sandstorm and Satoshi were too hypnotized by the soothing crystalline song to even hear their brother's warnings, and as the song grew in loudness, so did their captivation with it. Then Kushanku began to feel his head grow lighter and dizzier for the crystalline, diamond song was beginning to have an effect on him as well. Alarmed and desperate, the Nekomata began to cry out to his hypnotized brothers to snap out of their trance.

"Guys, PLEASE!" he shouted, "We have TO LEAVE and get Belladonna OUTA HERE!"

Still Sandstorm and Satoshi did not hear Kushanku's cries, for they were entranced, even _spellbound_ … by this beautiful… crystalline… pure-as-the-purest-diamonds song and that song continued to increase in loudness. Desperate, Kushanku threw his paws onto his ears and clasped them shut to block out the hypnotic melody and screwed his eyes shut, not wanting to fall under the seductively hypnotic effect of the melody, especially as Sandstorm and Satoshi became completely engulfed by the bewitching effect of the song. Then moments later, through the snow, something appeared, and Sandstorm and Satoshi's hypnotized eyes found the form. Kushanku, his paws clasped over his ears, also opened one eye and stole a peep at the form, long enough to take in the creature's features but not too long for the form was also extremely hypnotic… hypnotic as her song. The creature resembled a humanoid woman with pure white, sparkling skin. She appeared to be dressed in some sort of glowing white outfit with a black belt-like garment surrounding her waist. These clothing features combined reminded Kushanku of an outfit called a kimono. The woman's hair was extraordinarily sleek and black, as black as a night without stars; a shiny onyx of the greatest purity and as ebony and her lips was sparkly and red, as red as the purest of rubies and from those lips emanated the highly beautiful and crystalline song that held Satoshi and Sandstorm's minds captive. The creature's eyes were also an icy blue, like the sky on a clear, cloudless day, and the creature was sauntering seductively towards Sandstorm, Kushanku and Satoshi. Kushanku immediately pieced together the creature's features and compared them to the description Farfella the elderly and dainty Fairy had given him, but as soon as an "It's a match!" exclamation went off in his head, an alarm exploded. Kushanku then tried to look for Belladonna to yell at her to flee but when he looked in the direction Belladonna was, he, to his alarm, saw that she wasn't there. Kushanku felt extreme alarm bells wail in his mind. 'Maybe she's gone to get help too?' thought the desperate Nekomata. However, his mind returned to the severely hypnotized Sandstorm and Satoshi as they began to approach the incredibly beautiful woman singing her beautiful song. Kushanku watched in utter horror as his two brothers, one an adopted Cheetah cub and the other a biological relative, got closer and closer to the woman and what happened next finally opened the floodgates.

As Kushanku, his ears clasped shut by his paws looked on, Sandstorm and Satoshi, both of them greatly hypnotized by the woman's incredible beauty in both her appearance and her song, continued to approach the woman and as soon as they were only a metre away from her, the Cheetah and Nekomata gazed in a tranced state into the woman's snowy-white face. The woman, her crystalline song continuing to emit from her ruby-red lips, then returned their gaze with a beautiful stare. Her face was truly as white as the snow around her though there were sparkles thrown all over her face, similar to the sparkly patches of a Unicorn, a Pegasus, or a winged Unicorn called an Alicorn (not to be confused with the name of a Unicorn's horn; these creatures were also called Pegacorns). The woman's hair was very sleek, black and shiny and her eyes were a crystalline blue colour. Her eyebrows were sharp and bold and small red patches were painted under her eyes. It was truly a beautiful sight to behold, and Sandstorm and Satoshi were indeed mesmerized by the woman's face and its beauty. However, the woman's face began to undergo an abrupt change and Kushanku could see this and when he saw it, alarm exploded within him again.

"Satoshi, Sandstorm!" cried the Nekomata. The woman stared at the adopted Cheetah brother and the biological brother of Kushanku for a second and then opened her mouth, revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth and fangs, similar to a Vampire or a Wolf. Her eyes then flashed from crystalline blue to a devilish red and a hiss escaped her mouth. Her sleek black hair also began to fan out as the woman, which was a snow monster, then revealed her true colours. She then raised her hands and flicked out her dagger-like claws resembling those of a Wendigo or a Bird of Prey's talons.

"SATOSHI, SANDSTOOOORRRM!" screeched Kushanku and then without thinking, the Nekomata crouched, twisted his forked tail's branches and as he launched himself into the air, his tails began to spin once again like a propeller. Then Kushanku lunged at the snow woman as she prepared to attack a still-hypnotized Sandstorm and Satoshi, an extremely loud Cat screech of fury exploding from his mouth as the instinctive urge to defend his two brothers volcanically took control.


	31. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30- escape from death and confusion in the aftermath**

Kushanku continued to fly at the beastly woman as she prepared to plunge her dagger-like hand talons into a still-hypnotized Sandstorm and Satoshi, his forked tail now spinning like a propeller and as soon as he was close to the woman's face he, without hesitation, raised a paw, flared its claws and brought those claws down onto the woman's snowy, Vampire-like face. A massive Banshee-like scream erupted from the female Blizzard Monster as her face was flung in the direction of Kushanku's swipe but Kushanku, his fury consuming him like a Phoenix transforming into its fiery form and his spinning forked tail holding him in the air like the spinning propeller of a flying vehicle in our world called a helicopter, then began to unleash a volley of claw swipes onto the She-Monster, screeching furiously. While the conflict erupted, Sandstorm and Satoshi were snapped back to reality from their trance-like state.

"Whoa, what happened?" asked Sandstorm in confusion as he shook his head to clear his mind, "W-w-where am I?"

Satoshi, however, was gazing in horror at Kushanku as he continued to furiously attack the Snow Woman Monster, hovering and unleashing one claw swipe after another and inflicting more and more scratches on the Beast's face and upper body.

"KUSHANKU!" cried the said Nekomata's brother while Sandstorm looked on also in horror. Kushanku continued his savage aerial assault on the Snow Beast until the Snow Beast finally snapped. With an extremely loud Basilisk-like hiss and flecks of saliva exploding from her Wolf-like mouth and her eyes flashing a volcanic, demonic red as they glared at the hovering Kushanku, whose icy blue, white and grey fur was also puffed out, most especially his cascading white head hair such that the Nekomata looked as though he was electrically charged, but the charge was from the volcanic wrath Kushanku was harbouring towards the Beast, the Snow Woman lifted a hand, flared its massive Eagle-talon-like hand claws and attempted to slash Kushanku with them much to the horrified cries of both Sandstorm and Satoshi. The claws struck Kushanku's belly but the only thing they tore from his abdomen was a few white and metallic powdery blue hairs. Kushanku, stunned from the literal close shave, then began to back away aerially but as he did that, a massive lightning bolt erupted from through the trees and the falling snow and zapped the Snow Woman Beast, stunning both Sandstorm and Satoshi and sending them both into darting away and covering their head protectively with their paws while Kushanku propeller-tail flew away and slammed into a tree trunk, which knocked him out of the air and sent him crashing into the snow. The Snow Woman let loose another massive Banshee-like wail and turned to the lightning bolt thrower only to be struck square in the face by another lightning flash. Then a massive Eagle-like screech erupted as a purple-black feathered form with smaller sparks jumping from its body charged in like a comet, flared its talons and without hesitation slashed the Snow Woman across the face to drive her away. Sandstorm immediately recognised the newcomer.

"Mr Cumulonimbus!" cried the Cheetah cub with relief and joy. While Cumulonimbus continued his savage attack on the Snow Beast, several more forms appeared, among them a familiar Bat, a Skvader and a Hedgehog, and of course, a Unicorn with the distinctive yellow metallic cube-like marking on his left side.

"Sandstorm, Satoshi!" cried the first one, Shadewing.

"Mr Shadewing!" cried Satoshi with relief as he and Sandstorm were swept into a hug by the Bat, the Hedgehog and the Skvader, the latter two who were Quill and Mensa respectively. Then one of the Rabbits, one of Faline's older sons, appeared.

"Where are Kushanku and Belladonna?" asked he just as Blaze the Phoenix also turned up. At this, the little group shot worried glances this way and that until their eyes landed on a fallen metallic icy blue, white and grey forked-tailed cat as he scrambled to his feet at the foot of a tree trunk. At this, Mensa and Tesseract the Unicorn darted over to Kushanku as he stood up and as soon as the first one collided with the young Nekomata, she pulled him into a hug.

"Seriously, Mrs Mensa, I'm fine!" shouted Kushanku as he was almost crushed by the Bird-Rabbit's bone-crushing hug. Then Mensa finally broke it and glared angrily at him just as Blaze came in.

"Don't you EVER wander off again!" shouted the Skvader with relief, "Haven't you forgotten Blaze's commands to stay with the group!?"

At this, Kushanku began to protest but Blaze angrily interrupted.

"What exactly happened!?" demanded the Phoenix, "How did YOU FOUR stray so far from the others to end up almost getting caught by that Snow Beast Yuki-onna!?"

At this, Kushanku tipped his head to one side. "Yuki-onna?" asked the Nekomata in confusion.

"She's that Snow Siren who prowls around in a blizzard and tempts her prey with her beautiful appearance and song, young kit," said Farfella nearby, "She's that beast whom Cumulonimbus has just driven off."

As the Fairy spoke, puffs and pants sounded alongside a series of frantic wing-flaps, attracting the attention of the group as Cumulonimbus flapped in clumsily and crash into the snow before them. As the commotion happened, Belladonna emerged from behind a nearby tree and re-joined the group, her face laced with shock at what had just happened.

"Oh no, Cumulonimbus!" cried Blaze and with that, he rushed over to the Thunderbird as he continued to puff and pant and grasp his belly. Farfella, Tesseract and Mensa also gathered around him while Shadewing and Quill kept an eye on Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi and now Belladonna as well now that she had returned from apparently running off to somewhere. Then as soon as his friends had gathered around him, Cumulonimbus, still puffing and panting gazed at them, but his face was twisted in agony. Then before anyone could ask, he pulled his wings away and revealed what was under his wings. At this, a shriek erupted from Farfella while the others including Blaze flinched. Running diagonally from the left of Cumulonimbus's right to his left were three large gashes and those gashes were weeping blood at an alarming rate. The snow under the Thunderbird and around his feet was turning red from the blood from the injury and Cumulonimbus's dark cloud-coloured wings had more of the red liquid staining the feathers. This was clearly indicative of one thing.

"Cumulonimbus is WOUNDED!" cried Blaze in alarm, "GET SOMEONE WHO IS MEDICALLY TRAINED from the OTHERS WAITING THROUGH THE FOREST… QUICKLY!"

Kushanku, Satoshi and Sandstorm looked on in utter horror as the Thunderbird continued to grasp his slashed and bleeding belly with a face twisted in sheer agony while Belladonna seemingly looked on in astonishment. It was clear that Cumulonimbus had received a slash across the belly by the savage Snow Woman, now revealed to be the Snow Siren Yuki-onna, as he was driving her away.

 **Later**

Kushanku and the others were on the move once again with Blaze and Brina at the front and leading them. Cumulonimbus was being carried on Tesseract's back and was being cared for by some medically trained Elves who had been rescued from the labour zone by the Thunderbird and the Roc. Fortunately, one of the Elves had had a vial of a glistening red liquid, which was a cordial of some sort, in his possession and had used it to heal the wounds on Cumulonimbus's belly just as he was brought in with the medical team and now the slashes had disappeared. However, the vial, which was the only vial the Elf had, was tiny and contained a few drops of cordial, but just enough to heal the Thunderbird's seemingly life-threatening wounds. Now there was only around one drop of the red cordial left and Blaze had hoped that no-one else would end up seriously hurt for the remainder of the journey to Gandalf and Kyukon's base. As the Thunderbird was being carried on Tesseract's back so that he could rest for he was still badly shaken from almost getting killed by Yuki-onna while he was driving her away, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Belladonna were walking alongside Shadewing and Rubyfeather who had Crystal and Emberflame in her lamp, and Blaze was flying at the front close to them, wanting to sort this serious issue out as soon as possible and demand to know what exactly happened.

"What was that red stuff Mr Gellert used on Mr Cumulonimbus's injury, Mr Shadewing?" asked Sandstorm.

"That was a vial of Fire-Flower juice cordial," said Shadewing, "It's a special healing cordial said to heal just about any wound or sickness it is applied to. Unfortunately, that vial is the only amount Gellert has for Fire-Flower juice, as well as its source is extremely rare, and because the vial is so small, it only contains a few milligrams of the juice, with over half of the amount used to heal the gashes across Cumulonimbus's stomach."

Kushanku sighed. It was clear that Cumulonimbus had just been pulled from the brink of death thanks to Gellert the Elf's vial of Fire-Flower cordial but next time, there will not be enough cordial to heal anyone else should they end up suffering a fatal injury next time. Then Shadewing turned angrily to Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Belladonna.

"But enough on Fire-Flower cordial and its healing powers," said the Bat crossly, "We have a serious matter to deal with. Now tell me, you four; what happened back there?"

"Yes, how did you lag behind such that you were almost captured by that Snow Beast Yuki-onna?" asked Rubyfeather nearby as she walked along with a timid Crystal nearby. Crystal, along with Dahlia and Snowwing, were aware of the tense air hanging over Kushankiu and the other three and wanted to stay out of the confrontation as much as possible for they hated it when someone was in deep trouble. Kushanku gazed at Shadewing with a confused expression as he did not know how to answer the question asked by the Bat and the Parrot at first, but then finally, he found the courage and the words to speak, especially as Blaze the Phoenbix flew in and shot him, Sandstorm, Belladonna and Satoshi the same serious and demanding-to-know look.

"B-B-Belladonna here began to lag behind with her injured leg," said the Nekomata, a stink-eye directed at the purple-black Kitsune who flinched, "and when we went to help her and ask her if she wanted to be carried by Tesseract the Unicorn, she refused and insisted she stopped and rested…"

"That's NOT true!" snapped Belladonna angrily before her glare was directed at Kushanku, "HE was the one who slowed us down…"

"Kushanku was NOT the one who slowed us down, Belladonna!" snapped Sandstorm, jumping to Kushanku's defence, "YOU were!"

"Yeah," put in Satoshi. Belladonna, at this, glared at Kushanku's adopted Cheetah and biological brothers.

"Are you CALLING ME A LIAR!?" snarled the Kitsune furiously, before shooting a paw point at Kushanku as quick as an arrow being fired from a bow, "HE'S HONESTLY the one who slowed us down and almost got US caught by that SNOW SIREN!"

"You WEREN'T THERE when Sandstorm and Satoshi were under the sinister spell of that Snow Woman's HYPNOTIC SONG!" snapped Kushanku.

"I went to get help along with Tesseract!" snapped Belladonna, "But YOU did nothing to save those two would-be victims of Yuki-onna," she shot a paw point at Sandstorm and Satoshi who blinked ion confusion. This sent hot rage tearing through Kushanku and puffed the metallic icy blue, grey and white hair and fur on his body out like a Hedgehog's spines as he glared and locked his eyes bitterly with those of the infuriated and protesting Kitsune.

"YES I DID!" he retorted and with that, he gave Belladonna a hefty shove, knocking her over, "AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY I DIDN'T CARE FOR SANDSTORM AND SATOSHI because I DO!"

At this, Belladonna got up and whacked Kushanku hard across the face with a powerful slap and sending his head lurching in the direction of her paw.

"SHUT UP, you FORK-TAILED FERRET!" she bellowed as she did it. Kushanku then retaliated with a swipe across Belladonna's face, making her head lurch after his paw.

"YOU SHUT UP, WOLF-FACE!" screeched the Nekomata at the top of his voice. Belladonna, at this, let loose a ferocious Kitsune bark and lunged at Kushanku but then hands and paws appeared and seized her as some Elves, a Faun and some Otters appeared to restrain her. Kushanku was also seized by Rubyfeather, Shadewing and Sandstorm and Satoshi as well so that he did not lunge at Belladonna and caused an explosive fight to ensue.

"THAT'S ENOUGN, BOTH OF YOU!" shouted Blaze before calming down as soon as Kushanku and Belladonna's fury had cooled. However, the pair still glared fiery daggers at each other as they were held by their restrainers. The other members of the group including Cumulonimbus and Brina watched the commotion as Blaze then began to calm thing down further.

"Your behaviour is disgraceful," continued the Phoenix, "We'll sort this out at Gandalf and Kyukon's base. Until then, Belladonna and Kushanku, you both are banned from walking in the front of the group…"

"But…" began Kushanku but Blaze cut him off.

"Eh-eh-eh," said the Phoenix firmly, "The decision is final. You're to remain with Shadewing and Rubyfeather until we get to Gandalf's base."

He then turned angrily to Kushanku and added, "And as for the leading of the Green Leaf Villagers after me, along with the evacuees from the labour zone with Brina, that role will be delegated to Nyarth since this is the second time you've disobeyed our rules in staying with the group."

Kushanku was about to protest but Shadewing interrupted and backed up Blaze's command.

"Yes, Kushanku," said the Bat, "After all, Aslan was the one who commanded you in that dream to lead the Green Leaf Villagers after Blaze in the beginning but if you cannot obey the safety rules, then that means someone else will have to lead…"

At this, Kushanku flinched while Belladonna nodded in agreement. However, under that nod, the Kitsune was concealing a smirk while at the same time she was intrigued by what she had heard Shadewing say about Aslan's command to Kushanku. Then Kushanku lowered his ears, forked tail and head and formed a very saddened look as he was then commanded to follow Shadewing and stay with the group until they got to Gandalf's base and soon, the walk was back on track. Belladonna slowly went to comfort Kushanku but she flinched when she saw that she was on the receiving end of a pair of bitter glares from another Nekomata and a certain Cheetah cub. Satoshi and Sandstorm were glaring poisonously at the Kitsune before they pulled those glares away from Belladonna and resumed walking. Kushanku also flashed a bitter glare at Belladonna before continuing himself while Tesseract tried to go over to Blaze to complain that the whole incident involving Sandstorm and Satoshi's near-capture by Yuki-onna wasn't Kushanku's fault but he was barred from walking to the front by some of the Elves who told the young Unicorn to remain where he was and to help care for Cumulonimbus on his back. Reluctantly, Tesseract complied but he flashed a sympathetic and sorrowful look at Kushanku briefly before continuing.

So the group walked on. Kushanku was both very disappointed and very confused and also very angry and exasperated. What was Belladonna thinking!? She could have got herself, Kushanku, Tesseract, Sandstorm and Satoshi captured and killed by Yuki-onna by lagging behind, stopping and then refusing to be carried by Tesseract despite their protests. Then when Sandstorm and Satoshi were hypnotized by Yuki-onna's song leading to them to almost get captured and killed by the Snow Siren forcing Kushanku to rescue them even if it meant getting himself seriously hurt or worse, Belladonna had not been there, but despite Kushanku knowing that it hadn't been his fault in the whole incident, he was confused as to why Belladonna had been absent when he, Sandstorm and Satoshi were at the mercy of the Snow Beast. Maybe she had been too afraid to help and had left after Tesseract to call for Blaze, Cumulonimbus, Brina or any of the other elders from the group, or she was too cowardly to help and had perhaps been cowering on the sidelines all this time, too frightened to help? Mind you, Yuki-onna certainly was a terrifying Snow Beast, but then Kushanku had another thought come to his mind, another possibility of Belladonna's absence, but that thought made him shudder and gaze at the Kitsune as she walked alongside Sandstorm and Satoshi, trying to keep her mind and her eyes from the pair's acidic glares. Sadly, Kushanku continued following alongside Shadewing while at the front, Nyarth was leading the group behind Blaze and Brina as the entire group continued their journey through the forest and the blizzard and eventually out into the open and on in the direction of Gandalf and Kyukon's hideout which Blaze sensed was not too far away now.


	32. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31- meet Gandalf and Kyukon and their base**

Kushanku's group, alongside the other groups of evacuated Narnians (with some exceptions) led also by Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs (sometimes known collectively as Elemental Birds), were converging on one particular location known as the Shuddering Woods, which was one of the key forests in Narnia for near the Shuddering Woods' location was the migrating Narnian groups' destination; the entrances to Gandalf and Kyukon's base. Much like the rest of the lands of Narnia, the Shuddering Woods was nothing more than a cluster of leafless trees with an appearance of a wood you would normally see in our world's annual winter.

Just in front of the first line of trees of the Shuddering Woods was a hole in the snow, an entrance to a burrow. At first glance, this burrow appeared insignificant and resembled just like any other old burrow in the rest of Narnia for some of the Narnian creatures like Rabbits and some Cat species, lived in burrows. However, through the burrow entrance was a very important hiding spot and location that hid underground and away from the freezing wintery spell, as well as the searching eyes of Jadis's minions and of course the Witch herself who was desperate to get her mitts on a certain pair of multi-tailed Foxes to add to her trophies of petrified animals and creatures in her courtyard. This was Gandalf and Kyukon's base, and it was a massive network of tunnels and rooms, some very massive, with a complex layout like that of an ant colony's nest in our world. In fact, the base was bigger on the inside than on the outside and was connected to the outside world via a set of snaking tunnels that opened at the mouth of the burrows in the snow. These burrows ran horizontally for several metres before finally descending downward underground. Gandalf and Kyukon's base had several of these burrows and tunnels that opened in and around the Shuddering Woods, each with a similar appearance of insignificant holes in the snow though some also had boulders which were used to conceal the burrows from view of any of Jadis's cronies in their patrol groups. The tunnels all led to the same location underground. Stood at the entrance of these burrows were groups of guards/lookouts, all who were Gandalf and Kyukon's helpers and companions. The number of guards/lookouts was limited to three or four for appearance purpose for if too many guards were stationed outside a burrow entrance at once, it could rouse the suspicion of the patrolling groups of Jadis's cronies. These guards and lookouts served as protectors of the entrances to the highly secret base as well as watchers for the migrating groups of Narnians and their Elemental Bird guide(s) and leader(s). Whenever a migrating group of Narnians turned up, the watchers would quickly guide them into the burrow and make sure that none of the patrol groups of Jadis's cronies were nearby, especially during the process of the migrating group's entry into the burrow. If there were any patrolling groups of Jadis's minions were spotted, the guards will immediately close off the burrow with snow or a boulder, if they had one, to conceal the entrances to the top secret base and hiding area while the guards hid, and wait until the patrollers moved on. Since the entrances to the burrows resembled the surroundings to a very great extent, the patrollers of Jadis were often fooled into thinking that the entrances were just ordinary burrows or giant boulders and nothing significant. Taken in by the disguise, the patrollers would move on. This has been like this since Jadis had usurped the throne, come into power and had locked Narnia in its frozen wintery state, and it will be like this until the Golden Age Prophecy starts coming true.

At the entrance of one of the burrows to Gandalf and Kyukon's base, a trio of creatures stood keeping an eye out for any passing patrol groups of Jadis's cronies or the appearance of a migrating group of Narnians led by an Elemental Bird or a group of them. The trio consisted of a Sphinx (a Lion-like creature with feathered wings and a humanoid's face and were mostly female but could also be male), a Capelobo (a bipedal furry humanoid-like creature with the face of an Aardvark and hooves like a Faun, much like how a Minotour was a humanoid creature with a Bull's face) and a Swan. The Swan had just returned from reporting to the base's main staff including Gandalf and Kyukon and was returning to his guard duty.

"Have you two seen any signs of any more Narnian groups led by our Roc, Phoenix and Thunderbird friends yet?" asked the Swan to the other two lookouts. The Sphinx turned to the Swan.

"No Cygnus but if there's any sign of them, then we'll send you inside to let Gandalf and the others know," she said. The Swan, named Cygnus, sighed and returned to his duty. The Capelobo then spoke, his Aardvark-like face forming a sad look.

"You know, Ptériga and Cygnus," said the humanoid-like Aardvark sombrely, "When that White Witch killed the last rightful King of Narnia, usurped the throne and then casted this spell over Narnia to lock it in the Eternal Winter we are familiar with today, I didn't expect her to bestow upon us other HORRIBLE, even ABOMINABLE, things such as that decadal Massacre Event she and her cronies have named the Fighting League…"

"Ugh, tell me about it!" hissed the Sphinx named Ptériga with disgust and Cygnus twisted his face in to a look of the same adjective, "I just cannot BELIEVE that the dumb snow animal who calls herself the Queen would invent such a… _feral_ … _sanguinary…_ oh, I cannot even think of a word that best fits that gory event she has set to occur once every ten years," the Sphinx then shook her head, put her forepaws on her face and flapped her wings in frustration before resuming the conversation, "But however you want to describe it, I cannot believe that she would come up with such an event in which Narnians are randomly selected from random families and groups and then thrown into an arena to kill each other like feral animals even if those victims happen to be their own friends or even their own relatives, ALL for a 'better life and freedom from the winter curse and its consequences' offered by Jadis herself AND for the sadistic entertainment of the Witch and her cronies, …"

"I agree completely," said Hocico the Capelobo, "Aslan didn't create the Talking Beasts to behave like the dumb animals; he created us to be separate from the dumb beasts and to be more than mere animals…" he then shook his head and long snout, "but the Great Lion did foretell and warn us of the Witch's pure wickedness and oppression on the Narnians when she returned once the Tree of Protection planted by the Human boy Digory shortly after Narnia's creation, had died and after she had usurped the throne, and how it will take many forms, and it seems that this Massacre Event is just one of them."

"And many of us didn't think it would be one such form," said Cygnus, "Me being one of those thinkers."

The Sphinx and the Capelobo nodded in agreement though Ptériga was least surprised for she knew of how pure EVIL the Witch was. Then she perked up.

"But at least we have hope in the Golden Age Prophecy and the Lion's return," she said with a smile, "We just have to trust in the Great Lion and keep our faith in him until it happens."

"Yes, absolutely," said Hocico with Cygnus nodding in agreement, "that's what Gandalf and Kyukon have told all of us at the beginning of this dreadful age and when we went into hiding."

As he said this, Cygnus's face fell as the thoughts of some of the Narnians who have defected to the Witch's side, among them Fauns, Minotaurs, and even some of Gandalf and Kyukon the Kitsune's own offspring, flashed through his mind.

"But sadly, some of us had lost faith and had fallen for the charms of the Witch and had joined her side, most likely out of fear or because they did not want to face the oppression or hardship from the Witch and her cronies themselves or the consequences of the Winter Curse cast upon our land by the Witch, such as food shortage, since after all, the Witch and her cronies have a very MASSIVE food supply from the highly unfair food offering demands from the Narnians," said the Swan, "And when some of Gandalf and Kyukon's very own offspring were amongst some of those defectors, they had been utterly heartbroken and upset…"

"My sister is also on the Witch's side as well," said Ptériga with a sad voice, "Despite me and my family's protests about the Witch's wickedness, she refused to listen and left us to join Jadis…"

"Quite a few of us have lost family members and friends to the Witch, Ptériga," said Hocico, "It's because of her extreme charms and beautiful façades. Again Aslan warned us of some of the Narnians' falling to the Witch's side as well."

The other two nodded in agreement. Then Cygnus spotted movement from behind one of the small snowy hills. At this, the Swan stiffened with alert.

"Movement alert, you two," said the graceful white bird, calling Ptériga and Hocico's attention and prompting the pair to follow the Swan's gaze at what he had spotted.

"I hope it's not one of the patrolling groups of Jadis's minions," said Ptériga suspiciously. Hocico then left to a pile of equipment the trio had brought with them to the entrance to the burrow, searched through the pile and pulled out a pair of binoculars. Returning, the Capelobo raised the eyepieces of the tool to his eyes and peered through the magnifying barrels of the sight-magnifying instrument at the moving object.

"It's just a dumb bird, Cygnus, nothing significant," said Hocico as he removed the binoculars from his eyes and gazed at the bird with his own eyes as the little bird flew off. The Sphinx and the Swan breathed a sigh of relief each.

"At least it's not one of those patrolling groups of Jadis's cronies," said Ptériga, "I absolutely cannot STAND the sight of many of those ugly creatures and their behaviours."

"Yeah, those Wendigoes, Manticores, Tenome, Kappa and some of the species collectively known as Horrors, such as Bunyips, Xenojaws and those floating black ghost-cloak Shadows, are sure nightmare fuel for me in particular," said Cygnus as his skin crawled, "The last time I saw a patrol group with a couple of those incredibly ugly antlered Deer-like beasts with those menacingly gleaming white eyes, long finger talons and sickly scrawny bodies with their ribcages on full display, I couldn't sleep for days."

"Basilisks are also amongst the worst I believe," said Hocico as he shuddered, "Those giant Serpents are known to literally paralyze their victims with a sinister flash of their red eyes if those victims make direct eye contact with those eyes…"

"And they can breathe a highly corrosive gas from their mouths to kill their enemies as well," said Ptériga, "A Wyvern friend of mine was gruesomely killed by the corrosive breath of one when she was trying to protect her Wyvernlings from the monster…"

"Yes, Jadis sure has an entourage of highly ugly beasts, many of which are extremely dangerous, I can tell you," said Hocico. The other two nodded in agreement. Then Cygnus spotted something else move through the snowy hills. This time it appeared to be a crowd and that crowd was being led by a brightly coloured yellow form that sparked (this was obviously not Cumulonimbus for his plumage was of the rarer purple-black colouration). The Swan instantly recognised the group.

"I believe we have an incoming group of migrant Narnians, Ptériga and Hocico," said the white Water Fowl excitedly, "Shall I go and tell Gandalf and the others?"

"Yes please do," said Hocico as he and Ptériga prepared to guide the incoming group, which was indeed a group of migrating Narnians, into the burrow, "And also command some of the helper Dwarfs and Fairies to come to us and help us lead those Narnian evacuees into the base."

Cygnus nodded and disappeared into the burrow's mouth and down the throat of the tunnel.

The ant colony-like base of Gandalf and Kyukon and the other Narnians consisted of a variety of compartments, built to suit the needs of the hiders. Some compartments were massive while some were small. Because the base was underground, a vent system had also been built to circulate air around the system. In the large compartments were underground crop farms where a variety of edible plants and some medical plants grew but there was also a dumb animal farm where dumb beasts were bred and grown for meat; there was a training area, a sick and medical quarters, sleeping quarters and living quarters, but in the centre was a library, a 3D magic map of Narnia and also the residents of Kyukon and Gandalf. The magic Narnia map was rather like a projected 3D hologram in our world and it provided Gandalf and the others with him an overview of the Narnian country and surrounding countries bordering Narnia, such as Archenland to the south, without having to venture out into the outside world where they risked getting spotted and caught by Jadis's minions. The compartments, especially the crop compartments, had magic light spheres which provided light similar to how the Narnian sun provided light above ground. The magic light spheres were like miniature stars but they were not super-hot and were thus harmless. The only compartments that did not have the magic mini-stars were the sleeping quarters and the night quarters, the latter of which had a swathe of star-like dots thrown across its ceiling to provide anyone who wanted to relax in this chamber a naturalistic night time and it was often used by couples who wanted some romantic time together for it was too dangerous to venture out onto the surface due to it being extremely cold and again, due to Jadis's patrolling minions. Each of the compartments also had a source of heat generated from a special boiler in the main central library compartment for warmth. The base therefore practically had everything that the Narnians lacked on the surface due to the Witch's winter spell, and its occupants, especially Gandalf and his mate and servants, hoped that the secrecy of the base would remain hidden from the prying eyes of Jadis and her cronies. Some of the compartments joined the tunnels that snaked from the rabbit hole-like entrances and connected the base to the outside world. These had stone doors that were often closed every night or when there was danger afoot so that the base would be kept safe and they also served as entry and exit points of the base.

Cygnus continued down the tunnel and entered one of the living compartments before continuing on through a series of more compartments to the library where Gandalf and Kyukon were at work with some of their servants in helping the Narnians who had already migrated to here to settle in. In the library, those two Kitsune were doing just that and they were helping some Centaurs, some Wyverns and a group of fire Chicken-like birds called Basan to help a clan of Badgers and Hedgehogs to settle into one of the living compartments. There was also a Dragon and an Alicorn, and they were two of Gandalf and Kyukon's closest friends and top commanders. Unlike 'regular' Dragons which were possibly Humans transformed due to their immense greed and obsession with valuables, the Dragon residing in Gandalf's base and assisting him and Kyukon was a native of a country from deep underground called Bism. Bism Dragons bore a similar resemblance to the greedy treasure-obsessed Dragons but were not hostile, greedy and massive gold hoarders and many of them were loyal to Aslan. The Basan, also called Fire Chickens, were also from the underground nations. They bore a strong resemblance to regular Chickens but were larger, could fly, could breathe fire and had scarlet and golden yellow feathers, much like a Phoenix. As the group of creatures assisted in the clan of Badgers and Hedgehogs in their settling down in their soon-to-be temporary living space, Gandalf called out, "Good job guys, well done."

Then one of the Basan, a large male rooster named Bursyamo, came forward with three of his subordinates, one of them a hen.

"All of them have settled down, Gandalf, sir," said the Basan.

"That's brilliant," said Gandalf, his nine swiping tails swinging elegantly like long thick grass in a summer breeze (one of the things he and Kyukon missed dearly nowadays with the Eternal Winter, along with Christmas and the other beauties and blessings of spring, summer and autumn), behind him, "now all we've got to do is wait for the arrival of more migrating groups of Narnians."

Bursyamo nodded and turned to his three subordinates and commanded them to check the Hedgehog and Badger clan, which they did and obediently left to do just that.

Gandalf and Kyukon were well on in their years. They were over nine-hundred Narnian years and were the first Kitsune formed by Aslan to be the parents of all Narnian Kitsune. However, before their transformation, they had been ordinary Foxes but Aslan had transformed them to be Kitsune shortly after Digory had left with a friend of his on Fledge the first Pegasus to retrieve a Youth Apple. After this, Gandalf and Kyukon were tasked with being Chroniclers by the Lion as well as Prophecy collectors and keepers, as well as have many Kitsune cubs, and the couple set out to carry out their tasks. They had recorded every key event in Narnia's timeline, such as the world's creation, the crowning of the first Human king and queen, and Digory's task of retrieving the Youth Apple, its plating and the growth of the Tree of Protection, as well as every key event throughout the Age of Conquest to Jadis's usurping of the throne and locking Narnia in the wintery curse which they have named the Age of Winter or Eternal Winter. As the couple aged, their tail split and the number of tails they had grew around once per century but before they gained their second tail at age 200, Gandalf and Kyukon resembled ordinary Foxes but with patches of metallic red fur with a single tail and as every century went past, another tail grew and formed with the others already present but by the time the couple had reached 900 years and gained their ninth tail, they underwent a radical transformation from red Fox-like creatures to beautiful golden-yellow and ivory Foxes with a full set of nine tails. Their drab red fur patches had turned ivory while their metallic patches became metallic yellow which decorated their faces, tail tips and bodies. For Kitsune, ivory gold fur and a full set of nine tails were a crown of age and wisdom (similar to how silver hair could be considered a symbol of wisdom and experience in Humans, though the knowledge and intelligence of even a fully grown Kitsune NEVER exceeded that of Aslan, who was truly omniscient, and whom the Kitsune loal to him often call the Lion of all Lions) and a gift of Aslan, and Gandalf and Kyukon, after so many centuries of learning and growing and recording Narnia's key events had become very wise and experienced indeed. Furthermore, Gandalf and Kyukon have become experienced in a variety of other subjects such as growing magical plants (especially Kyukon who had become a real expert on magical plants like the Fire Flower), ecology (especially of the Narnian sun where Gandalf had once visited at some point prior to the Age of Winter), farming, combat skills including the use of various weapons and also the rare skill of limited telekinesis which only a few Talking Beast species could develop and perform, likely due to their very well developed intelligence and brainpower over so many centuries. With this, Gandalf and Kyukon could move things at a distance by holding them via mental projection and grasping, without having to carry them with their own paws. Also as Gandalf and Kyukon grew and recorded Narnia's timeline as well as learn skills in a variety of other subjects, the couple also had many cubs, some of which had also grown in wisdom as they aged with some going on become teachers to other Talking Beasts of Narnia, especially the young, about Narnia's history, much to the joy of Gandalf and Kyukon, but as they aged, their fertility had decreased and they eventually could not conceive any more cubs altogether, and Kitsune reproduction was very limited for a female Kitsune was only fertile about once every few years, possibly to prevent too many Kitsune individuals from being produced for the sake of the other Talking Beasts and to maintain balance. Furthermore, VERY few Kitsune reached 900 years and the full nine tailed stage; the only other Kitsune to have reached this stage were one or two of Gandalf and Kyukon's oldest son and daughter and they were assistants in the library and prophecy and chronicle keeping. Thankfully, none of the Kitsune that had fallen for the Witch's side were of this age.

However, while Gandalf and Kyukon enjoyed how their offspring and species had develop through the centuries, not everything had been pride and joy for the mother and father of the Kitsune species; when Jadis had come into power, some of Gandalf and Kyukon's own offspring and grandchildren had fallen for the evil Witch's unfathomably enticing charms and had become corrupted, and to make things even more heart-breaking for the couple as well as the other Kitsune who remained loyal to Aslan even during Narnia's plunging into the Eternal Winter at the hands of the evil White Witch and all the consequences that had come with it (not to mention the HORRIBLE, ABOMINABLE methods of oppression the Witch had set in her position, such as the so-called Fighting League but what Gandalf and many of the others had called 'the Slaughterhouse or Massacre Event' and rightly so as we have observed many chapters back), those Kitsune had become the Witch's apprentices and had been studying and practicing a variety of highly forbidden branches of dark sorcery such as shapeshifting and illusion generating with the Witch as their teacher, resulting in them becoming highly malicious and malevolent tricksters as they eventually went to use these highly forbidden, dangerous skills for espionage and for tricking other Narnians by disguising themselves as something they were not (though thankfully, absolutely no Kitsune could transform into a Lion for it seemed that Aslan had put a strong limitation on their magical abilities). One such use involved one of the Kitsune posing herself as the wife of the last King of Narnia before Jadis killed him and usurped the throne to lure him into a trap during Jadis's Narnia conquest, while several others had also used the same trick to cause the downfall of the sons and daughters of that King and his wife. As a result, the relationship between Humans and Kitsune had become badly damaged with the former treating and shunning the latter like hoodlums as the reputation of the Kitsune had become as malicious tricksters in the eyes of the humans, much to the distress of the good Kitsune, especially Gandalf and Kyukon, who had also tried their best to convince the betrayers not to join the Witch's side only for them to disown their own common ancestor and do so anyway.

One-hundred years before Jadis came into power, Gandalf and Kyukon had their base built underground and were thus well prepared, especially after having finished it a short time before the start of the Witch's tyrannical reign and the Eternal Winter, but it had taken the Kitsune and their servants twenty-plus years to establish everything the evacuated Narnians would need before the great Migratory Exodus to Archenland to escape the Witch's tyranny until the Revolution and Aslan's coming, such as the growing of the underground crops and rearing of livestock (consisting of dumb animals) for their meat, establishing the magic star-orbs for light and so many other things, but in the end, everything had been completely set up and was now in the process of receiving the migrating groups of Narnians for shelter, training and the eventual Exodus to Archenland. Gandalf continued walking with his Basan friend and helper into the library where rows upon rows of books were stored but with the most important ones kept on a separate shelf from the rest. Everything else was just about lesser significant things like the ecosystems of the Narnian sun, the physiology of various creatures and so on. As the pair approached the compartment for the important books, such as Narnia's history and creation which either Gandalf himself or one of his older cubs or someone else planned to compose together into as single book in the future for future generations, Gandalf gazed at Bursyamo with his glittering onyx-like eyes. Unlike the black eyes of some of the foul cronies of Jadis, Gandalf's eyes were beautiful while Kyukon's resembled pretty tiger's eye stones for they were auburn-brown coloured.

"So when is Aslan going to come?" asked Bursyamo.

"In his timing according to his will, Bursy," replied Gandalf, "We just have to wait patiently for the Golden Prophecy's initial stages to come to past first. Whenever that is, only Aslan knows."

The ivory and metallic-yellow furred Kitsune then turned his gaze to a certain book amongst the collection of very important books and as he did so, his onyx-black eyes flashed neon blue. This blue aura was then projected onto the book of the Kitsune's choice and within moments, the book, which was entitled 'Narnia's Prophecies' in some sort of strange language consisting of bizarre symbols invented by Gandalf, Kyukon and their descendants not fallen over to the Witch's side (which they called 'Kitsunese') and taught to their servants and helpers, and them only for secrecy from the Witch and her cronies, including the Kitsune that had gone over to her side (ironically), now enclosed in the light blue aura, was lifted an inch from the bottom of its shelf and levitated out into the open air. It then floated towards Gandalf and Bursyamo as Gandalf mentally moved it before them. As soon as the book was before the Kitsune and the Basan, the former then telekinetically opened it and brought it close to himself and the fire Chicken before turning the pages to find where he had written the Golden Age Prophecy. After this, and with the book still levitating before the two in a reading position, Bursyamo peered into the first chapter of the Golden Age Prophecy. He and his Basan clan had been taught Kitsunese by Gandalf so Bursyamo was able to translate it to English.

"'A young Daughter of Eve will enter Narnia through a wooden box near the Lamppost Tree…'" said the Basan as he read the first line. In addition to recording the important Prophecies in Kitsunese, Gandalf and Kyukon, with the help of their Sphinx friends, had also put the prophets into a form of metaphors and riddles, again for further secrecy. 'A young Daughter of Eve will enter Narnia through a _wooden box',_ can you guess what sort of wooden box this metaphor was referring to? And although Kitsune were not star pattern readers unlike the Centaurs, since star reading was a special ability entirely exclusive to the horse-humanoid creatures, Kitsune and Sphinxes were talented in converting those prophecies into riddles and metaphors, sometimes to such complexity that if other creatures were to read them, it would sound just gibberish and nonsensical. Bursyamo then continued.

"You know, I'm still surprised that you and Kyukon didn't take on that evil Witch by yourselves," he said, "Since you both are very powerful Kitsune who are also skilled in some branches of magic as well as extremely wise and highly intelligent, I would have thought that you'd have faced her yourselves when she was usurping the throne of Narnia…"

"If we did that," said Gandalf, "We would have been struck down in one blow by that Snow Queen and easily turned to a statue."

When Bursyamo blinked in confusion, the nine-tailed Kitsune went on to explain.

"Even though a Kitsune is powerful and very wise by the time they reach the fully mature nine-tailed age," continued Gandalf, "There are two beings whose power far… FAR… exceeds a nine-tailed Kitsune's power: the White Witch… and Aslan. As such, if a nine-tailed Kitsune were to take on the Witch, her magic would very easily overpower that of said Fox," Gandalf's gaze then hardened, "My son, who had just gained his ninth tail and his fur transforming from red and metallic red to ivory and metallic yellow, attempted to combat the Witch but he was struck down, turned to stone by the Witch through the use of her icicle-like wand, and then shattered into a thousand stone pieces."

"So only Aslan, and his Father, the Emperor-over-the-Sea, is far more powerful than the Witch?" asked Bursyamo.

"That's correct," said Gandalf. He then telekinetically levitated the book of Prophecies over to a nearby table and placed it neatly and closed onto its top before walking on, his magnificent nine tails spread out behind him in a fan like the feathers of a Peacock's tail train, "which is why Kyukon and I had to go into hiding because Aslan warned us not to take on the Witch due to her immense power, a warning my son sadly did not heed…"

Bursyamo breathed a sad sigh as Gandalf then lowered his fan of tails, ears and head as sadness came over him at the thought of his sons' death at the hands of the Witch.

To add more lemon juice to the wound, several other Narnians also foolishly tried to fight against the Witch during her incredibly violent takeover of Narnia, amongst them Sphinxes, Nekomata experienced in combat using a variety of weapons and basic magic and even some Elemental Birds (that is, Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs) only to be either brutally cut down by the Witch's sword, or the swords, teeth and claws of her cronies, or turned to stone by the Witch's own wand which Gandalf had assumed had fashioned herself during her time away from Narnia with the Tree of Protection still standing until its death which allowed her return. Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird used to have a mate and she had gone to war but was slaughtered during the battle. But despite the heartbreak of some of the Narnians not heeding Aslan's warning not to go against the Witch resulting in those consequences, Gandalf and the others had retreated into hiding to finish setting up their base and eventually prepare to carry out the tasks Aslan had assigned to them during the first decades of the Eternal Winter, such as taking in the evacuated Narnians to educate them and prepare them for the Exodus to Archenland.


	33. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32- another close shave for Kushanku's group**

While Gandalf continued to mourn the death of one of his sons when he foolishly tried to take on the Witch with Bursyamo the Basan, or Fire Chicken, looked on sympathetically, the sound of the flapping of a pair of large graceful wings alerted the two. Within moments, a large white Swan appeared and touched down.

"Another group of migrating Narnians is almost here, Gandalf," said the Swan named Cygnus, "I've seen them with Ptériga and Hocico outside our post to one of the burrows."

"Oh good, my Swan friend," said Gandalf with a smile, the sadness over the loss of his son pushed aside, "Please return to your two comrades and prepare to lead them in," said the Kitsune. As the nine-tailed Fox spoke, the sound of Horse hooves hitting the floor walked in. It was the sound of a four-footed hoofed animal but it wasn't just a Horse. It was a Horse-like creature with a humanoid upper body in place of a head. Bursyamo then spread his wings.

"I'll call for some of my servants and help you with that," said the Basan and with that, the Fire Rooster took off to get help while Cygnus returned to his post with the Sphinx and the Capelobo to meet the group of Narnians the trio had spotted walking in. As Cygnus left, Gandalf spotted a Centaur standing at the entrance to the library. The Centaur had some type of clipboard with sheets of paper in his arms for he had written something down like how a Human might jot down data during a statistical investigation.

"Perseus, my friend," said Gandalf with a smile, "Please do come in."

Perseus, the Centaur, smiled and did so. As the magnificent Humanoid-Horse creature walked in, he turned the paper and clipboard around and showed the Kitsune the data he had been collecting and analysing.

"I thought I'd like to come in to talk to you about the statistics we have been collecting and analysing of the Narnians and their belief in Aslan and Golden Age Prophecy based on the Star People's observations over the years since the Witch had usurped the throne of Narnia," said the Centaur as he handed the stiff board and paper to Gandalf for him to look at. Then the Centaur's face fell, "but from what the Star People have been observing and what we Centaurs have been analysing, it's not good at all."

Gandalf examined the data presentation Perseus had managed to construct before looking up at the Centaur with a saddened face.

"You see, according to the Star People's reports, the number of believers in Aslan and the Prophecy has fallen dramatically over the past thirty-five years," continued Perseus, "and it's not just the falling of some of them to Jadis's side. There is another factor that is contributing to the decline in the number of believers; some of them have seemingly begun to doubt Aslan's existence to the point of denying the Lion's existence altogether and have taken up a naturalistic explanation of how Narnia came to be."

"You mean that evolution story of Narnia's beginnings from a molten disc close to the Narnian sun countless years ago and the evolution of all the creatures in the world?" asked Gandalf. Perseus nodded and the Kitsune gave him back his clipboard.

"Everything's in complete disarray, I can tell you," said Gandalf sadly, "it seems that Jadis's rule and dictatorship has had a very negative effect on the entire nation of Narnia since that Witch finds the name Aslan as the MOST STINKING name in this entire world…"

"But when the evacuated Narnians turn up, we will be teaching them the TRUE history of Narnia and how it came to be, right?" asked Perseus.

"Yes, absolutely," said Gandalf, "since after all, the evolution story is absolutely not true at all and not what it says in the book of Narnia's Genesis Kyukon and I have written as commanded by Aslan…

"Aslan sung Narnia into existence, didn't he?" said Perseus, "He didn't form Narnia from a chaotic molten slab of lava close to a burning hot sun and then randomly threw a comet containing the microscopic 'seeds of life' into the sea where everything then subsequently evolved over millions of years into the creatures we know today."

"No, all the animals were formed out of the earth and the Talking Beasts were given the power of speech," said Gandalf, "We did not evolve from some random microscopic lifeforms that somehow appeared in the sky on a comet that then exploded violently, resulting in these fragments seeded with those lifeforms raining into the sea…"

"Sounds farfetched and nonsense at beast," said Perseus, "I don't wanna believe that we Centaurs had evolved from some bacterium into the creatures we are today…"

"And at worst, it denies Aslan's existence and his place as creator and ruler over all of Narnia as well," said Gandalf. Perseus nodded in agreement.

"True that, and even though everything in Narnia shouts that there is a creator that sung it into existence a few hundred years ago, some of the Narnians are still wilfully ignorant of that fact and are insistent on believing that Narnia and everything in it had evolved through natural processes over millions of Narnian years."

Gandalf nodded in sombre agreement before moving on to lament over another highly depressing thing.

"But what depresses me and Kyukon the most in particular is this Massacre Event thing Jadis has come up with in which Narnians are forcibly pitted against each other in a feral animal-like fight to the death," said the Kitsune sadly.

"And she seemed to have named it the 'Decadal Fighting League' to hide its true nature as well," said Perseus, "When she initially came up with that event five years after she had usurped the throne, I initially thought it was some fighting event, as in sword-fighting or open-hand combat, but upon its reveal on what it involves made my stomach churn," the Centaur shook his head with revulsion, "I couldn't even _sleep_ for _days_ after that."

"And to add more salt to the wound," continued Gandalf, "many of the Kitsune species had also fallen for Jadis's charms as well as that disgraceful Massacre Event where they have developed the sickening enjoyment of watching Narnians literally slay each other in the goriest of ways, as well as train in the forbidden branches of dark sorcery such as shapeshifting, which they now use for espionage and for tricking others. The last King of Narnia had been tricked by one of them who had disguised herself as his wife using those forbidden skills which led to his demise at the hands of the evil Witch just before she took the throne for herself and locked Narnia in this Eternal Winter days later…"

"That has resulted in damage to the relationship of your species with humans hasn't it?" said Perseus. Gandalf nodded.

"Yes," continued the wise old Kitsune, "Us multi-tailed Foxes are now seen as malevolent tricksters who disguise themselves as other creatures, apart from Lions and the Nature Spirits such as Dryads, to lure them into a malicious trap…"

As Gandalf spoke, an awful thought entered his mind, "Which brings to mind the neighbouring countries and areas of Narnia, such as Ettinsmoor and the shore where the castle Cair Paravel is destined to be built where a small group of Merfolk and Talking Sea Creatures live, some of which had been captured by some of the Witch's aquatic creatures for the unethical meals…"

"We have some of those Merfolk, Dolphins, Seals and the rest of them rescued and brought to here in our specialised Aquarium tank home, sir," said Perseus, before his ears and face fell, "But we feel sorry for the individual Mermen, Mermaids and the Talking Sea Beasts that were unable to be rescued in time. They have already been turned into the lavish meals consumed greedily and wastefully by the Witch and her cronies, and the Narnians who have defected to her side based on her charms and the so-called 'best life now' that she has offered at the cost of everyone else's wellbeing, along with some of the other land Narnians such as the Talking Sheep, Goats, etc."

"It's disgusting, isn't it?" said Gandalf, "and barbaric at worst," the Kitsune then perked up as Perseus said, "But according to the Star People who have been observing the Witch's activities from the sky, the Witch currently has no plans of invasion of the surrounding countries of Ettinsmoor and Archenland, the final destination of the Exodus from Jadis's Winter land until Aslan comes and the four Humans enter Narnia through the wooden box…"

"That's excellent," said Gandalf, "and another thing we've got to remember, Aslan has put a restraining leash on the Witch to ensure that she does not go too far with her unbounded lust for power, violence and sadism, and it will remain that way until it is time for her to come down from her high chair of ice."

Perseus nodded before his mind travelled to a few specific humans who will be entering Narnia at the beginning of the Golden Age Prophecy, known as the Winter Revolution.

"Those two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve will have to be ESEPECIALLY careful of the Witch's irresistible charms when they enter Narnia through the wooden box portal," said the Centaur, "The Witch's temptations are far more powerful and stronger even what most of us think them to be…"

"She's the ultimate Yuki-onna or Snow Siren, or Krampus creature," said Gandalf darkly, "capable of even charming a nine-tailed Fox such as me and Kyukon, which is why we are so glad that we, that is me, Kyukon and our older sons and daughters who have also reached the nine-tailed age, went underground in time to escape that Witch's seductive charms."

Perseus nodded in agreement. It was clear that the Witch was not only capable of overpowering a long-lived, nine-hundred-year-old nine-tailed Kitsune in combat, but she also had the unimaginable power of charming one as well, despite how wise, powerful and intelligent a nine-tailed Kitsune was, and if that were to happen, the results would be disastrous, but Gandalf was thankful to Aslan that all the nine-tailed Foxes had managed to escape the clutches of the Witch's grasp before that could happen, and that none of the Kitsune already lured in by the Witch's insatiable gravitational charms were past the four-tailed tail stage and above. The most number of tails a Kitsune on the Witch's side had was four, but they were still very dangerous for they had been training under the Witch's supervision in the forbidden branches of sorcery and had mastered them quite well, and must be avoided. After talking, Perseus and Gandalf left to see in the incoming migrating group of Narnians as Cygnus, Ptériga and Hocico began to guide them through the burrow and into the base.

 **Meanwhile**

The blizzard had now subsided and it was clear again. Kushanku's group, consisting of the two merged groups of migrating Narnians, one of which consisted of rescued individuals from a labour site by Brina the Roc and Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird continued their journey towards Shuddering Woods. Kushanku continued to walk alongside Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi, his adopted Cheetah brother and his biological sister and brother respectively. Rubyfeather the Parrot walked with her daughter Crystal and Shadewing the Bat as he carried Emberflame in her lamp, and Skvaders Mensa and Snowwing and Dahlia the young Jackalope. Quill the Hedgehog was walking with Nyarth, Kushanku's other brother and the oldest of the four Nekomata siblings, at the front of the group after Brina and Blaze hovering before them, while nearby, Tesseract the Unicorn was carrying Cumulonimbus on his back and walking alongside Kushanku, was Belladonna the Kitsune. Kushanku had been strictly forbidden from walking towards the front of the group for Blaze had determined him too unfit to help lead as Aslan had commanded the Nekomata kit in his dream due to the Krampus incident and the most recent incident with Yuki-onna who had almost caught a severely hypnotized Sandstorm and Satoshi gripped with her melodious song and irresistible beauty, and almost killed Cumulonimbus when the Thunderbird savagely drove her away, and Kushanku had been blamed for the entire incident by Belladonna who claimed that he had deliberately lagged behind to separate the little group from the others and get them into trouble. Now the Nekomata was being shunned and glared at by most of the other members of the group and talked about, and even more sadly, Faline's many sons and daughters, including the three that had almost got themselves and Kushanku caught by Krampus the other night, were scorning the poor Nekomata and talking badly about him, saying how stupid he was for bringing Yuki-onna into the scene and almost getting his own biological and adopted Cheetah brothers killed, when it was in fact Belladonna's fault in the first place for she had been the one to lag behind, not Kushanku. Whenever the Rabbit kits were near Kushanku, they would either pretend he was invisible or blow him a disdainful raspberry, the other youngsters apart from a few, such as Snowwing, Dahlia, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth (who believes he shouldn't be taking up Kushanku's role) and Akira, doing the same thing and firing insults at poor Kushanku to make him feel worse about himself. It truly was a difficult situation for the poor Nekomata and Belladonna was not making it any better and kept talking nastily behind his back with some of the travellers. Furthermore, Kushanku and Belladonna absolutely refused to talk to each other, and Snowwing, Dahlia, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira were also starting to despise the Kitsune as well, with Sandstorm at one point telling Belladonna that he would "bite her ears off" if she ever threatened Kushanku or any of the others again and that had given him a scratch across the face from the Fox as she retorted with a swipe to the cheek, resulting in intervention from the adults who told them to snap out of it. Now Sandstorm had a set of three small newly-healed scratches under his left eye that had just been treated by Shadewing and Farfella the Fairy. The sour attitude towards Belladonna is could also be said of Tesseract (who also blamed Belladonna for the whole incident with Yuki-onna as well), his Centaur friend Clifford and several others, including some adults like Shadewing… and one of the Elemental Birds who had been sent to rescue the Narnians.

As the group continued to travel along, Cumulonimbus had called Blaze to speak with him on Tesseract's back. As the Thunderbird and the Phoenix talked quietly, Nyarth began to listen while continuing to walk after Brina as she led the group, by herself for the time being.

"I honestly don't like that purple-black Kitsune travelling with us one bit, Blaze," the eldest brother of Kushanku heard Cumulonimbus whisper, and Nyarth saw the dark purple Thunderbird flash a worried look at the Fox as she walked alongside Kushanku's little group, "I sense something not right at all about her…"

Nyarth cocked his ears to listen more intently as Cumulonimbus continued.

"And I believe she could be the one responsible for the incident with Yuki-onna almost catching and killing Kushanku, Satoshi and Sandstorm as well…"

"Look, we don't know HOW that group ended up separated from the rest of us to the point of becoming easy prey for Yuki-onna but it certainly was foolish of Belladonna to lag behind and not request that she be carried," retorted Blaze quietly, "Like I've said before, we'll sort this out when we get to Gandalf's place…"

As the Phoenix and the Thunderbird continued to speak, Nyarth gazed at Kushanku sympathetically but bitterly at Belladonna.

"If I had the choice, I would have chased that Kitsune away there and then," hissed the Nekomata under his breath, "And I would restore Kushanku to his rightful position as leading the group like Aslan had commanded him in that dream. However, I cannot since Blaze would forbid me…"

Then with a sigh, Nyarth continued following Brina and leading the others with Quill walking nearby.

"I just cannot believe that Belladonna almost got me, Sandstorm, you and Mr Cumulonimbus KILLED by that SNOW SIREN!" said Satoshi to Kushanku, "What was that Fox THINKING… to lag us behind like that with her injured leg!?"

Kushanku stole a disdainful glare at Belladonna as she talked with two of the Platypuses and a Theropod, seemingly befriending them, and limped along, her injured leg still in its cast.

"I don't know and I don't care," replied Kushanku sourly, "If you want my opinion, I'd say she is better off abandoned and left to find her own way to Mr Gandalf's base whether she likes it or not…"

"But she's injured, Kushanku," said Snowwing, "she still has that injured leg, remember?"

Kushanku just glared at the young Skvader and said nothing. He did not care one bit about Belladonna anymore. Then Sandstorm glared at Belladonna as she continued to talk with the two Platypuses, the Theropod and also a trio of young Alicorn (Pegasi with horns like a Unicorn, or a Unicorn with feathered wings) foals as they walked a short distance away from the others, the parents of the Alicorn foals telling the little group not to stray too far.

"She certainly seems to get along well with the other kids," muttered the Cheetah with bitter jealousy, "Those three Alicorn foals love her already."

"So does Troodon the Theropod," said Dahlia. Kushanku, however, refused to flash a glance at Belladonna and continued to walk on, pretending that he hadn't heard. Then Dahlia saw Troodon, the Theropod, share a paw-claw fist bump with Belladonna and flashed a small smile before turning her head to look ahead.

"Looks like Troodon is now Belladonna's friend," said the young Skvader slightly sarcastically.

"Good, and I hope that Dinosaur mauls the ugly face off of that Canid Rat," spat Kushanku spitefully.

"Kushanku, that is a HORRIBLE thing to say about Belladonna," replied Dahlia in shock at Kushanku's choice of words.

"Well, ever since she got us into trouble with Yuki-onna and almost got Sandstorm, Satoshi and also me killed," said Kushanku, "I have good reason to harbour hatred against that Kitsune…"

"Aslan taught us to forgive one another, Kushanku," said Snowwing, "You shouldn't hold grudges against each other. That is not how we should treat our offenders."

"Even if they are our enemies," said Satoshi, "I've forgiven Belladonna, Sandstorm has and you should too."

However, under this statement, Satoshi still harboured a burning anger against Belladonna for getting Kushanku into trouble, as did Sandstorm, though the two had forgiven her for lagging behind due to her injured leg. Kushanku just breathed an angry sigh. He was finding it difficult to forgive Belladonna but was finding it very difficult to since she had been treating him like dirt such as talking and gossiping about him with the other youngsters in the group. As Kushanku thought about this, Troodon ran up to Kushanku and began to whisper in his ear.

"You see, Belladonna is a very decent young Kitsune," said the Theropod, "She's very friendly and sweet…"

"Yeah, I'm sure she is," replied Kushanku sarcastically, much to Troodon's annoyed blink.

"You still loathe her don't you?" said the Dinosaur. Kushanku refused to answer this question and turned to gaze back at Belladonna as she continued to walk alongside the two Platypuses and three Alicorns. To his surprise, he saw that the Kitsune was absent. Troodon also saw that Belladonna had disappeared.

"Belladonna?" called the Theropod and left to return to his five friends' side. Kushanku shrugged and continued to walk on; assuming Belladonna had moved elsewhere to avoid walking within his vicinity, knowing her attitude towards him.

The group continued to walk on and soon, the trees of Shuddering Woods was in sight and Brina alerted Blaze and the others to the presence of a few forms standing near one of the trees.

"That's it," said the Roc, "Let's meet those two Sphinxes and that Naga standing guard outside that burrow entrance get these evacuees into Gandalf's base as quick as we can."

With that, Blaze barked an order to the other travellers and they began to pick up pace while Brina flew off to meet the trio of guards, which were two Sphinxes and a Naga (a humanoid creature with a Snake's body, only a few of which are loyal to Aslan) and soon, the group was moving at a faster rate, struggling through the snow as they approached the trio and the burrow entrance as quickly as they could before any of Jadis's cronies could show up. However, they were not out of the danger of the other factors yet, and it was not the weather which had begun to change into a snowfall again. Kids were carried by their carers either in their arms, talons or backs and Emberflame was in her lamp carried by Shadewing.

"Hurry up, folks," called Blaze as he kept an eye out for any patrol groups of Jadis's minions, "Those monster servants of the Witch could show up at any moment and we don't want one of the entrances to Gandalf's super-important base divulged."

The others did as they were told and got a move on. Kushanku rushed with Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Mensa and Shadewing while Quill and Nyarth as the front ushered the group along, calling to them to hurry up. showers of snow were kicked up by feet and hooves as their owners rushed hastily through the white freezing powder, desperate to get to Gandalf's base and out of danger but as the group hurried along, the burrow barely metres away and the two Sphinxes, Brina and the Naga hurrying along to help, the Naga slithering along quickly, the air was suddenly shaken by a screech. This stopped everyone in their tracks and made them shoot terrified and confused gazes in every direction. Another screech erupted and this time, it sounded louder.

"What was that?" asked the Pterosaur as he stood with Faline the Rabbit and her large family, and Tesseract with Cumulonimbus on his back. Terrified kids huddled against their parents and carers' breasts while the four-footed ones, such as Sheep and Horses, huddled against their mothers and fathers' sides, unnerved by the sounds.

"Never mind about those cries," called one of the Sphinxes, a male, seriously, "Just hurry to the burrow, NOW!"

"It could be one of the flying creatures loyal to Jadis," said the Naga, a female. With that, and without wasting any more time, the group resumed hurrying along to the base entrance, struggling through the snow on the go. The two Sphinxes, Brina, Blaze, and the Naga seized some of the expectant mothers and those with nests of eggs and began to help them along, running ahead of the group to get them to safety first. As they rushed along, Troodon the Theropod came up to Kushanku, a confused look on his face.

"Have you seen Belladonna anywhere?" asked the bipedal Lizard.

"Maybe she's on the other side of the crowd?" replied Akira. At this, Snowwing opened his feathered wings and flew upwards, much to Mensa's angry chagrin.

"Snowwing, GET BACK DOWN HERE at ONCE!" shouted the Skvader mother. However, her son, concern for Belladonna boiling within him to the point of blinding him to his mother's orders to return to the ground, continued flying higher and higher until he was at a height that he could see the entire crowd from above. There, he began to scan the crowd for a dark purple-black Fox.

"Snowwing, you'll make yourself easily seen by some potential flying cronies of Jadis up there, come back down at ONCE!" shouted Shadewing when he saw the young Skvader hover up there. Some of the other adults, among them Quill and Mensa, also protested to Snowwing to return to the ground but still Snowwing continued to examine the crowd at that height. To his concern, he could not find the purple-black Fox that would be Belladonna among them. At the entrance to the burrow, which was a large cave-like hollow leading into a tunnel, Blaze, Brina, the two Sphinxes and the Naga were helping the pregnant and expecting mothers into the burrow with some Basan, some of Bursyamo's subordinates, assisting when the make Sphinx returned his gaze to the rest of the group as they continued to hurry towards the burrow-cave. However, as the feather winged Lion-like Humanoid's gaze landed on the crowd and travelled to a certain hovering Skvader kit above them, his eyes inflated with horror and a gasp was sucked harshly through his wide-open mouth as his eyes picked up something else in the air right behind that hovering Skvader who was Snowwing.

"What is it, Skóni?" asked Blaze when he noticed the horrified look on the Sphinx, named Skóni's, face. Then the Naga let loose a horrified scream, along with some of the expectant mothers as they also saw the thing heading right towards Snowwing, prompting Brina to snap her gaze at the hovering Skvader and loft immediately into flight.

Snowwing, unaware of the danger he was in, continued to examine the crowd for Belladonna from above.

"Belladonna," called the Bird-Rabbit kit, "Belladonna, where are you?"

Suddenly, the kit noticed dozens of horrified gazes converging on him, followed by some screams from some of the creatures on the ground, among them his mother.

"SNOWWING!" cried Mensa.

"Look OUT!" yelled Shadewing. At this, Snowwing stopped, confusion lacing his face as something massive continued to approach him from behind, a MASSIVE screech exploding from its mouth, or rather beak. However, before he could turn round, a pair of talons appeared and seized him out of the thing's path like a fly. Snowwing let looser a scream but when he saw that the talons belonged to an icy blue bird, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then Brina swerved round and hurried for the burrow with Snowwing in her talons as the flying beast, which turned out to resemble a giant, hideous Eagle with bony white plumage and skin, massive talons on its feet, piercing onyx-like eyes and massive beak, also swerved and began to chase down the Roc with the Skvader in her talons. The watchers on the ground looked on in terror, especially as the Eagle-like beast gained on Brina at an alarming rate.

"That THING'S GONNA CATCH AND KILL SNOWWING AND MISS BRINA!" screamed Sandstorm at the top of his voice.

"Kushanku, what are you DOING!?" yelled someone. At this, Sandstorm blinked and turned his attention to a certain metallic powder blue, white and grey Nekomata as he rocketed into flight and hurled himself straight towards the massive Eagle beast, his fur spiked out again and his partially forked tail's branches spinning once again like a propeller. When he saw who it was, the Cheetah cub flinched in horror.

"KUSHANKU, get back here this MINUTE!" bellowed Shadewing while from the lamp the Bat was holding, Emberflame looked on, an astonished look on her fiery face. Astonishment also travelled throughout the crowd as they watched Kushanku fly into the air and shoot towards the beast as it then seized Brina by the tail feathers with its massive talons, making the Roc scream and drop Snowwing, who hurriedly returned to Mensa on the ground, and make screams of horror erupt from the crowd as they watched the horrifying scene in the air above them unfold. Then before the Eagle beast could execute its next move on Brina as she flailed and flapped like mad to free herself from the giant monster which was plunging its giant beak into the back of the Roc's neck for the killing blow, a cat-screech erupted from behind it and before the Eagle beast knew it, an icy blue, white and grey fork-tailed cat, its tail spinning like a propeller, was on its back in a heartbeat. With a massive Banshee-like scream, the Eagle beast released Brina and began to flail and flap to bolt Kushanku off its back as Kushanku; his eyes blazing amber fires, clung onto the creature's back with his arms wrapped around its neck, refusing absolutely to let go. The crowd looked on in horror as the beast began to bolt and sway its head this way and that to shift Kushanku off its back when Blaze's bark snapped them back to reality.

"This way, NOW!" shouted the Phoenix as he lofted into flight to attack the beast and rescue Kushanku, the female Sphinx following him (Sphinxes could fly too but this was rare). While the two lofted into flight to confront the Eagle beast as it continued to flail and eventually dislodge Kushanku off its back, the pattering of feet, talons and hooves sounded on the snow as the crowd rushed for the burrow, the Naga and some Basan ushering them in with arm and wing signals.

Back in the air, Kushanku screeched in shock as he plummeted towards earth but then he re-twisted his forked tail and spun them around to slow his fall when suddenly, his fur ruffled with a rush of air, accompanied by an ear-piercing scream. Alarmed, the Nekomata snapped his gaze upward and found himself on the receiving end of an extremely enraged glare of a giant Bird armed with an enormous, vicious beak. This sent terror exploding within Kushanku, especially as the Eagle beast raised its feet, flared its massive hook-like talons that glinted in the snowfall, revealing their cruel and sharp, dagger-like lethalness, and prepared to plunge them into the Nekomata. Kushanku let loose a cat screech of terror as the Eagle beast then lurched forward and attempted to skewer him with its massive talons but the Nekomata dodged, the talons missing him by inches, and with a flash of hot anger, Kushanku lurched at the Eagle beast's side, flared his claws and with all his might scored them down the Eagle beast's flank, drawing blood in the process. The Eagle beast screeched and flapped as sharp pain ripped through its side from the savage scratch and as soon as he had done this and when a fiery form appeared and smashed into the beast, followed by a winged Humanoid-faced Lion like creature with some branches floating telekinetically around it based on a light blue aura enclosing them and the Sphinx's eyes flaring with the same aqua blue light (Sphinxes were amongst the few creatures to possess this ability), Kushanku retreated after the others on the ground as they hurried towards the burrow-cave entrance, leaving Blaze to blast the Eagle beast with fire and the female Sphinx to batter it with the branches.

The group continued to rush towards the burrow where they were ushered in by the Naga and Shadewing, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm.

"Follow the Basan down the tunnel," commanded the Naga as the creatures rushed past her. The creatures did as they were told and followed the Fire Chickens down the tunnel. However, those behind were still in danger of the Eagle beast as it managed to overpower Blaze and knock the Phoenix out of the air with a powerful wing-swipe as he flashed back to his flesh-and-blood form from his fiery form, the severe scratch inflicted on its flank by Kushanku rendering it unable to efficiently wield its talons due to the extreme pain. It also dodged the Sphinx's attempt to whack it with her branches and struck the Sphinx square in the stomach with its head, stunning the Sphinx and making her drop the branches from her mental grasp, sending them plummeting towards the earth, and forcing the Sphinx herself to retreat after Blaze, a massive, ear-piercing screech exploding from its beak and its flank bleeding from Kushanku's scratch. The Eagle beast then gave chase as the last of the evacuees of Kushanku's group hurried desperately into the burrow. As the last few individuals hurried into the burrow with Kushanku, puffing and panting and his claws soaked with the Eagle beast's blood, joined them and helped everyone into the burrow, the Eagle beast came dangerously close to the group and to everyone's utmost horror; it darted out with a talon and seized one of them.

"TROODON!" cried Kushanku when he saw the Theropod get pulled away from the others, screaming and crying. Then the Eagle beast lurched forward and attacked the others with its other talon, forcing them to duck. Kushanku was pounced upon by Blaze and collapsed onto the ground as the talon's claws swung over the small crowd, along with Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm. However, the talons managed to clip Shadewing and knock him over. In his stun, the Bat threw the lamp containing Emberflame and it smashed against a tree nearby, freezing Emberflame and exposing the Pyro to the spell-induced freezing cold winter air. Quickly, the Pyro retreated into the burrow after the others while Blaze quickly ushered Kushanku and his siblings into the burrow as well. While the Phoenix did that, the other Sphinx, the male named Skóni, telekinetically seized a rock nearby and with a throw of his arm, he tossed the rock from its resting point at the Eagle beast as it then threw Troodon into the snow, sending the poor reptile crashing hard into the cold powder where he was rescued by Brina and taken into the burrow. The Eagle beast then saw the rock head its way, ducked and then admitted defeat and retreated into the trees, crying as it left and plunging everyone into relief. As the beast left, Nyarth gazed after it.

"What WAS that?" asked Kushanku's older brother in utter horror. Blaze glared after it.

"I don't know but at least it's been driven away," said the Phoenix, "Let's get you into the burrow."

"Wait, where's Belladonna?" asked Akira. At this, Nyarth, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Shadewing who was helped to his feet by one of the Sphinxes, a small cut on the side of his head where the tip of the Eagle beast's talons made contact during the skirmish, began to look around for any signs of the purple-black Kitsune while Brina brought in a badly traumatised Troodon who was trembling violently and whimpering, and his side wounded where the talons had made contact.

"The last time I saw her was when she was talking with Troodon and the two Platypuses and three Alicorns," said Kushanku. As he said this, Troodon murmured and muttered, too traumatised to even care. Then Blaze breathed a sigh and returned to his duty.

"Never mind that Fox. Let's just get you guys into Gandalf's burrow, quickly and get you treated," said the Phoenix. Kushanku nodded and followed the others into the burrow when suddenly, "Guys, WAIT!"

At this, everyone froze and turned to the caller whose voice travelled from the trees. Then within moments, a purple-black form emerged, looking exhausted, shaken, wounded and terrified. At this, Blaze opened his magnificent wings and flew over to Belladonna as she struggled towards the burrow. Shadewing, despite being shaken himself from the close shave with the creature's talons almost slashing his head, then ushered Kushanku, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira into the burrow as Blaze began to reprimand Belladonna.

"Where have you BEEN?" demanded the Phoenix as he guided the Kitsune towards the burrow, "You know FULL WELL this place is crawling with those cronies of the Witch…"

"I-I-I don't know," said Belladonna, "I sensed something approach and fled and the next thing I knew, a giant Eagle beast was upon me and I was forced to beat a hasty retreat…"

"Then why weren't you there to help us out when the creature was attacking us?" asked Sandstorm angrily. Belladonna just gazed at the Cheetah cub and began to shed a tear. Then Blaze intervened.

"Let's just get into the burrow," said he and with that, the Phoenix led Belladonna into the burrow.

"Hurry, I can see some Wolpertingers, Gorgons, and a Naga who has defected to the Witch's side come in," said the Naga when she saw movement across the clearing. At this, Blaze quickly sped thing sup and barked at Kushanku and the remaining group members into the burrow while the Naga, her eyes on the appearing group of ugly snake-haired monsters, Rabbit-like creatures resembling a cross between a Jackalope and a Skvader armed with lethal sabre-teeth, and a serpentine humanoid rush in, apparently having been alerted by the noise of the skirmish earlier, then backed into the burrow and pulled a large boulder over the entrance with the help of the two Sphinxes. However, as the group went in, Nyarth's eyes happened to catch something on Belladonna's left flank and the way she was walking. At this, Kushanku's oldest brother turned his gaze onto the Kitsune's flank and saw some bleeding gashes run down her side and over her thigh in a similar way the scratch had run down the Eagle beast's flank and over its thigh area for Kushanku had struck the monster down the left flank during the skirmish. Furthermore, Belladonna looked furious and in pain, especially as she limped from the pain of the scratches. At first, Nyarth assumed that Belladonna must have scratched herself but when he examined the scratches closer, he arrived at another conclusion, one that he didn't like. However, Nyarth was forced to put off the suspicion as he followed Belladonna and the others deeper into the tunnel while the Naga and the two Sphinxes sealed off the entrance moments before the group of Wolpertingers, Gorgons, and a Naga loyal to the Witch then began to investigate the site where the skirmish had occurred. They continued to examine this spot for a few moments before moving on, muttering amongst themselves that they must have been hearing things, much to the relief of the Naga and the two Sphinxes.


	34. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33- another rebel against the Witch joins Trotterhoof's group, and his reason for his turning against her**

 **Meanwhile**

Snow had begun to fall once again and the winds were picking up. A small critter (a dumb, non-Talking creature, specifically a mouse), was out digging for food in the snow at the foot of a tree when suddenly, it was disturbed by the sound of metal blades slicing through snow and the pounding of hooves and feet on it. Startled, the mouse darted into a crevice of the tree trunk moments before a sled carrying a few black cloaked figures with some more pulling it appeared and glided right past the exact same spot where the mouse had been. Trotterhoof the Pig, Cyril the Hippogriff, Link the Peryton, Desdemona the Griffin, Milky Way the Pegasus and Thundersparx the Raiju were pulling the sled along while Alexandrite and Padparadscha "Paddy" the Nekomata, Molayne the Dog, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, Dashiell the Cheetah and the only biological family member he had left aside from Sandstorm; his daughter Amberpaw, and Citron and Eureka the baby Otters who were being cared for by Paddy, and also Nanu the Wolf who still had his feet tied together in the cargo section of the sled at the back, were still on the move, desperately looking for Kushanku and the other villagers of Green Leaf to reunite with them (in the case of Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne anyway, while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way want to simply seek refuge with the other evacuated Aslan-believing Narnians with Gandalf the Kitsune, his mate Kyukon and their group in their base and hopefully wait for the next step in the wise nine-tailed Kitsune's plans based on the Great Lion's guidance from there). While the group continued to sled along with the pullers pulling it like reindeer or yule goats, Amberpaw was very disgruntled.

"Are we there yet?" asked the Cheetah cub.

"Look, just sit quietly and behave will you?" said Alexandrite in rebuke as she helped Paddy feed the orphaned baby Otters Citron and Eureka some baby milk the group had managed to salvage, along with a variety of other foods such as meat and fruit, from an abandoned village during their travels. Like Green Leaf, that village was deserted and had either been overrun by Jadis's cronies or the villagers had left for Gandalf's base. Alexandrite and Paddy, along with Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne, were still dressed in their Banshee-like outfits while Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way still wore their invisible cloaks, and Citron and Eureka had been wrapped in some fresh cloths while Dashiell, Amberpaw and Nanu had been given coats, both of which had also been salvaged from the deserted village the group had passed through during their journey.

"Your attitude is seriously starting to annoy the rest of us, Amber," said Obsidian as she watched over Nanu with Molayne. Amberpaw flashed the near-black and vivid fiery red-orange marked six-legged Mountain Cat a mocking smirk.

"And I think you need to eat some chicken or beef, Panther-face, and get over your dislike of meat," said the Cheetah cub snidely and mockingly, deliberately striking one of Obsidian's most sensitive nerves. This sent hot rage tearing through the Wampus Cat and she shot Amberpaw a volcanic glare. Her fiery orange-red markings glowed brighter like magma and also her anger and she bared her teeth and flared her orange eyes. Amberpaw's mocking attitude immediately flashed to immense fear when she found herself on the receiving end of a fiery glare from an enraged six-legged creature resembling a fiery creature from deep under Narnia's surface and backed away towards Dashiell. However, Obsidian had good restraint on her rage but she was still fiercely glowing with it.

"You mock my vegetarianism and why I had turned against eating meat again and I'll claw your spotted fur out," growled Obsidian threateningly. Amberpaw swallowed a lump in her throat and shuddered as the Wampus Cat then turned round and returned to Molayne's side, her fiery orange-red markings dimming as her anger subsided, though the pain from Amberpaw's mockery of her hatred of meat due to her traumatic experiences at Jadis's place still lingered like pain from a burn. Molayne then angrily jabbed Amberpaw in the shoulder, making the Cheetah cub yelp in pain and clasp her paw over the impacted area. 

"Stop mocking Obsidian and Thundersparx's vegetarianism, Amberpaw," hissed the Dog as Amberpaw shot him an angry look, "How would YOU feel if _I_ mocked the loss of your brother Gingerfur in the arena a few days ago…"

The moment that question left his mouth, a Cheetah cub paw appeared and struck the puppy hard across the face. Molayne flinched and yelped in pain as the force of the slap threw his muzzle in the direction of the paw's flight. Amberpaw, her face saturated with pure offense and anger and her eyes weeping tears, then turned her back on Molayne and retreated towards Dashiell's side where she laid down and began to weep. Molayne looked on dumbfounded as he rubbed his slapped cheek, which was stinging quite badly, with a paw.

"Just leave that brat and Mr Dashiell, Molayne," said Alexandrite as she cradled Citron in a low voice, a flash of annoyance at the two Cheetahs, "They're too stuck-up to listen…"

"I heard that, you two-tailed MONGOOSE!" screeched Amberpaw in a tearful shout.

"Yeah, we CAN HEAR you, you know!" put in Dashiell. Alexandrite just flashed the two Cheetahs a glare and brought Molayne over to Paddy as she cradled the other baby Otter, Citron. Obsidian, who had been watching the whole incident including Amberpaw's stunning blow to Molayne's face, gazed at the two Cheetahs with a sympathetic look.

"Looks like Thundersparx, Milky Way and I are not the only ones with seriously deep wounds," said the Wampus Cat to herself and with a sigh, she turned to the two Nekomata sisters as they cradled the two baby Otters in their arms and also to check on Molayne as he continued to rub his hurt cheek.

The group continued to sled along when suddenly; the sound of an uproar began as the group ran through another grove of leafless trees and shrubs.

"What's that noise?" asked Obsidian when she heard a sound.

"Sounds like a riot going on," said Thundersparx as he ran at the front, his head being the only part of him visible for he was wearing his invisible cloak, and the reins connecting him to the sled snaking over his hidden body. Then Alexandrite and Paddy cocked their ears to listen to the uproarious noise.

"I… don't think… it's a… riot… guys," murmured Alexandrite with uncertainty. Then suddenly, the POOF noise was heard, and Milky Way, Desdemona and Link spotted a flash of light erupt and then disappear in a blink of an eye through the shrubbery. Startled, the group slowed to a stop as another flash of energy erupted through the trees again, flashing at the base of one of the tree trunks. From that flash and the tree's base, a blur jumped out and dashed on.

"That was another blast of a magic spell," cried Milky Way, "and it looks like someone's trying to flee something chasing it."

At this, Trotterhoof squinted his eyes and examined the fleeing form. The form was a quadrupedal (four-footed) creature and it resembled a Canid but it also appeared to have traits like a Reptile as well. Its fur was scaly and metallic blue-grey, like a fish's but then the Pig noticed that the creature's paws resembled the hands of an Ape, complete with an opposable thumb, a trait that Apes, Monkeys and Humans had. Furthermore, the Dog-like creature had a fifth hand on the end of its thrashing tail and some spikes were strewn over its sleek fur with a row of stiff spines running along its back like the spines of a Dragon or Wyvern. The fingers on all five of the creature's hands were clawed, like talons, and the creature's eyes were a menacing amber colour and resembled a Cat's or a Reptile's, as well as the eyes of some of the evil Witch's cronies such as the Manticores and the Lizard-Men, but when Trotterhoof examined the creature's eyes closely as the Reptile-Dog flashed a glance behind it as it ran along, showers of snow being kicked up by its Ape-like hands, to his surprise, the creature's eyes were saturated with pure _terror_. As this clicked in place with the way the creature was running and dodging the spell blasts, Trotterhoof arrived at one conclusion and he also identified the creature's species, especially as the chasers of the creature, who were also riding in sleds or flying along, appeared with some of them throwing the spell blasts at the creature and shouting at it. And the riders of the sled were Black Dwarfs, Chubacabras, Ghouls, Gorgons and another type of horrifying humanoid-like creature with mouthparts resembling a three-petal flower but rimmed with sharp teeth along the lobes and a whip-like tongue protruding through the petal mouthparts' (these creatures were called 'Triffid-Mouths' and their tongue was highly venomous and could be deployed like a whip which can inflict serious injury and inject the victim with venom) while the flyers were some of the Skvader-Jackalope hybrid-like Wolpertingers, a Manticore and a Gargoyle. Some of those creatures were carrying some sort of wand and were firing the magical energy blasts as the fleeing Ahuizotl only to miss as the Ahuizotl dodged and ran on.

"That Ahuizotl looks like it's in danger," said the Pig, "We should rescue it right away!"

"But what if that creature is on the Witch's side?" asked Paddy.

"Most of the Ahuizotl have fallen for the Witch's side," put in Alexandrite. Then Thundersparx gazed at the terrified Ahuizotl as it dodged another spell blast launched at it from the Manticore who also launched brutal threats at the aquatic monster-like Dog from its fanged mouth.

"I know that Ahuizotl," said the Raiju, "His name is Ahhuayo (pronounced AH-wa-yoh) and we've met him before. The last time we saw him before we met you guys was when we were observing him walking past the participants of the previous Massacre Event before they were launched into the Bloodbath Arena and had wanted to help them but could not. He had been particularly concerned for the especially distraught individuals, such as that Cheetah cub, some of the younger animals and that pregnant Bear…"

"That Ahuizotl would have helped some of the poor Narnians forced into the so-called Fighting League to escape, among them Gingerfur?" asked Desdemona. Thundersparx nodded.

"But unfortunately he could not for the participants were so closely guarded by their 'supervisors'," said the Raiju sadly, "But he was especially upset for them when he was commanded by Gollum to leave for the arena seats, especially for that Cheetah cub…"

As he said this, Dashiell and Amberpaw looked up but then turned away while Nanu, who was still bound, shot the Raiju an astonished gaze.

Ahuizotls were a species of Dog-like creatures easily characterised by their metallic blue-grey coats, though they sometimes came in shades of metallic green, purple, brown and even red as well but the most common was metallic blue-grey. Their backs were smattered with a few spines similar to those of a fish with many of them sporting a complete row of them down their backs like a Dragon or Wyvern. Ahuizotls had Ape-like paws complete with opposable thumbs on all four of their limbs with a fifth hand and opposable thumb on the end of their tail (right-handed tail-hands were far more common than left-handed tail hands, with more than ninety-percent of individuals having right-handed tail-hands, similar to how right hands were dominant for writing than left hand in us humans). They were aquatic creatures and ate mostly fish and water plants, and a small clan of them lived in the marshlands near the River Shribble, alongside a small clan of friendly Kappa, Gillmen (aquatic humanoid creatures covered in scales capable of living on both land and in water) and Marsh-Wiggles, another type of humanoid creature who resembled men and women but had webbed hands and feet like a frog's and straw-like hair. However, since the Witch came into power, most of the Ahuizotls, Gillmen and Kappa had fallen for the evil Snow Queen's side and had become corrupted just like the Dwarfs, Kitsune, Nekomata and individuals from other Narnian species who had also fallen for the Witch's side, while the Marsh-wiggles, few of which had also fallen for the Witch's side, had fled. And like every almost Narnian that had fallen for the Witch's side, some of them had developed dark tastes such as the flesh of Talking-Beasts and watching the oppressed Narnian slay each other in the Arena of Blood during the Decadal Massacre Event (called deceptively by the Witch and her cronies 'the Fighting League', which we now know to be a blatant, shallow misnomer). However, some had remained loyal to Aslan and/or had eventually turned against the Witch and had either fled or were unfortunately found out and killed. And it appeared that this Ahuizotl was one such individual, and Trotterhoof and company saw that it was getting tired as it was puffing and panting, and was struggling to run further and dodge the spell blasts fired at it from its chasers.

Trotterhoof and company then picked up speed and began to run alongside the fleeing and petrified Ahuizotl as it jumped off one of the tree trunks to avoid another spell blast, and continued running. As the group slowly closed in on the Ahuizotl as it ran out of the shrubbery and into open land, Thundersparx commanded Trotterhoof, Desdemona, Cyril, Link and Milky Way to carefully run alongside the aquatic creature and for Obsidian to seize the Ahuizotl the moment they were close enough. As the Ahuizotl, now revealed to be named Ahhuayo, a male, slowly turned his head in the direction of Trotterhoof's group while puffing and panting and saw a group of Shadow-like figures running with a sled behind them, he at first let loose a terrified bark and tried to bolt but then Obsidian reached out, seized his hand-tipped tail with two of her paws and pulled him into the cockpit of the sled, just before another spell blast appeared and exploded in the exact same spot he had been moments before.

"Calm down, it's only us!" said the Wampus Cat when the Ahuizotl was about to enter defence mode. The hand-tailed Dog, at this, calmed down when he recognised the Wampus Cat and her bright orange-red markings. He was puffing and panting and still in adrenaline-mode and was finding it difficult to suppress his fear.

"Ob-Obsidian?" said he with surprise. Obsidian, with Alexandrite, Paddy and Molayne with Citron and Eureka in their arms looking over her shoulder, nodded. As soon as Ahhuayo was safely in the sled, Trotterhoof, Link, Desdemona, Cyril, Milky Way and Thundersparx picked up speed to drag the sled faster from the group of wand-armed Black Dwarfs, Chubacabras, Ghouls, Gorgons and Triffid-Mouths and their aerial Wolpertinger, Manticore and Gargoyle comrades who eventually broke off the chase. They had been fooled by the Banshee-like disguises worn by Trotterhoof's group and did not see Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way due to their invisible cloaks and had assumed them to be some Hags, Banshees and Shadows who had collected the fleeing Ahuizotl while they were chasing him. Assuming that the Ahuizotl will be dealt with, the mixed group of gruesome creatures moved on.

As Trotterhoof and company continued to sled on, Alexandrite stole a glance at Ahhuayo's chasers and saw them retreat.

"They've given up," said the Banshee-dressed Nekomata to the others, "They must have thought of us as Banshees and Hags who have captured this Ahuizotl and had arrived on the conclusion that we have done the task for them."

At this, Dashiell and Amberpaw let loose scoffing laughs at this remark while Nanu, who was still bound, shot the new arrival with an astonished look. Trotterhoof then replied, "That's excellent. Now let's continue our search for Kushanku."

The others nodded and with that, they rushed off through another patch of shrubbery. Moments later, Ahhuayo had finally calmed down and come out of his adrenaline-induced state of panic and urge to flee when he examined the riders and pullers. When he recognised Obsidian (still in her invisibility cloak) properly and examined Alexandrite, Padparadscha and Molayne dressed in their Banshee-like disguises with their makeshift ragged black cloaks, surprise washed over him.

"What are you guys doing way out here?" asked the Ape hand-footed Canid-like water creature with a handed tail before his gaze turned to the charcoal-black and fiery orange-red marked Wampus Cat, "Especially you, Obsidian. I-I-I thought you guys were still back at the White Witch's palace grounds spying on her while you folks," he turned to the two Nekomata and Molayne, "are settling into your new home after one of your family members won the previous Bloodbath Event," the Ahuizotl shuddered as he said this and he shed a tear from one of his menacing-looking amber eyes that strongly resembled those of a Lizard-Man, but without the piercing, intimidating glint those sometimes-bipedal tailed humanoid Reptiles had.

"We, that is, myself, Thundersparx and Milky Way, who you see are pulling this sled," said Obsidian with a point to those two pullers, to which Ahhuayo rose his upper body and stole a glance. Though the Pegasus and the Raiju were wearing invisibility cloaks, the Ahuizotl made out their distinctive ears (sparking for Thundersparx and pure white for Milky Way), "escaped with these seven from the most recent victor's family," Obsidian gestured to Alexandrite, Paddy (who held Citron and Eureka the baby otters), Molayne and then to Cyril, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Link pulling on the sled with Thundersparx and Milky Way at the front. Ahhuayo examined the ragged black cloaks worn by the two Nekomata and the Dog.

"I think I can tell how you seven had managed to slip past that Witch's crowd of followers and traitorous Narnians," said the Ahuizotl, "You guys resemble Hags and Banshees very well indeed."

"It was the only we could escape unnoticed," said Molayne, "While Obsidian and her two friends resorted to using their invisibility cloaks to skulk through that macabre crowd."

As the puppy spoke, Nanu the Wolf, his legs still bound, interrupted, his glare fixed especially on Ahhuayo.

"You should be back at Her Majesty the Queen's palace, Ahhuayo," said the Wolf, "what are you doing out here."

At this, Obsidian, Alexandrite, Paddy and Molayne shot the Wolf stern looks while Ahhuayo's gaze was saturated with trauma and trouble. The aquatic handed Dog then began to tremble all over and break down.

"Queen!?" he retorted, much to Nanu's eye-flash of surprise, "She's no Queen, Wolf."

"My name's Nanu," snapped Nanu.

"She's a MURDERER, a SADIST who absolutely LOVES watching innocent Talking Beasts gorily kill each other in that Bloodbath Arena, while her palace is nothing but a Slaughterhouse of Horrors…" shouted Ahhuayo. He then turned his gaze to the other listeners and before Nanu could speak, he swept on, "I've attended the most recent Bloodbath Event, one that the Dog named Soran won," he turned sympathetically to Alexandrite, Paddy and Molayne as he said this, "and believe me, what I saw happen in that arena plunged the final icicle into my heart. However, I could not escape from the palace grounds directly or I'd be caught and possibly killed or turned to a stone statue by the Witch herself.

"Will you STOP calling her a WITCH!" shouted Nanu but Obsidian gave him a hefty elbow to the shoulder and yelled at him to shut up. Nanu, at this, glared at the Wampus Cat and began to lick his shoulder where Obsidian had struck him as it ached dully. Ahhuayo continued.

"The opportunity only came when we were going out to erect one of these golden idols that the Witch had ordered to be constructed out of gold and jewels in one of the villages," he said, "and we were told to bow to it but I and some of the other villagers refused. The rebelling villagers allowed me to escape while they themselves were caught and burned to death by the Hellhounds and evil mini-Dragons or envenomed by the Basilisks, Triffid-Mouths and Xenojaws, and I fled for what seemed like forever until you guys rescued me. Anyway, continuing, this is how I decided to rebel against the Witch…"

And so Ahhuayo began his backstory. Alexandrite, Paddy, Obsidian and Molayne began to listen while the pullers continued to pull on the sled, obviously unable to listen for they were focussed on looking where they were running, or they would likely run into a tree or stone if they tried to listen to the Ahuizotl's backstory.

"When I was a very young Ahuizotl called a pup ten years ago, I lived with my family on the Witch's palace grounds. My parents and older siblings were very loyal to the Witch and thus brought me up in the lies of the Witch's history such as her rescuing Narnia from a war and locking it in the Eternal Winter to keep the enemies of Narnia away, and so on. That year, it was the year of the so-called 'Decadal Fighting League', the one that Raiju called Lightningflash had won. However, I was strictly forbidden from watching the event for reasons I did not know and was never told. Over the next ten years, and meeting you, Obsidian, with Thundersparx and Milky Way creeping around in those disappearing cloaks at some point, I was still curious about the 'Fighting League' and what it was about. Then when the next 'Fighting League' event arrived, the most recent one, that is, I and my siblings were allowed to watch the event for the first time, starting from seeing the participants get brought in for the feast and finishing with the emergence of the victor. After observing the participants as they ate at the banquet with the Witch and her followers, and witnessing some of them looking nervous or distressed, especially some of the younger ones, I became very concerned for them, but one of the Kitsune who was also loyal to the Witch, kept telling me that they will be alright and that they will fight fairly in the arena, and nothing more as they will only be focussed on the goal and nothing else. My parents said the same thing to me but that didn't quell my concern for the participants."

"Just before they were sent out into the arena and after the massive banquet, I dropped by to check on them as commanded by Gollum the Black Dwarf, and as I saw them up close, I saw that some of them looked very distraught and frightened. Amongst those frightened individuals were a Cheetah cub, a pregnant She-Bear and several young Animals, a few of them barely a few years old. I felt so concerned and worried for them that I wanted to go and free them but I was stopped by a Manticore in charge of the participants" (Ahhuayo began to shake and weep as he said this, while Dashiell and Amberpaw raised their heads to listen to his backstory when he mentioned a Cheetah cub) "and I was told to leave as soon as the participants were ready to be launched into the arena. As I was leaving, I saw those that were especially distraught break down and become more frightened as they were led away to the launching zones of the arena. Then a while later I was in the seating with the other followers of the Witch, the Witch herself and my family. I sat in one of the rows of seats closest to the front of the seating. As I sat next to my brothers and sisters who kept on assuring me that things will be all fine and that the participants will be alright, I still remembered the distraught and terrified looks on the faces of some of those participants. Then the countdown began and at the signal, all the participants were launched into the arena…"

As the Ahuizotl continued, his voice began to break as extreme distress came upon him, and his amber eyes began to ooze massive tears. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy and Obsidian looked on with sympathy as Ahhuayo struggled to continue.

"Go on," said Alexandrite. Ahhuayo did so.

"And moments after the participants were released and converged on each other, what happened next was the most… TRAUMATIC THING I had ever seen…" as he spoke, the Ahuizotl's mind began to recall the extremely gory and gruesome bloodbath when the participants turned on each other and began slaying each other in the goriest of ways, with some of them escaping. Images of the terrified individuals, among them very young, and the pregnant Bear and also the Cheetah cub Ahhuayo remembered seeing looking extremely terrified in the crowd of participants before their launch, escaping the carnage desperately flashed in his mind. In those flashbacks, the distraught Ahuizotl saw massive splatters of blood flying everywhere, claws attacking victims and so on. Not to mention some Manticores flying to the front of some fleeing individuals, some of them very young, and forced them back in the direction of the massive bloodbath where they were either slaughtered or barely escaped again. He also pictured himself looking on in extreme horror while everyone else around him in the stands including his siblings and the Kitsune who told him earlier that the participants would fight fairly, cheered in sickening excitement as they watched the carnage. Then Ahhuayo remembered himself being unable to take in the bloody carnage any more, feeling extremely sick to the stomach and darting from his seat, rushing through the seating despite commands from the older followers of the Witch that he return to where he was; rocket away from the arena and towards a log where he dived behind, slumped down and began to sob uncontrollably from the indescribable trauma from what he had witnessed. As the flashback ended, Ahhuayo continued to sob hard, tears falling in massive amounts from his eyes like snow in a heavy blizzard and his forepaw hands over his eyes. Alexandrite, Paddy, Molayne and Obsidian looked on sympathetically and placed comforting paws on the sobbing aquatic Canid-like creature's back.

"I-I-I could not BELIEVE what I was WITNESSING," wailed Ahhuayo, "Th-th-they were fighting… a-a-and killing each other… like mindless KILLING THINGS… while those who did not want to… participate… in the fight… were TRYING to DESPERATELY ESCAPE… for their very LIVES… only to be forced… back into the slaughter… by those Manticores…" he slowly looked up at his listeners with tear-stained Reptilian eyes, "Honestly… I SAW it… the TRUE NATURE of the so-called FIGHTING LEAGUE… up CLOSE... the GORE… the SLAUGHTER… something I was NEVER told by my family, that Kitsune OR anyone else…" he continued to sob and wail, "That was when I decided to rebel against the Witch and turn against her, even if it meant risking my life… a-a-and you know what hurts the most, to add more vinegar to the wounds?"

No-one answered so Ahhuayo answered his own question.

"I have been told by that Kitsune, my own FAMILY and my so-called FRIENDS that I had been UTTERLY STUPID in backing out of that event," he wailed again, "not to mention IMMATURE. Furthermore, my so-called friends and family seemed to have thoroughly ENJOYED that event…"

After he had said this, he broke down once again. Obsidian put a comforting paw on Ahhuayo's shoulder. It was obvious that the Ahuizotl had witnessed an extremely disturbing scene similar to how she, Milky Way and Thundersparx had witnessed some Talking Beasts get slaughtered against their will and then butchered for their meat. Then Obsidian tried to assure the distressed and badly traumatised Ahuizotl.

"Well, you are with us now, Ahhuayo," said the Wampus Cat in a low, soothing voice, "And we're gonna get you to safety once we find Trotterhoof and company's friends and reunite with them…"

At this, Ahhuayo managed a small smile but because he was so flooded with the blizzard of his distress and guilt, it only lasted a mere few seconds. Then Ahhuayo found himself on the receiving end of a pair of hate-saturated glares from two certain Cheetahs in the sled. At this, the Ahuizotl looked up and found Dashiell and Amberpaw just look away and in the opposite direction. It was obvious that the two Cheetahs harboured a bitter grudge against Ahhuayo for Gingerfur's demise, but it was obviously not the Ahuizotl's fault. He had been barred from interacting with the participants before they were sent into the arena, among them Gingerfur, and Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way would have been spotted if they had taken action as well. It truly was a difficult time for the Ahuizotl and it was going to take a long time for him to recover from a LOT of things.

While Ahhuayo continued to weep in the cockpit Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy (who had the baby Otter pups Citron and Eureka in her arms) and Obsidian heard Trotterhoof say, "Look, a group of migrating creatures being led by an electric Element Bird, over there."

At this, the group excluding Nanu, Dashiell and Amberpaw all peered out of the sled and looked in Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cyril, Link, Milky Way and Desdemona's direction. As they did so, they saw a group of Narnians, consisting of a variety of aquatic creatures, walking along with an electrical Thunderbird, its magnificent golden yellow and beige plumage flying ahead of them, walk along like a group of migrating animals in our world. Milky Way squinted as she struggled to identify the species of some of the creatures, among them a type of humanoid with frog-like hands and feet.

"Aren't they the inhabitants from the North, where the Great River Shribble divides our country from that of Ettinsmoor?" said the Pegasus, "I've seen a few of those creatures amongst the followers of the wicked Witch."

Thundersparx squinted and gazed at the walking aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures who, like every other migrating Narnian group, were on its way to Gandalf's base, and under the guidance of an Elemental Bird.

"Yes, it's the clans of Marsh-Wiggles, Gillmen, and the Kappa and Ahuizotl who are loyal to Aslan from the Marshlands near Ettinsmoor," said the Raiju, "Looks like they've been migrating south from Jadis's palace as well."

At this, Ahhuayo, his eyes still tear-stained, looked up and saw the migrating Marshland inhabitants as well.

"I think we should follow them," he said, "I believe they may be heading to someplace safe."

"That sounds like a good idea but we can't follow them while dressed like this," said Trotterhoof, showing his ragged black Banshee-like cloak and also Thundersparx and Milky Way's invisibility cloaks, "They might think we're a patrolling group of Banshees or Shadows or Hags and that Thunderbird might fly in and zap us to a crisp if we're spotted."

"Then we should slowly follow them unnoticed, and keep out of their sight," said Thundersparx, "if they are migrating to some safe place, away from the Witch and her clutches, I would like us to head there too."

"Yeah, I've been itching to get out that Witch's domain for ages, especially after what we've been witnessing for ten years," said Obsidian, before her gaze turned to Alexandrite, Paddy and the rest of Trotterhoof's group of seven escapees, "And Trotterhoof's group could do with being taken to safety after escaping their traitorous family as well."

Then after some discussion and rebuking Nanu, Dashiell and Amberpaw when they complained and that they were going to follow the Marshland clans whether they liked it or not, Trotterhoof and Thundersparx's groups all reached an agreement and then proceeded to follow the migrating group of River Shribble clans, keeping a good distance from them so that they were not spotted and thus mistaken for a patrol group of the Witch's cronies.


	35. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34- first time in Gandalf's base and trouble already**

 **Meanwhile, back at Gandalf's base**

Kushanku sat disgruntledly in a chair, being checked over for any injuries by Mensa the Skvader. However, the Nekomata was restless and refused to keep still. As Mensa was inspecting his head for any cuts, Kushanku suddenly snapped his gaze in one direction.

"Keep your head still, will you!" said Mensa in annoyance as Kushanku returned his head to its usual position but before she could return to inspecting the area again, Kushanku snapped his gaze in the direction of some Talking Beasts, among them Blaze the Phoenix, Brina the Roc, Shadewing the Bat, Emberflame the Pyro and also Nyarth, Satoshi (whose broken arm had been fixed by the healing fire-flower juice cordial and was now functioning again), Akira and Sandstorm, Kushanku's biological and adopted siblings, as they walked in, causing Mensa to throw her paws down in irritation. Amongst the group was Cygnus the Swan and he was carrying some sort of bottle full of deep red liquid which Kushanku had recognised as the healing fire-flower cordial like the small amount Gellert the Elf had and had used to heal Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird's injuries.

"Has that Nekomata any serious injuries as a result of the skirmish with that Eagle beast, Mensa?" asked Shadewing. At this, Mensa quickly finished examining Kushanku's head and backed away.

"No but he does have a few bruises," said the Bird-Rabbit, before she returned her gaze at Kushanku and looked at him with immense surprise but also with outrage as well, "however, he had been terribly reckless in throwing himself at that Eagle beast. He could have been _killed_."

"That monster was about to kill Miss Brina and Snowwing," snapped the Nekomata defiantly, "If I hadn't intervened, those two could have been possibly turned into a meal by that thing…"

"Well, you were still very reckless and foolish, young Nekomata," snapped Mensa fiercely and with a paw point jab into Kushanku's chest, making the Nekomata flinch with a defiant frown. At this, Cygnus stepped in to break up the argument.

"Stop it, both of you;" said the Swan, his glare flashing from Mensa to Kushanku, "Arguing about this is not going to solve anything."

At this, Mensa and Kushanku cooled down and watched Cygnus as he backed away to allow Blaze to take his place, flashing the Swan a nod as the two birds passed by each other.

"Thanks, Cygnus," said the Phoenix, before resuming the matter by shooting Kushanku a furious look.

"Right then, Kushanku, tell me; how did that Eagle beast turn up and attack us just as we were arriving outside one of the hidden entrances to Gandalf and Kyukon's base?" demanded Blaze.

"Yeah, the skirmish had drawn in the unwanted attention from some of Jadis's cronies and they very nearly found the entrance," put in Cygnus with an equally outraged look on his face. At this, Kushanku shot the Swan and the Phoenix an astonished and confused look while Brina, Shadewing, Mensa, Emberflame and Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm stood back, looking on.

"I-I-I didn't do anything," began Kushanku but Shadewing cut him off.

"According to Belladonna who's in the adjacent room being treated for her injuries," said the Bat, "You've attracted the attention of the Eagle beast and provoked it in to flying towards us and attacking us, starting with flying towards Snowwing, Mensa's son," he flashed a glance at the furious Mensa. As the Bat spoke, Nyarth shot Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira a disagreeing look and shook his head while Brina and Emberflame wore equally disagreeing frowns.

"Honestly, Kushanku," shouted Mensa fiercely, "That monster nearly devoured my _only son_ AND almost severely injured or even _killed_ Brina as well. Now tell us, did you provoke the beast into attacking us or not?"

Kushanku, at this, did not answer for he was swamped with confusion but when he remembered where he was when the monster first appeared and attacked Snowwing, he shook his head.

"No," he said.

"Well, Belladonna honestly said that you did," said Shadewing in disagreement, "and now that we know that you can fly by spinning your forked tail, to our immense surprise," Kushanku flinched at this and gazed at his bifurcating tail as the Bat swept on, "Belladonna said she saw you fly into the air while Snowwing was hovering above us looking for her and you provoked the Eagle beast flying past into flying towards you and you sent it flying towards Snowwing…"

"I did NOT fly up and provoke the monster!" snapped Kushanku furiously, "And besides that, I would NEVER endanger the lives of anyone else! I only flew up to help save Miss Brina and Snowwing…"

As he said this, Satoshi stepped in while Brina and Emberflame began to talk with each other. They obviously knew that Kushanku, reckless as though he was at times, would never provoke a dangerous monster into attacking himself or anyone else, much less do it _deliberately_.

"Yeah, he's been with us the whole time when we heard the beast's cries," said the brother of Kushanku. Sandstorm, Nyarth and Akira also stepped in and stood around Kushanku, agreeing looks on their faces as they backed Kushanku up.

"But Belladonna had been missing," added Akira, "When Troodon came and asked us where she was, I assumed that she was on the other side of the group. That is why Snowwing flew up to look for her from above..."

"Have you tried asking Snowwing himself?" asked Sandstorm.

"He's too badly traumatised from the ordeal to speak," said Mensa with an angry frown, "It's gonna take him hours to overcome the extreme shock…"

As they were speaking, a Centaur and two Fauns arrived.

"Gandalf and Kyukon are on their way to meet you guys," said the Centaur named Perseus. At this, Cygnus turned and gazed at the trio.

"Alright, thanks, Perseus," said the Swan. Perseus and the two Fauns nodded and left, leaving Cygnus to turn to face Kushanku and his siblings once again.

"We'll sort this out with Gandalf and Kyukon but in the meantime," said the Swan, "You guys, especially you, Kushanku, are to be confined here until this matter is dealt with."

"WHAAART!?" snapped Kushanku.

"You heard him," said Shadewing in agreement to Cygnus's penalty. Then Brina and Emberflame spoke up.

"We'll look after the four Nekomata and the Cheetah cub," said Brina.

"Yes, you guys go and see to the other group members and meet with Gandalf and his mate," put in Emberflame. Shadewing, Blaze, Cygnus and Mensa nodded, turned round and left. After the four had left, Kushanku stood up from his chair, whirled round and stormed off towards one of the walls, a furious and distraught look on his face.

"It's not FAIR!" howled the Nekomata tearfully with a paw swipe at the wall before harshly slamming his backside onto the floor as he fiercely sat down, exasperated, "I didn't do ANYTHING!"

"I know you didn't" said Emberflame gently, much to the shock of Kushanku, snapping him out of his tantrum and pulling his gaze towards the fiery sprite as Brina, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm stood around her.

"You believe me?" asked the Nekomata with surprise.

"You were with us the entire time when that beast appeared," said Sandstorm.

"And you also saved my and Snowwing's life by throwing yourself at the beast to distract it to allow me to escape to the safety of the burrow entrance with Snowwing," put in Brina, before she moved on to Kushanku's rather intruding ability, "By the way, I had no idea that you could fly. It's an extremely rare ability amongst Nekomata…"

"I only noticed it a few days ago," said Emberflame, "and when I did, I was utterly surprised."

Brina turned to Emberflanme with a smile on her beak, "I think we ought to train Kushanku to utilise that ability during the training sessions in combat, basic survival, medicine and other essential topics once his group and the other migrating Narnians had settled into here. It might prove very useful in the future," but then the Roc's face fell slightly, "But I don't think we have any teachers specialised in training Nekomata able to fly by spinning their tails here for it is such a rare ability…"

As she said this, Kushanku looked on and then moved his gaze to his forked tail. He then twisted the forks into a helix-like spiral and saw that he was able to voluntarily do this. This was extremely rare, for the majority of Nekomata did not have such prehensile control over both their tail branches. Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi were amongst that large group, thus they were not likely to possess the ability Kushanku had, though Nyarth did have the ability to deftly jump from one branch or tree trunk to another, and Akira and Satoshi possibly had some talents of their own, though they were yet to come to the surface in the future. While Kushanku was gazing at the dexterity of his tail branches, a knock came on the door.

"Excuse me?" said the knocker, pulling the attention of the group to her. To the group's surprise, but to Nyarth's suspicious frown and Kushanku's hostile glare, Belladonna had appeared in the circular doorway. As the black-purple Kitsune stood, Akira and Sandstorm examined her front paw and her left flank. To their surprise, the scratches were absent and the injured front paw looked totally healed. It was obvious that Cygnus had used the cordial he had on him to heal Belladonna's injuries.

"What do you want, Belladonna?" asked Brina sternly, "Don't you know that these five are confined to here to await Gandalf and Kyukon's arrival?"

"I just want to check on them to make sure they are okay," said Belladonna as she walked in. She flashed a frown, and then a sweet smile, at Kushanku, as she approached group, making Kushanku wince disgustedly, before returning her gaze on the Roc and the Pyro, an angry frown having formed on her face, "but I sure hope Kushanku gets punished for bringing in that Eagle beast to attack us…"

"Look, Bella," said Emberflame brusquely, "We will sort this out when Gandalf and Kyukon turn up, okay? For now, let's leave it and focus on settling here, okay?"

However, as she spoke, unease was welling within the Pyro for she clearly disliked the Kitsune, and Brina was no different. Then Satoshi began to complain and placed his paw, the one that had been injured but was now healed, onto his stomach.

"I'm hungry," he said in a low voice. At this, Brina shot the Nekomata a slightly annoyed look. Then Kushanku, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira began to complain of hunger. Giving in, the Roc left to find some food.

"Will you be alright with the Nekomata, Belladonna and Sandstorm until I get back with some nuts, veg and fruit?" Brina asked Emberflame. Emberflame nodded and with that, the Roc disappeared through the circular doorway.

"Mind you, I'm feeling peckish myself," said Belladonna calmly, her paw on her belly as well. Then Emberflame turned to her and the other five.

"Well, you six sit down and wait for Brina to return," said the Pyro, "I'm going to check on Snowwing through there."

And with that, she left, her flames dancing behind her as she floated away. Belladonna turned to the four Nekomata and Sandstorm.

"You sure have a nice, motherly Pyro there, don't you, Cats?" she said with a smile, before removing it, "mind you, Pyros and other fiery beings seem to be very rare these days since the Witch's wintery curse over Narnia has made the frigid air so deadly to them…"

"She's known us since we were kits and cubs," said Sandstorm as he sat in front of Kushanku, possibly to prevent any tension forming between him and Belladonna for he could sense how imminent that was since the Kitsune and the Nekomata were both in the room, and Belladonna still had a sour attitude towards Kushanku.

"I see," said Belladonna with intrigue, "I guess she's like a nanny to you?"

"In a way," said Akira, "She's helped to raise us four, and Sandstorm and his siblings Amberpaw and Gingerfur, to give our mother and father a break."

"She was also a nanny to Dahlia, the Jackalope kit; Snowwing the Skvader kit and Crystal the Parrot chick," added Satoshi as he sat against the wall, "And also our tutor. She taught us how to read and write, and also astronomy, biology and maths."

"That sounds awesome," said Belladonna with a smile, "Despite the hardships caused by the Witch's wintery curse and tyranny afflicting everyone in this country, you seemed to have had a fruitful education during your younger years…"

"Yeah but then all that fell apart when Gingerfur was forcibly selected to participate in the so-called Fighting League," said Sandstorm sadly. Belladonna flashed a smile but then immediately shook her head in shock.

"You lost one of your siblings to the Massacre Event Jadis has created to celebrate her seizing the throne once every ten years?" she said. Sandstorm, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi nodded but Kushanku remained silent and shot her a bitter glare. He was clearly exasperated from Belladonna's getting him in trouble time and time again. Then Nyarth interrupted.

"Well, that's enough about our past. It's too painful," said he, "I can see Sandstorm's starting to weep over the loss of Gingerfur and it's not helping us four either. Let's just relax and prepare to settle into here. It's been a very long and difficult journey and some of us had suffered quite some traumatic experiences throughout."

"Okay then," said Belladonna slightly irritably and sat with her back against the wall. There was a moment of silence at first but then Nyarth broke it, a suspicious frown forming on his face.

"Come to think of it," he muttered, "it is clear that during two of those incidences, the one with Yuki-onna and the most recent one with the Eagle beast, someone must have been behind trying to get someone killed in _both_ of those incidences AND land someone else," he flashed a glance at one particular Nekomata who sat behind Sandstorm, "into trouble with the elders, including Mr Blaze the Phoenix…"

At this, Belladonna shot Nyarth a curious look.

"Someone must have been behind the Eagle beast and the Yuki-onna incidences?" asked the Kitsune.

"When those two incidences happened, someone had been involved and had been absent during their occurrence," hissed Nyarth in reply.

"Oh, I was just terrified," said Belladonna nonchalantly, "You know what I'm like. I just don't like getting involved with life-threatening situations…"

"Well what about when that Eagle beast attacked Troodon whom you have befriended?" asked Nyarth in a low voice, "How come you weren't there when he was almost dragged away from the burrow entrance and killed by that thing?"

Belladonna, at first, was lost for words but finally she found something to say.

"I-I-I was rooted to the spot with extreme fear," she said.

"I don't think you were," said Nyarth with narrowed, unconvinced eyes.

"No, h-h-honestly, I was," said Belladonna, "That thing terrified me…"

Suddenly, Satoshi interrupted.

"Miss Emberflame and Miss Brina are returning," he said. At this, Nyarth and Belladonna broke off their argument and looked up at the Pyro and the Roc as they floated and walked in respectively, the latter carrying some fruit, veg and nuts of various varieties, though they were of a basic selection and not the advanced selection the Witch and her cronies had at the palace. At this, the Kitsune and Nekomata returned to their seats as Brina and Emberflame approached them with the former setting down the fruit, veg and nuts. Sandstorm, Nyarth, Akira, Satoshi, Kushanku and Belladonna's eyes widened at the food and all six of them hurried over and began to dig in. However, as the group seized the first apples, bananas and nuts, Belladonna 'accidentally' bumped into Kushanku's side while everyone else's eyes were turned away from them. Kushanku released a shriek of shock and was sent careening into Brina, stepping onto her foot and then bowling into the Roc, making the Ice Bird shout in pain and then seize the Nekomata in her wings before the two could crash into the floor.

"Careful, Kushanku!" shouted Brina in irritation and pain, "What are you trying to do? Knock me over?"

"I'm sorry but I didn't do anything! I must have got bumped during the rush," Kushanku replied as the Roc set him back on his feet with Emberflame's help.

"Just get some food inside you, Kushanku," said Emberflame gently and with that, the Pyro helped Kushanku to the pile of fruit, veg and nuts and helped him choose from the food pile. As Kushanku then sat down to eat, Belladonna snickered at the Nekomata as she ate an apple but Kushanku was too engrossed in beginning to eat his meal to notice, much to the Kitsune's spiteful dismay. As the group ate, Nyarth smiled.

"Now THAT'S what I call a proper meal," he said as he ate an apple.

"Don't talk with your mouthful," rebuked Akira before she took a bite out of a carrot. Nyarth just shrugged and continued eating, his cheeks full of apple as he chewed on it.

"Back in Green Leaf, we barely had enough to eat because of the Witch's unfair demands that we give ninety percent of our food delivery and crops to her and her cronies," said Sandstorm.

"That's why we are here, Sandy," said Emberflame, "It is to help rescue as many Narnians as possible from starvation from the Witch's perverse laws on food."

"Yes, Gandalf and Kyukon and their helpers have large crops and livestock of dumb animals being raised for food in some of their base compartments to provide the evacuees, such as yourself, with enough food during your stay," said Brina. At this, Belladonna's eyes lit up in fascination.

"How's Snowwing by the way?" asked Akira after she had swallowed a lump of carrot.

"He's still very badly traumatised but he's fine," said Brina, before the Roc shuddered herself as she remembered the trauma of almost getting killed by the Eagle beast, "it was a close shave, honestly. If it wasn't for Kushanku," the Roc shot said Nekomata a proud gaze, which Belladonna noticed, much to the Kitsune's glare, "we would have died, and Mensa would have lost her only son."

"I reckon his tail-spinning flight ability would prove useful in helping with aerial combat," said Sandstorm proudly. Kushanku just gazed at his adopted Cheetah brother and said nothing as he ate his apple. Emberflame was about to speak when Blaze's voice sounded at the doorway.

"Brina, Emberflame," called the Phoenix, "Kyukon is coming. Can you come and meet her with us please?"

The Phoenix's gaze then travelled to Kushanku and transformed into a stern glare, "And I hope she can help us to sort out the incident regarding the Eagle beast attack that almost killed some of us such as Snowwing and Brina."

Kushanku just gazed at Blaze and continued eating while Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira shot Blaze an angry glare and Belladonna just smiled slightly. Brina and Emberflame got up and walked or floated over to Blaze.

"You guys behave while we meet Gandalf's mate, you six," said Emberflame firmly. Kushanku and the other five including Belladonna nodded obediently. After this, the Pyro disappeared through the round doorway after Brina and Blaze to meet Kyukon.

Sometime after Emberflame and Brina left with Blaze, the six began to talk once again while eating.

"I can't wait to meet Mr Gandalf's mate," said Akira excitedly as she held a potato in her paws, "According to Mr Blaze, she is the mother of the entire Kitsune species, isn't she?"

"She is the first Kitsune to exist, alongside Mr Gandalf, shortly after Narnia's creation by Aslan," said Nyarth as he chewed on some grapes, "And has been tasked with being the parents of the Kitsune species, chronicling the events of Narnia and presumably playing a vital role in helping the Narnians during this dreadful Eternal Winter time."

"She and Mr Gandalf are also fully matured nine-tailed Kitsune as well, so they will likely be awesome experts in a lot of areas," put in Satoshi excitedly, "especially if they have been collecting knowledge for over 900 years."

"The Kitsune must be an amazing Taking Beast species," said Sandstorm, before his face turned dark, "but they also can be amazing in being cunning tricksters and pranksters as well, according to Dad."

"Regular Talking Foxes are also cunning at times though never to the same extent as their multi-tailed counterparts and cousins," said Satoshi. As he spoke, Belladonna slowly crept away from the talking quartet and moved over to Kushanku while he continued to miserably and disgruntledly eat. Akira, Nyarth and Sandstorm nodded in agreement. However, none of the four noticed Belladonna leave to approach their brother as he sat by himself and ate and as soon as the purple-black Kitsune was close to Kushanku, she lashed out a paw, seized the rest of Kushanku's food and shoved them greedily into her mouth, before turning to the apple Kushanku had in his paw and snatched it right out of his paw and ate that as well. Kushanku, at this, shot Belladonna an outraged glare as she greedily munched on his meal.

"HEY, that was MY MEAL!" shouted the Nekomata, drawing the attention of Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi. Belladonna, in response and with her cheeks stuffed to capacity of food like a hamster or squirrel's, then put on a taunting look as she gazed at Kushanku and with her paws, gave the Nekomata with the most VULGAR paw gestures in all of Narnia to provoke Kushanku further. As she did that, the Kitsune said with her mouth stuffed with food, "I hope Jadis comes along, catches, kills and eats ya, you, most vulgar word in Narnia!" and following this, the Kitsune spat her entire mouthful of chewed food right back into Kushanku's face, splattering the Nekomata with a disgusting concoction of chewed up nuts, carrots, apple and whatever else he had selected for his meal and covering him with a disgusting mess. That did it; the volcano of anger within Kushanku blew its top off like how Mt St Helens erupted in our world. With an extremely loud screech and a second thought, Kushanku leaped at Belladonna and the two began to fight like a pair of cats. Sandstorm, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth let loose horrified cat cries and rushed in top help as the Kitsune and Nekomata rolled in a whirlwind of metallic powder blue, white, grey, and purple-black, claws and teeth sinking into each other's skin and tearing out fur resulting in it flying everywhere, accompanied by corrosive and caustic words flying the brawlers' mouths at each other. Sandstorm tried to jump in to break the brawling Kushanku and Belladonna apart but Kushanku's tail came in and swatted him across the face as he rolled with Belladonna and tore into her pelage. Sandstorm was thrown aside and crashed into a heap near a wall. Nyarth tried his luck. As soon as Belladonna and Kushanku were upright, their faces saturated with pure wrath and their paws on each other's throats in an attempt to strangle each other, Nyarth rushed in and wrapped his paws around Belladonna's chest to pull her away from his younger brother while Akira and Satoshi seized Kushanku to do the same to him.

"GET OFF KUSHANKU, BELLADONNA!" bellowed Nyarth as he began to yank Belladonna away from Kushanku. Belladonna, at this, snapped her volcanic glare at Nyarth and with all her might sank her teeth into his right arm, drawing blood in the process. Nyarth let loose an extremely loud screech of agony and released Belladonna, before seizing his bitten and bleeding arm as it sent drops of blood dripping onto the floor, his face twisted in extreme pain. When Kushanku saw this, he, despite Satoshi and Akira trying to pull him away, raised a paw, flared its claws and without hesitation brought it down onto Belladonna's face, slashing her cheek and inflicting a bleeding scratch. In retaliation, Belladonna lurched forward, clamped her jaws onto Kushanku's white head hair and began to pull with all her might. Kushanku let loose a screech of agony as Belladonna pulled on his hair and because his brother and sister were pulling on him from behind in the opposite direction, the white hair Belladonna had her teeth clamped into began to pull from Kushanku's scalp in a tear. Then after one massive rip, the hairs came free and Belladonna was flung back with some of Kushanku's head hair in her mouth. At the same time, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira were thrown backwards against a wall where Satoshi and Akira banged their heads and slumped down, dazed. Belladonna, her cheek still bleeding from Kushanku's scratch, spat out the white hairs and glared murderously at Kushanku as he grasped his head where his hair had been torn out, his face twisted in pain and his eyes weeping tears, but before she could leap at the Nekomata to attack him again, a golden-orange blur mottled with spots appeared and tackled right into her side.

"YOU LEAVE KUSHANKU ALONE, you DISGUSTING FOX! I SAW WHAT YOU WERE DOING to MY ADOPTED BROTHER!" screeched Sandstorm as he did it, sending Belladonna flying towards the doorway where she crashed into… someone entering the room. Sandstorm looked on in utter horror as Belladonna and the newcomer, Brina the Roc, then collapsed into a heap on the floor. Kushanku, his eyes still weeping tears and his paws grasping his head where his hair had been torn out, also looked up as did Akira and Satoshi once they had come round from bashing their heads against the wall from pulling Kushanku from Belladonna, and Nyarth whose right arm was painfully bleeding with tooth marks piercing his skin. When they saw Brina rise to her feet and Belladonna begin to make up excuses for what had happened in here and that Kushanku started it, horror tore through the five of them.

"Miss Brina!" cried Sandstorm and with that, he rushed over to help the Roc to her feet but Belladonna drove him away.

"BACK OFF before you EVEN THINK ABOUT HURTING THIS ROC, CHEETAH!" shouted the Kitsune. Sandstorm glared at Belladonna volcanically as the latter helped Brina to her feet. As Brina rose to her feet with Belladonna's help, Emberflame appeared and examined the calamity. When the Pyro saw that Akira and Satoshi had bumps on their head where they had struck the wall, Nyarth with his bitten and bleeding right arm, Sandstorms glaring bitterly at Belladonna who had a scratch on her cheek, and Kushanku with some of his white head hair missing and weeping in addition to the scattered veg, nuts and fruit including some lumps of chewed up food scattered messily all over the floor of the room, the woman of fire finally lost patience when she arrived at one conclusion at what had happened.

"That does it, you six," she shouted angrily with a point of a fire hand at the group, "you will be put into separate rooms and kept there until you learn to behave and NOT fight, certainly NOT over food in a VERY IMPORTANT PLACE of a pair of HIGHLY RESPECTED NARNIANS ENTRUSTED with an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TASK by the GREAT LION!"

This made Kushanku, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira flinch in confusion and utter shame, while Belladonna looked on dumbfounded. However, five of the six knew who started this whole mess and they converged their outraged glares on the sixth one who only glared back at them with a furious glare of her own as if to say, "I hadn't started it!"


	36. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35- Kyukon's serious doubts about Belladonna**

 **Later**

"Alright then, Kushanku," said Emberflame firmly as she hovered in her fiery humanoid form near the Nekomata who sat in a chair with a very disgruntled and tearful look on his face, some of his white head hair missing as the result of Belladonna's tearing some of his hair out of his heads during their brawl earlier. Kushanku also had several bruises and cuts scattered across his body, but most especially around his neck where Belladonna had tried to strangle him, and his fur was still wet for he had been bathed to have his fur cleaned out of the foody mess Belladonna had splattered him with after chewing it up. Emberflame had her fiery arms folded in addition to a stern glare on her fiery face.

"Tell us; what happened in there after Brina and I had left to meet with Kyukon?" she asked firmly. Brina stood next to the Pyro, her face also laced with sternness as she glared at the upset Nekomata as well. Kushanku was sat by himself; Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Belladonna were sat in chairs in their own rooms being looked after and also questioned by some of the elders including Shadewing and Mensa. The reason Emberflame and Brina wanted the six separated was to avoid any quarrels between the six youngsters igniting in case they came up with contradicting answers against each other which could escalate into arguing and possibly another brawl. The chances of that happening were especially high between Kushanku and Belladonna for the two's relationship was incredibly volatile and explosive, and had been since the Yuki-onna incident. However, the volatility of their relationship was now more explosive than ever for the two now _absolutely_ cannot, repeat CANNOT, stand each other one bit and if they ever met again, they would probably launch into another fight, perhaps a bloodier one and this was what the elders wanted to avoid. Then Brina asked Kushanku a question.

"Why, and how, did you end up with some of your head hair torn out?" asked the Roc, "As well as how Satoshi and Akira ended up with bumps on their heads, Nyarth with his right arm badly bitten and Belladonna with her cheek scratched, and the food we set out before you to eat all over the place and also yourself?" asked the Roc. Kushanku tearfully looked up at the Ice Bird and the Pyro.

"Belladonna started it," he said in a growl and without hesitation.

"How did she start it?" asked Emberflame. Kushanku then launched into an explanation of what happened, starting from when Belladonna approached him unprovoked while he was eating and snatched his entire meal and shoved them into her mouth, including a partly-eaten apple he had in his paw. He then went on to explain how Belladonna had insulted him with a vulgar gesture too obscene to describe, how she wished Jadis would find, catch and eat him and then subsequently spewed the chewed up food all over him, causing him to fly into a volcanic rage and attack the Kitsune resulting in the brawl and the chaos ensuing, resulting in Satoshi and Akira banging their heads against the wall when trying to pull him away from Belladonna who had her jaws clamped hard onto his head hair and how Belladonna had bitten Nyarth in the right arm when he tried to intervene, and also how Sandstorm had screeched at the Kitsune and said that he and the other three had seen what Belladonna had done to him (Kushanku). Emberflame and Brina flinched, but most especially at the mentioning of Belladonna's mentioning of Jadis when she battered Kushanku with extremely those venomous insults.

"I don't like the sound of that, Brina," said Emberflame uneasily, "to wish someone serious harm involving the Witch is a serious offense."

"It absolutely is," said Brina with an angry look, "especially since that sadistic and bloodthirsty Snow Beast absolutely LOVES to cause unbounded amounts of misery to everyone in this country, including watching them slay each other in the goriest of ways in that Decadal Massacre Event she had invented…"

"Nyarth, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira also saw Belladonna approach me without hesitation as well," said Kushanku, "which I wouldn't the surprised if they tell their questioners that with total honesty…"

As he spoke, Quill the Hedgehog and Rubyfeather the Parrot strode in, their angry glares fixed on Kushanku.

"We're honestly getting sick and tired of the stupid behaviour of Kushanku, his four siblings and Belladonna, Brina and Emberflame," growled Rubyfeather angrily, "It's been going on since the Yuki-onna incident…"

"When will they learn to behave!?" put in Quill, before his glare was directed at Kushanku, "especially THAT young kit..."

"Don't get on at him," said Emberflame as Kushanku flinched at Quill's accusation, much to the Hedgehog's astonishment.

"B-b-but he's been fighting resulting in Nyarth getting bitten badly on the arm, and Satoshi and Akira almost knocked into unconsciousness…" protested Quill but Brina put up her wings to affirm Emberflame's defence.

"Look, we're sorting it out, Quill, don't jump to conclusions," said the Roc, "now why don't you go and ask one of the other five involved in this fight further about what happened with Rubyfeather?"

"No need for that," said Rubyfeather, "We've been questioning Belladonna plenty enough and she says that Kushanku started it."

At this Kushanku felt outrage tear through him and jolt his body in a flinch. Rubyfeather continued with, "She says that he was the one who wished that the Witch would come and eat her alive and then scratched her across the face…"

"That's NOT TRUE!" snapped Kushanku angrily, rising to his feet, "SHE provoked me first!"

Rubyfeather and Quill shot the Nekomata a furious look.

"You should be punished, young kit," retorted Rubyfeather, "When Kyukon gets here; we're gonna explain YOUR bad behaviour and everything that had happened to her and…"

At this, Kushanku, in his tearful rage, twisted the two branches of his tail and spun them around. Then the Nekomata, his emotions beginning to erupt in the form of sobs and tears, launched himself into the air and flew off before Rubyfeather could finish.

"Hey, don't you tail-spin fly away from us, young kit, get back here!" shouted Rubyfeather and with that, she opened her wings to take off after Kushanku but an arm made of flames appeared and blocked her way and stopped her.

"Leave him alone;" said Emberflame firmly, "He's been through enough trouble as it is."

Rubyfeather, at this, shot the Pyro a glare and left with Quill following her as Kushanku landed on the top of a cupboard and began to cry his heart out.

Soon, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi had given their answers to their questioners about the brawl as well, and Belladonna had done the same. However, her answer contradicted the answers of the other five including Kushanku and she kept insisting that Kushanku had started it while Sandstorm and Kushanku's three biological siblings all said that it was her who started it. Shadewing, who had been questioning Sandstorm with Mensa, had entered Kushanku's room to meet Rubyfeather, Quill, Brina and Emberflame, together with the other questioners who had been questioning Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, as well as Belladonna. As the group met, Shadewing wore a disgruntled look on his face.

"Well, I don't know how that brawl happened or what went on with those six," said the Bat, "but I cannot tell if either Kushanku, his siblings including Sandstorm or Belladonna are being honest."

"I believe Kushanku started it," said Rubyfeather crossly, her glare on the still-sobbing Nekomata on the cupboard, "after all, he and Belladonna haven't been getting along well at all…"

"Based on what Nyarth said, I think it was Belladonna," said Mensa, "Since he said he had seen it start with Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm."

"How can a Kitsune who we had found with an injured leg in the first place provoke Kushanku or anyone else into a fight with her?" asked Shadewing, sympathy for the Kitsune still bubbling within him, "she's too sweet and had been in a desperate situation to be that nasty…"

"Well, whenever she's alone with some of our group members, bad things seem to happen," said Mensa in protest, "For example, she wasn't there when Satoshi and Sandstorm were nearly killed by Yuki-onna; she hadn't been present when that Eagle beast attacked us…"

"Belladonna is NOT responsible for either of those incidences, Mensa," snapped Shadewing, his wing thumb jabbing into the Skvader's chest, "So stop piling accusations on that poor Kitsune."

Mensa was about to retort when Brina called the group's attention, interrupting the argument.

"Kyukon is here," said the Roc. At this, Shadewing and Mensa abandoned the argument and joined the other adults including Rubyfeather, Emberflame and Quill and prepared to meet the mate of Gandalf as she entered the room.

The magnificent Fox with the full set of nine tails sweeping like a Peacock's train behind her appeared. Her fur was a brilliant shining ivory-cream colour with metallic yellow strewn in patches on her face and body, similar to a Calico Cat's orange and black patches, and the tips of all her tails were tipped with metallic yellow. Her eyes were like beautiful onyxes, brimming with age and wisdom, and a large crest of fur adorned her head between her ears, the hairs also tipped with metallic yellow. Kushanku on the cupboard top, and Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth looked on in awe at the Kitsune's beautiful pelage and fan of tails for they had never seen a fully matured Kitsune before. However, despite being an awesome sight, Kyukon always said that Aslan was a far more awesome sight than a full grown Kitsune for she and Gandalf were also humble.

"Don't mind me, my little 'uns," said Kyukon with a smile when she saw the admiring smiles on the four Nekomata and Cheetah cub's faces, "I'm not as awesome a sight as the Lion of Lions. He's infinitely more awesome that I or Gandalf will ever be. We're just his servants asked with being Chroniclers and base-keepers."

After she said that, the five young Cats including Kushanku who descended from the top of the cupboard by spinning his tails and flying to the ground, then stopped admiring Kyukon's pelage and tails and introduced themselves to her. Kyukon had already met the majority of the rest of the group led by Blaze and Cumulonimbus, who accompanied Kyukon behind her, and Brina. Dahlia the Jackalope kit, Snowwing the Skvader kit and Crystal the Parrot chick had been amongst those and had been awed by the Kitsune's pelage and tails, thus Kushanku and a few others were the last to meet and be greeted by Kyukon. As Kushanku and his three biological siblings and adopted Cheetah brother introduced themselves to Kyukon, Shadewing glared at them.

"Do you think now is the time to explain to Kyukon about their bad behaviour, folks?" he asked Emberflame, Mensa, Rubyfeather and Quill and some of the others who had been questioning the five Cats and Belladonna about the incident while they were eating.

"I think that's a good idea," said Mensa with an agreeing frown. Emberflame, however, wore a slightly disagreeing look on her flaming face while Quill continued to glare at Kushanku and the other four just as Sandstorm was shaking paws with Kyukon. After Sandstorm had finished his introduction, Shadewing stepped forward.

"Um, Kyukon, there's something you need to know about those five and another youngster of us and their behaviour if you don't mind me interrupting," said the Bat, pulling the nine-tailed Kitsune's attention from Sandstorm to him.

"What about them, Shadewing?" inquired Kyukon. Mensa then stepped forward. Nearby, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal were looking on as Kushanku, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi went to protest their innocence but were stopped by Rubyfeather and Quill who barked at them to sit down.

"These five, and another youngster whom we have rescued along the way, have been extremely naughty," said Shadewing.

"No we have…" began Satoshi but Rubyfeather squawked at him to shut up.

"Yes, they've been fighting after Brina and Emberflame had left them to eat, and apparently, Kushanku started it," said Mensa and with that, the Skvader shot Kushanku a sour look, much to the Nekomata's angry flinch, and he looked jerky and was breathing uncontrollably, as though he wanted to flee somewhere and cry his eyes out at the whole unfairness again. The other four, however, were outraged. Kyukon examined Kushanku's behaviour and that of the other four as well. However, there was part of the explanation Shadewing had given her that made her confused.

"So you say those five and another youngster whom you have rescued have been in a fight?" said the nine-tailed Kitsune to which Shadewing and Mensa nodded. Then Kyukon proposed her own question, "but who is this youngster whom you have picked up along the way if I might ask?"

At this, Emberflame was about to glide forward when suddenly, a voice shouted, "Well it's nice to meet you, Kyukon. You sure have some awesome underground rooms."

At this, the group flinched and looked up and saw a purple-black single-tailed Kitsune walk through the door. As Belladonna entered the room, Emberflame rushed over to Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth to shield them from the Kitsune as she gazed at Kyukon to prevent her from shooting any threatening glare at the Nekomata and his siblings.

"Belladonna, who gave you permission to walk into here?" asked Shadewing, "I thought we told you to stay where you were because you have been fighting with Kushanku and the other four."

"Oh, I thought I'd meet Kyukon myself," said Belladonna with a smile, before she turned her gaze to the ivory and metallic yellow nine-tailed Fox and extended a paw to her, "it sure is nice to meet you, Kyukon. I'm Belladonna."

Kyukon gazed at the purple-black one-tailed Kitsune in surprise for a minute, resulting in an awkward silence hovering above the group. Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira and Nyarth peered out from behind Emberflame's fiery body and looked on as the centuries-old Kitsune gazed at the purple-black one in surprise. Shadewing, Mensa, Rubyfeather, Quill and the other adults including Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina and also Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal also looked on as the awkward tension froze Kyukon and Belladonna into staring at each other in surprise, the latter by the former's reaction, but it was clear that unease was beginning to boil within the nine-tailed Kitsune. Then after another awkward moment, Kyukon, despite the immense wave of extreme and utter unease boiling and churning in her like the Narnian Sea's waters in stormy weather, calmly turned to Shadewing, Mensa and some of the other adults and said, "Can I take you somewhere to talk with you please?"

At this, Shadewing, Mensa, Rubyfeather, Quill and the other adults exchanged glances and obeyed and followed Kyukon to somewhere private. As the group left, Belladonna looked on confused, moments before Troodon and several other young creatures including some of Faline the Rabbit's kits, entered the room and joined Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal.

"What's up with her?" asked Belladonna as she watched Kyukon leave with some of the adults. At this, Emberflame glided in and commanded the Kitsune to return to her room while Brina commanded Kushanku and his siblings to remain seated.

"Never you mind, Belladonna," said the Pyro sternly, "you return to your room right now."

"But," began Belladonna but Emberflame adamantly reinforced her command.

"That's an ORDER, Belladonna!" barked Emberflame in a louder voice. At this, Belladonna gazed at the Fire Woman and reluctantly and disgruntledly obeyed. Emberflame, Brina, Blaze and Cumulonimbus also followed, alongside some of the other adults for they had also become aware of Kyukon's sudden rise in unease around the Fox as well and suspected that she may be planning to do something about it, but some of them who has taken sympathy to Belladonna such as Shadewing, were reluctant in keeping her contained, while the youngsters who had taken a liking to the Kitsune, such as Troodon, were very worried.

"I hope Belladonna isn't going to be…" began Troodon to the others with him, amongst them some of Faline's kits who had also befriended Belladonna. A few of them such as Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal, and Tesseract the Unicorn, however, were indifferent. Tesseract had begun to despise Belladonna for he believed she had intentionally lured Sandstorm, Kushanku and Satoshi into the trap formed by the Snow Woman Yuki-onna; Crystal did not like Belladonna's attitude towards Kushanku and his siblings; Snowwing, who was still badly traumatised from the Eagle beast attack earlier, seemed to be quite uneasy around the Fox and Dahlia looked uncertain for she seemed to resemble a few of the Kitsune who were loyal to the Witch. Some of them had purple-black fur like Belladonna did for red and metallic red was not the only fur colour for Kitsune under 900 years of age. Much like Thunderbirds such as Cumulonimbus, and a lot of other Talking Beasts, Kitsune fur sometimes came in other colours but the most common was red and metallic red. However, all Kitsune over 900 years and had a full set of nine tails had ivory and metallic yellow fur, regardless of what fur colour they had before their 900th birthday. And Dahlia was concerned by the immense liking Troodon and some of the other young Talking Animals had taken to Belladonna and gazed at the Fox as she left into her room with Emberflame and the others with her close behind.

As soon as they were in a private spot, Kyukon began to have a talk with Shadewing, Mensa, Rubyfeather, Quill and some of the other adults from Blaze's group but as she prepared to open it up, the group saw that the elderly Kitsune was trembling slightly. Her legs shook and she looked as though she was about to collapse, and her face was laced with stress. It was though Kyukon's composure was about to fragment any moment but the Kitsune managed to keep it altogether as she began to open up the talk with the group, her onyx-like eyes forming a serious glare.

"I don't like that young purple-black Kitsune being in our base one bit," she said firmly and calmly, "I feel she should be staying here with us."

"But Kyukon," said Shadewing, "There's nothing wrong with Belladonna. She was found with an injured leg during our journey to here so we took her in because she was vulnerable on her own in that state."

"She could be an easy target for some of that Witch's cronies if we left her by herself," put in Faline the Rabbit.

"And besides that, I'm pretty sure she's genuine," added Mensa.

"Well, I'm feeling completely uneasy and wary around that Fox, folks," replied Kyukon unconvinced, "As you can possibly tell, I'm feeling weak, especially in the legs, but I'm also feel like I've got a knot in my stomach. You guys know when you feel stressed and your stomach feels like it's twisting?"

The group nodded.

"Well, that's exactly how I feel," said Kyukon, "It's known as the gut feeling, and that's what I've got about Belladonna. I don't trust that black-purple Kitsune one bit, and I believe she shouldn't be in this base. She needs to be imprisoned, for sending her away could possibly mean disastrous consequences for me, Gandalf and everyone else in this base as a whole. Not to mention the incredibly _invaluable_ knowledge and books on the prophecies, Narnia's history and the key events in its timeline which Aslan has tasked me and Gandalf in collecting and recording over the centuries since Narnia's creation."

"But I don't see anything wrong with Belladonna," said Shadewing.

"She seems perfectly fine to us," added Faline. The other adults nodded in agreement though Rubyfeather now looked uncertain. Kyukon hardened her adamant gaze.

"Have you had any possible strange incidences in which she was involved on the rest of your journey after you found her?" asked the nine-tailed Kitsune. Glances were exchanged amongst the group.

"What incidences?" asked Mensa.

"What do you mean by that?" asked one of the Elves who was part of the group. Kyukon's gaze then hardened.

"Did you run into anything dangerous on the way?" asked the Kitsune, "Because if you wandered from the group, you're more vulnerable to getting caught either by Jadis's minions or the creatures that had made Narnia their home due to the winter curse she has cast upon the country. Amongst these monsters are the Father Christmas-impersonating Krampus and the Snow Siren Yuki-onna…"

"Sandstorm, Satoshi and Kushanku were almost caught and devoured by the latter monster when they tried to help Belladonna with her injured leg…" explained Shadewing.

"While an Eagle beast nearly snatched by son Snowwing while he was hovering above us to look for her when some of us noticed that she was absent," added Mensa. At this, Kyukon flinched.

"Ah," she said.

"What's wrong" asked Faline the Rabbit. Kyukon was about to answer when suddenly, a knock on the door sounded.

"Um, excuse me Kyukon, sorry to interrupt," said a voice. At this, Kyukon turned round and saw a metallic green Dragon, a female, stand at the entrance with two more Dragons.

"We've had report from Bursyamo that another group of Narnians, the ones from the Northern Marshlands through which the River Shribble flows, are approaching one of our hidden entrances, Ma'am," said the Dragon.

"Okay, Viridi, return to Bursyamo and prepare to help the watchers at that entrance guide in that group, and as usual," Kyukon's voice tone changed to one of seriousness, " _keep an eye out for any of Jadis's cronies!_ "

Viridi the Dragon and her accomplices nodded and left. However Kyukon left after them and commanded them to do another task. However, because she was speaking in such a low voice, Shadewing and the others could not hear her. Viridi's eyes widened in worry but after Kyukon had finished giving the command, the Dragon nodded and left. After this, Kyukon returned and resumed her talk with Shadewing and the others.

"Sorry about that, folks," she said, "Just a report of a group of migrating Narnians approaching one of our base's entrances. Right, where was I? Oh yes…"

Shadewing and the others began to listen as Kyukon went on to explain her reason for flinching when Shadewing and Mensa gave the replies regarding the Yuki-onni and Eagle beast incidences.

"Let me explain why I felt so uneasy around this Kitsune you have found and taken under your wing," said she. The group prepared to listen to Kyukon's explanation as she launched into it.

"A few years before Jadis came and usurped the throne from the last King and Queen of Narnia and came into power over thirty years ago and locked it in the Eternal Winter without Christmas, some of my and Gandalf's offspring- as you will know, Gandalf and I are the parents of the entire Kitsune species- had fallen for that Witch's charms and became her followers, alongside individuals from so many other species including Wolves, Nekomata, Vultures, Dryads and even the harmless, innocent creatures such as Rabbits and Deer."

Shadewing and the others, including a very shocked and disbelieving Faline, flinched when they heard this. Kyukon went on.

"And after those Kitsune individuals turned followers of the Witch, they, alongside some of the other creatures like Nekomata, became the Witch's accomplices in the branches of dark sorcery such as shapeshifting and illusion creating. In other words, the Witch was training them to use magic that is highly forbidden for obvious reasons. Many of the Kitsune have taken up those skills and had eventually learned to shapeshift into pretty much any other creature including Humans, but apart from Lions, Sheep and a few other creatures, and once they have mastered those skills under the Witch's training, a few of them began to use them in a variety of evil deeds such as espionage and spying, as well as seduction and charming so as to lure their victims into a trap. One Kitsune had managed to trick the last King of Narnia by posing as his wife and luring him into the Witch's trap where he was brutally killed, while some of his sons and daughters also met their demise the same way. Because of that, we Kitsune have been given the reputation as being cunning and devious tricksters by the Humans and many other Narnian creatures. While it's true that some of the Kitsune individuals have become incredibly sly and devious while they trained with the Witch, the rest of us Kitsune, including myself and Gandalf, have received those labels…"

Disbelief rolled through the group.

"You can't be serious," said one of the Elves while the others exchanged worried looks. Rubyfeather began to feel even more uneasy about Belladonna. Kyukon hardened her gaze.

"I'm not," she replied, "A Talking Pigeon who saw the final King of Narnia on the night that he died came and reported it to us and we had to note it down in our records…"

"But Humans have caused us a lot of problems," said Faline. At this, Kyukon gave the Rabbit an unsurprised look.

"You've been indoctrinated by the Witch in her lies about how she became 'Queen' of Narnia, as I can tell," she said. Faline blinked with surprise.

"You what?" she replied.

"We'll get to that later," said Kyukon before she resumed her gaze on the whole group, "So that is why I am feeling uneasy about Belladonna the moment I saw her, folks, and I hate to break it to you but I believe she may have been trying to get some of you killed in the Yuki-onna and Eagle beast incidents."

Immense disbelief rolled through most of the group members but a few of them, such as Rubyfeather and now Shadewing as well, began to feel their stomachs lurch.

"B-b-but Belladonna would NEVER do such a thing," snapped Mensa in protest.

"She's too sweet to be an evil Fox who would endanger LIVES!" put in one of the Elves.

"Yes, absolutely," added Faline. However, the adamant look never left Kyukon's face.

"Well, she may seem sweet and innocent to you guys, but don't be fooled by her behaviour," she said firmly, her nine tails swishing like a Peacock's train behind her, "The Kitsune, and the Nekomata and individuals from several other species who follow the Witch and have trained under her supervision in dark sorcery branches like shapeshifting may seem nice and innocent on the outside, but that niceness and innocence may be a mere façade to hide their true nature, and that is what I believe about Belladonna. She may not be who she says she is and as for that leg injury, she may have used it as a trick to get you guys to take her in and along to our base. After all, Jadis and her cronies are hot on our trail in searching for our base's location using every strategy they can think of in order to destroy all the records we have collected and possibly catch us, especially me and Gandalf since we have been, after all, tasked by Aslan to be Chroniclers as well as the parents of the Kitsune species and protectors of the migrated Narnian groups in preps for the next stage of your evacuation to safety from the Witch's reach, to possibly either turn us to statues with her icicle-like wand for her collection of other statues or kill us."

Glances were exchanged amongst the crowds until Feline finally spoke up.

"No, I don't believe that," said the Rabbit fiercely and defensively, "Belladonna is genuine and I absolutely REFUSE to believe her to be a trickster."

"After all, some of our kids including Troodon and some of Faline's kits have become her friends," put in Shadewing, though he felt a flash of regret of saying this. Kyukon kept her adamant stance.

"Well, I still believe Belladonna to be one of Jadis's workers, you two," said the Kitsune firmly, "And because of that, I'm gonna have to have her incarcerated and interrogated. Right, enough said. As for what happened between Kushanku and his siblings and that Fox, I believe the Fox has been trying to get them into trouble since I know when someone is lying or telling the truth…"

Mensa shot Kyukon a surprised look and opened her mouth to protest but then the Skvader changed her mind and closed it. After all, who could argue with a nine-hundred year-old Kitsune who has developed so well in wisdom and experience, when she or he was being honest?

"Anyway, let's move on," said Kyukon as she left the room with the group, "Now that you're here, it's time to get you settled into the base with the other evacuees, and also to meet my mate Gandalf."

And with that, the group followed the elderly Kitsune out of the room. Shadewing gazed at some of the other group members.

"I think we may have made a big mistake in taking Belladonna in, folks," murmured the Bat.

"I agree," said Rubyfeather, "Especially based on how Kyukon reacted when she saw Belladonna and how serious she was in her talk with us. Not to mention her attitude towards Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira…"

"Well, I don't believe what she said about Belladonna," said Faline stubbornly, "I think she's just overreacting. After all, some of my kits and Troodon the Theropod have an excellent friend in her."

Shadewing and Rubyfeather just gazed at the Rabbit. It was clear that she, alongside a lot of the other group members including Quill the Hedgehog and Mensa the Skvader (though she was beginning to have doubts as well), were sure that Belladonna was harmless. Saying nothing, the Bat and the Parrot followed the others and Kyukon as they returned to the room in which Kushanku and his siblings and the rest of the group were in.


	37. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36- an incredibly FOOLISH mistake**

 **And so**

Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, and also Dahlia, Snowwing, Crystal and everybody else including Crystal's mother Rubyfeather; Snowwing's mother Mensa, Quill, Shadewing, Emberflame and everybody else, that is all the Narnians that had been evacuated to here (though there were a few groups still to take in and the entrance watchers and guards were keeping an eye out for these groups), were taken by Kyukon and her helpers into the base's deeper compartments where the sleeping quarters, living quarters and compartments set up to suit the everyday needs of the Narnians had been built where they met Gandalf, shown their sleeping quarters, the area where the youngsters will receive the proper education on Narnia's true history such as the Central Library, the training areas where they will be learning combat skills for the mighty journey to Archenland in case they ran into any trouble on the way, as well as learning skills in some other areas such as medical assistance; the areas were crops were grown for food and the dumb animal zones where those animals were raised for meat, and so on. As the group was showed around some of the base's compartments, Kushanku and the others could not help but admire the complexity and engineering of the underground construction, as well as the ingenuity and the effort that went into building the entire thing. The entire base was practically like a termite or ant colony's tunnelling system crossed with a typical Narnian city. And it was out of the sight of the Witch and her cronies' eyes and reach of their grimy hands, hideous claws and ugly wings as well in addition to the frigid winter-locked land and its hazards such as lurking monsters… for now.

While Kushanku and the others were being shown around the base, Belladonna was being guided towards the compartment built to hold potential intruders like a prison or dungeon by a group of Viridi's underlings and a couple of Centaurs. A collar made of a metal alloy that existed only in Narnia was shackled around the Kitsune's neck and one of the Dragons had its chain in paw to pull the Kitsune along while one of the Centaurs frogmarched Belladonna along from behind with a sword in his hands and pointing to her back to force her along, and the Kitsune was especially furious. Just as Viridi had been about to leave to meet Bursyamo and some other Basan to see in the Marshlanders with some of the watchers outside above ground, Kyukon had commanded Viridi to seize Belladonna and have some of her underlings take her to the dungeon compartment to be held there in preps for some serious interrogation, which will be carried out as soon as the Narnians had been settled into the base, and Viridi had obeyed. When Belladonna had been seized, some of them who had helped her and were her friends, such as Shadewing the Bat and Troodon the Theropod, had been protesting and begging Kyukon to spare her but Kyukon refused and adamantly stood her ground. After completing this task, Viridi left to meet Bursyamo to carry out the task of meeting the Marshlanders who were under the guidance of a Thunderbird, while Kushanku and everyone else was guided by Perseus the Centaur to meet with Gandalf. However, several of the young group members had broken away from the rest and had followed Belladonna and her apprehenders down the route to the dungeon compartment.

As the Centaurs and Dragons forced Belladonna along, the Centaur poking Belladonna in the back with his sword and growling, "Move, you stubborn little intruder!", Troodon, six of Faline's Rabbit kits including the brother and two sisters who were almost caught by Krampus along with Kushanku a few days ago, a Platypus puggle named Webby and an Alicorn (that is, a winged Unicorn) foal named Cloudhorn, followed quietly and carefully behind, hugging the shadows and being careful and wary of anyone, such as Centaurs, flanking the tunnel pathway and standing guard similar to how guards in a castle's corridor in our world would flank the corridor in a line on both sides. They skulked along and avoided the piercing, watchful glares of the guards as they scanned the tunnel. At the tunnel's ceiling, a series of star-like orbs hovered like magic lamps, providing light to the dark tunnel. Unlike the rooms in which Troodon, Cloudhorn and Webby and the six Rabbit kits had been in upon their entry into the base with the others which had had a feel-at-home type of atmosphere, this compartment and its tunnels had a darker and more prison or dungeon-like appearance. The walls were stony and a few cobwebs dotted the corner where the walls met the ceiling, adding to the rather unsettling appearance of the tunnel, and the star orbs were a deep red. The light drenching the tunnel's walls a deep red colour made the place all the more unsettling and it made Troodon and the others with him feel fearful and unsettled. It certainly was a place not meant for the Narnian evacuees at all and they knew they shouldn't be down here but because of their strong friendship with Belladonna, Troodon and the others ignored their 'we shouldn't have left the others' feeling and continued following Belladonna and her apprehenders.

"We just cannot believe that Mrs Kyukon would have Belladonna seized and sent into this dilapidated area like this when she has done absolutely nothing to deserve it," whispered the Theropod as he guided the others from one shadow to the next and keeping an eye on the Centaur, a Minotaur and a Capelobo guard as the three talked, before sneaking past them, "She's done nothing wrong whatsoever even though she has attacked Kushanku."

"Especially after she got hurt by the Eagle beast," said Webby, to which Theropod shuddered at the memory of almost getting caught by that monster and he had assumed that Belladonna had had a close shave with it as well. Then Webby felt a burst of anger and hatred towards Kuahanku course through him. Like many of the others in the little group, he believed he had been the one to attack Belladonna and start the fight and because of that, the Platypus puggle had developed an even greater hatred for the Nekomata and had a plan to get back at him for hurting his Kitsune friend when they returned to the others and as soon as they had settled into the base. Troodon continued as he examined the dungeon zone of the base.

"This area sure looks horrible," said the Theropod as he continued to hug the shadows, "It reminds me of that Witch's place we have seen at her castle during the feast before the Slaughterhouse Event…"

"I'd say this isn't as bad as her place, Troodon," said one of Faline's sons, the eldest one as he also examined the corridor's uninviting stone walls and design, "If so, Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon wouldn't have built this place for he is nothing at all like the Witch."

As the Rabbit spoke, Troodon hid behind a protrusion in the wall and peered out, eying another pair of guards, a Minotaur (a Bull with a humanoid body) and a Capelobo, as they talked. The pair was also flashing wary glances up and down the corridor as they chatted to make sure that no unauthorised individual was present. Troodon then eyed another protrusion from the wall opposite the pair of guards and turned to the others behind him and nodded. Then as soon as the Minotaur and Capelobo resumed their conversation and took their eyes off the corridor, the little group darted from their hiding place and one by one, rushed past the pair of guards and dove behind the next wall protrusion. The last of the Rabbit kits barely made it as the Capelobo turned his long Anteater-like nose in the direction of Troodon's group and began to examine the area again. The Rabbit kit hid behind the wall protrusion with the others as the Capelobo scoured the protrusion and descended into silence. Their nerves were shuddering and they were shaking slightly but they kept calm. Troodon carefully peered out from behind the protrusion and examined the Capelobo and the Minotaur as they examined their hiding place. When they saw that the two did not see them or notice their presence and had resumed talking, Troodon and the others breathed sighs of relief and resumed their following of Belladonna and her apprehenders.

"That was a close one," said Cloudhorn the alicorn foal, "I thought we'd be dead if they spotted us."

"Let's just follow those Dragons and Centaurs and rescue Belladonna," said Troodon. The others nodded and with that they continued skulking behind the group of apprehenders as they frogmarched Belladonna along. After sneaking by some more guards and hugging the shadows, Troodon and his friends finally reached the end of the tunnel which opened into a large room where the Centaurs and Dragons frogmarched Belladonna from the tunnel ahead of them. Now this room was a compartment like the rest of the rooms in Gandalf and Kyukon's base but it was designed to be a prison to hold traitors and potential spies. The prison rooms, called cells, were large cave-like holes carved into the wall and there were ladders erected in between the columnar dividing walls so that non-flying creatures could access the upper rooms. Each room had a bed or nest (of various types to suit all types of creatures placed in the cells) and a magical crystalline rim, force field projectors, at their entrance. When a room was occupied with a prisoner, the crystalline force field projectors were activated to create a near-invisible, transparent closing wall, a force field to shut the prisoner in. There were also a few holes in the other walls which led to a venting system which provided air for the prison compartment. At the front of the cell wall, a guard was stationed to keep an eye on the prisoners kept within the honeycomb-like cells. Like every other compartment and corridor of the base, a magic star-like light orb illuminated the area.

From behind another wall protrusion near the entrance to the prison compartment, Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn and the six Rabbit kits hid and peered out, where they watched the Dragons and Centaurs, together with the guard who was another Centaur, as they selected a cell, unshackled and shoved a protesting Belladonna into it and activated the force field to seal the Kitsune into the room. This done, the Dragons and Centaurs congratulated each other on a job well done before turning to the entrance and leaving. At this, Troodon and his group shot glances this way and that, spotted a curtain and dove behind it moments before the first Centaur entered the tunnel.

"Why are you DOING THIS TO ME!?" Troodon and the others heard Belladonna scream furiously, "I am NOT one of the Witch's CRONIES!"

"SHUT UP, you loudmouthed FOX!" shouted the Centaur with a clang of something metallic against a stony wall which Troodon and the other eight with him assumed to be the sword one of the Centaurs had used to frogmarch Belladonna along. The nine flinched as the clang rang throughout the room and the tunnel and continued to hide as more Dragons and Centaurs walked past them, unaware of their presence behind the curtain. Then as soon as the last Dragon had made her exit, Troodon slowly peered out from behind the thick fabric and into the prison compartment where they saw Belladonna placed in one of the rooms of the bottommost row, the one nearest to the floor. They could clearly see that the purple-black Fox was clearly and volcanically disgruntled and infuriated and glaring at the Centaur guard who adamantly took up his position in keeping an eye on her. And despite Belladonna's concoction of threats and insults flying from her mouth and at him, the Centaur refused to budge or drop the force field and free her, much to Troodon and company's outrage.

"That's not fair," muttered one of the Rabbit kits, a white female; "they're treating Belladonna as though she were one of the White Witch's cronies."

"Well, Mrs Kyukon did suspect her to be one," said another Rabbit kit, "after all, she is well over 900 years old and thus has plenty of wisdom and experience. Maybe she wanted to have her imprisoned just to be safe?"

At this, her older brother shot her a glare.

"Well, Fluffy-Cotton, what does SHE know!?" snapped he, "There's nothing dangerous at all about Belladonna. As far as we know, she's as harmless as a cute little Squirrel."

"That's right," said Troodon with a frown, "After all, we did find her with an injured leg and we knew we had to take her in otherwise she would have been killed by the Witch's REAL cronies."

The others but Fluffy-Cotton, who was unsure, nodded in agreement. Then as soon as everything had quieted down and that there were no guards other than the Centaur present, Troodon began to discuss with his friends.

"Okay, how are we gonna free Belladonna?" said the Theropod, "We're gonna need to distract the Centaur guard first," he flashed a glance at the Centaur as he stood before the furious Belladonna in her cell as the latter eventually gave up trying to insult the Centaur into freeing her and then storm to her nest consisting of straw and branches, and lay down.

"Well, we could try and get the guard's attention and ask for his permission to speak to her," said one of Fluffy-Cotton's sisters.

"What, ask the guard for his permission?" said Troodon with a frown, "No, no, no. He would only command us to leave or have us taken to Mr Gandalf for punishment. What we need is a plan in which we could sneak up to Belladonna's cell and free her completely unnoticed by the guard… and the way to do that is to distract the guard into leave his post so that we could gain access…"

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Fluffy-Cotton worriedly, "if we're ever found out or caught, we could be in serious trouble…"

"Look, Fluffy-Cotton," said Webby the Platypus, "You wanna free your Fox friend, right?"

Fluffy-Cotton hesitantly nodded.

"Then let's do this," said Troodon. He then moved on, "Fluffy-Cotton, you will be the one to distract the guard while the rest of us free Belladonna."

Fluffy-Cotton hesitantly nodded to this as well and nervously prepared for action. Then Troodon called together his eight friends including the very nervous white Rabbit kit and said, "Okay, here's what we're gonna do…"

A little while later, the Centaur guard continued to keep a hawk-eye on Belladonna as she lay in her prison cell nest, a furious look on her face when suddenly, he saw movement out the corner of his eye and at the entrance of the tunnel. At this, the Horse-Humanoid snapped his glare from Belladonna to the source of the movement. Then when he saw something white hopping on the spot, he immediately sprang into action and went over to investigate, prompting him to leave his post. At the entrance to the prison compartment, Fluffy-Cotton continued to hop in the spot and attract the attention of the Centaur with Troodon and the others watching from behind the curtain. Fluffy-Cotton was clearly stressed and a look of pure regret was saturating her face but due to being greatly pressured into this process by the other eight including her brother and four of her sisters, she had been forced to implement the plan. Then as soon as she saw the Centaur approach her, spot her and shout, "HEY! What are you doing down here!?" and then give chase, Fluffy-Cotton stopped hopping up and down and darted off into the tunnel corridor with the Centaur hot on her tails. After the Centuar disappeared after the white Rabbit down the corridor Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn and the five siblings of Cotton-Tail made their move. Being careful and sure that there were no guards nearby, the Theropod, the five Rabbits, the Platypus and the Alicorn quickly darted from behind the curtain, into the prison compartment and towards Belladonna in her cell. When Belladonna saw the group of young Animals appear outside the force field sealing her into her cell, her ear pricked up and her muzzle formed a smile.

"Troodon, folks," she whispered with relief, "You're really here?"

"Shh, we're bustin' you outa here," said Troodon and with that, he began to examine the force field projector for a switch to drop the force field and free Belladonna. The other seven with him did the same with one of the Rabbit kits, the oldest brother, touching the force field but as he did so, the Rabbit kit jumped back and yelled "OW!" briefly in pain as the force field painfully shocked his paw like a jolt of electricity. The transparent, impenetrable screen fizzled with rapid, electric-like ripples with a sizzling sound like the sound of water hitting a hot stove and vaporising instantly where the Rabbit had touched it before finally resuming its homogenous, pure glass-like transparency.

"What kind of screen is THIS!?" hissed the Rabbit as he rubbed his paw with a pained face.

"It's some type of force field," said Belladonna as she examined the rippling screen of transparent barrier, "I believe it's supposed to keep prisoners in to prevent them from escaping. Now if you're smart enough to drop it and free me, I'll give you a special reward as token of our friendship. But you're gonna have to be quick for that Centaur guard will be returning soon."

"We will get you out, don't worry," said Troodon as he, Webby, the five Rabbits including the brother who had shocked his paw on the force field, and Cloudhorn began to look for a way to drop the field. The eight youngsters continued examining the crystalline projector holding the force field up for any type of switch but to their dismay, there was none.

"There's no switch," said Cloudhorn. Then Troodon turned and saw a rock nearby. An idea entering his head, he rushed over to it. The other seven watched the Theropod as he rushed over to the rock, seized it and then returned.

"Maybe the crystal stuff could be smashed?" he said and with that, he set to smashing the rock against the crystalline frame holding up the force field. The rock made a crashing noise as it struck the crystal and twice, Troodon touched the force field and painfully shocked himself just like the brother Rabbit had done earlier, the sizzling noise exploding from the screen both times and rippling like static on a TV screen.

"Careful, Troodon," said Belladonna as Troodon shocked himself for a third time which made his friends flinch and wince in pain, "This force field's quite powerful."

Troodon nodded and resumed trying to break the force field projector with Belladonna and the others helping. The nine continued trying to drop the force field until finally, Webby happened to wave at something and suddenly, the fizzling transparent barrier disappeared.

"That's it!" said Belladonna as Troodon smashed his rock onto the bottom rim of the force field projector which clearly hadn't dented one bit for the material was as hard as our world's diamonds. Troodon then tiredly tossed aside the rock and stood back with the others as Belladonna stepped out.

"What did you just do, Webby?" asked one of the Rabbits to the Platypus.

"I don't know," said Webby with delight, "But I must have done something to drop the force field."

"I guess it is motion operated?" asked Cloudhorn. Then as soon as Belladonna was out, Troodon said, "Now what?"

Belladonna smiled.

"Now for your reward," she said and with that, she reached for her tail. Troodon, Cloudhorn, Webby and the five Rabbits exchanged confused glances as Belladonna fumbled around the fur of her tail until she finally pulled out something. It was a glass vial of silvery liquid and that liquid glinted in the light of the magic light orb.

"What's that?" asked Troodon when he and the others with him saw the vial. Belladonna formed a wide smile on her face.

"It's a vial of food-making potion I found before meeting you guys," said the Fox, "I found it while escaping Krampus."

Shock tore through Troodon's group.

"Food making potion?" repeated Troodon in shock.

"Why didn't you tell us that you had that thing in your possession?" asked the older Rabbit brother. Belladonna smiled again.

"It's a long story," she said, "But we don't have time to explain all that. Now that you guys have freed me, I am gonna reward you with a tasty treat," her face then turned serious, "But you must promise me this!"

"What would you like us to promise you?" asked Cloudhorn.

"That you will never, EVER tell those guards or anyone else, and certainly NOT Kyukon or Gandalf, that you have set me free," said Belladonna firmly, "You do that and I'll give you more of the tastiest treat of your choice? Okay?"

Troodon and the others exchanged glances before finally nodding. Belladonna smiled once again.

"Good," she said, "Now, what treat would you like?"

The group discussed amongst themselves until finally they all arrived at one choice.

"Chocolate cake, please," said Troodon, "We've seen chocolate cake on the screens showing the Witch's palace and the feast before the Massacre Event and we've always dreamed of having a slice of that delicious dessert."

"Yes, we've never had a taste of that our entire lives," said one of the Rabbits. Her siblings, Webby and Cloudhorn nodded in agreement. Unlike our world's animals that cannot eat chocolate due to it being very poisonous to them, the Talking Beasts of Narnia can eat chocolate, and believe me, Narnian chocolate is incredibly delicious indeed. Belladonna then smiled at Troodon and his group's choice, pulled the top off the vial and turned it upside down. A drop of the silvery liquid fell from the mouth of the bottle and plummeted through the air towards the stone floor. Troodon and his friends looked on in amazement as the silvery liquid glinted like silver in the light of the light orb and the moment it struck the stony floor and collapsed outward into a silvery splat-shaped disc with countless 'arms' emanating outward, something amazing happened. The splat-like fan began to undergo a transformation as from it, a crystalline sparkle appeared and from the crystalline sparkle, a plate materialised. Troodon, Webby, the five Rabbits and Cloudhorn watched on in immense amazement and inflated eyes as the silvery sparkle continued to ascend and form a silvery dome from the plate. This dome was made of the most beautiful and purest of silver and was encrusted in diamond-like decorations around its rim with a diamond-studded handle on the top. The plate was also pure diamond-like glass and sparkled brilliantly in the light, and both the plate and the dome measured around 9 feet or around 2 and three-quarter metres in diameter, so it was massive. After the plate and dome had finished materialising completely, Belladonna stepped forward and took hold of the diamond handle with a paw, before lifting the dome off the plate, revealing the treat underneath. The moment the dome covering came off, the most delicious, chocolatey aroma wafted like perfume through the air, and Troodon, the five Rabbits, Webby and Cloudhorn were immediately captivated by the smell, but their eyes were also captivated by the appearance of the chocolate cake on the plate. The cake was made of the sweetest and purest of Narnian chocolate and had a very beautiful, glazed, glossy appearance, and was made in an almost perfect circle. The tongues of Troodon and his friends immediately fell from their mouths and hung while their eyes were inflated out of their sockets, greedily and hungrily fixated on the delicious treat. Then Belladonna stood back.

"Okay, dig in," she said with a smile. The moment those words left the Fox's mouth, Troodon and the other seven immediately rushed over to the cake and seized lumps of it. Then the eight youngsters began to wolf down the lumps of cake like gannets. The moment their tongues touched the chocolate, a massive wave of pleasure coursed through them and ignited their desire for more. It was the most pleasant and delicious food they had ever had in their lives. Belladonna looked on as lumps of the cake were lifted and stuffed into the mouths of Troodon and his seven comrades, lumps of chocolate and its source smothering their mouths, their fronts and their hands or paws. Moans of delight were released from the eight as they relished the irresistible chocolate's taste.

"This sure is the BEST chocolate we had EVER had!" cried one of the Rabbits as she helped herself to another lump.

"This is BETTER than any of the food we had ever had in our lives," added Webby after he had greedily swallowed another lump of the chocolate cake.

"How did you learn to make such a delicious cake, Bella?" asked Troodon.

"It's a long story," said Belladonna, "But I'm glad you like it."

"Can we have some more after this?" asked the older Rabbit brother.

"PLEEEEAAAAAASE?" said Cloudhorn and Webby, their eyes inflated into passionate looks with their pupils taking on the appearance of saucepans. However, to their utmost disappointment, Belladonna declined.

"I'm afraid I cannot, my friends," she said sadly, "But as I've said before, I promise to give you some more chocolate cake if you promise me to NEVER, EVER tell ANYONE that you have set me free, okay?"

Troodon, Cloudhorn, the Rabbits and Webby, their faces and paws/hands smeared with chocolate, despite the immense disappointment, nodded and finished gorging themselves on the rest of the chocolate cake.

"Also, make sure you cause that good-for-nothing (expletive, expletive) fork-tailed Cat as much extreme trouble as you can," added Belladonna with malice, "His name's Kushanku, and he's the one who has caused ME no end of trouble since you guys found me. If you manage to cause him so much misery that he feels like that no-one likes or cares about him and that he becomes rejected by everyone including his own brothers and sister, I will reward you with even MORE chocolate cake."

Troodon and his friends nodded again and continued eating the current cake they already had before them.

Sometime later, the crystalline plate was empty except for a few cake crumbs and Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn, and the five Rabbit kits were sprawled on their backs, their stomachs completely stuffed. Troodon slowly turned to look at Belladonna but to his surprise, he saw that she wasn't there anymore. However, the young Theropod Dinosaur did not care and wanted so much to taste more of that delicious cake again. The crystalline plate on which the cake had been served them dissolved into a cloud of sparkly particles moments before the sounds of Centaur hooves on stone filled their ears, alongside the sound of angry talking, but then the clomping noises and talking stopped. Troodon and the other seven, their stomachs so full, slowly turned to the entrance to the prison compartment and to their surprise; they saw two Centaurs including the guard, and Fluffy-Cotton standing there, immense flabbergasted and horrified looks on their faces, especially as the guard eyed the empty cell in which Belladonna had been kept. There was a moment of stunned and horrified silence until finally, the Centaur guard broke it.

"Oh, NO! WHAT HAVE YOU KIDS DONE!?" barked the Centaur guard furiously. Troodon and the other seven, however, were too stuffed and saturated with the desire for more chocolate cake to even care as the Centaur guard sent his accomplice to fetch the others as soon as possible, but it was obvious they had done something extremely foolish.

They had just eaten a cake that was enchanted and made to be _extremely_ addictive and the moment they realised this, they began to feel sick.

Furthermore, a horrible feeling about Belladonna welled within them…


	38. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37- first lesson on the truth of Jadis's ruling of Narnia, Trotterhoof and company's continued journey**

 **Meanwhile**

Kushanku, together with his biological brothers Nyarth and Satoshi, adopted Cheetah brother Sandstorm, and biological sister Akira, as well as Dahlia the Jackalope kit, Snowwing the Skvader kit and Crystal the Parrot chick, sat with Rubyfeather, Mensa, Shadewing, Quill and Emberflame amongst countless other evacuated Narnians, both young and old, as Gandalf, some of his Phoenix, Thunderbird and Roc helpers, among them Brina, Cumulonimbus and Blaze sat on either side of him with some assistant Centaurs, Sphinxes and several other creatures, prepared to open the proper introductory talk with them. There were still two or three groups of Narnians including the Marshlanders migrating to the base outside and to be met and seen into the underground network but Gandalf and Kyukon planned on giving them their introduction and talk separately as soon as they were safely in the base and had been shown where they were going to live, eat and sleep. The introduction was taking place in the largest compartment of the base, the main Library, where countless books on various subjects such as Narnia's history, many of which had been written by Gandalf and Kyukon themselves and the rest by some of the helpers of the base, such as the Centaurs had been kept in shelves in this hall. It bore a strong resemblance to a big library hall in our world and like such a library, there were a few sliding ladders erected against the shelves to allow non-flying individuals access to the higher shelves, and the massive room was lit by a massive magic light orb that hovered in the domed ceiling tens of metres above the floor. It must have taken years to build this compartment but it certainly was an awesome massive piece of engineering and architecture. In the main space of the massive Library was a hall with a stage block at the front, built like a lecture theatre or a dancefloor, but this main area's role was similar to the former and it was being used for this purpose now. However, the absence of some of the youngsters, such as Troodon, hadn't been noticed, yet.

Gandalf, who was a very handsome and aged nine-tailed Fox who appeared similar to Kyukon with the black onyx-like eyes, shiny ivory fur with metallic yellow patches and nine metallic yellow tipped tails that sometimes fanned out like a Peacock's train feathers behind him, had just finished showing the crowd a film of the Witch's promotion for the Massacre Event with the help of a Faun who had played it through a magical projector that shone the film onto a crystalline screen at the back of the stage. This film was the exact same film the Narnians had seen broadcasted on the magical crystalline screens, either on their own magic TVs in their homes or on large screens set up to be viewed by larger crowds, by Romulus, the leader of the Wolf Secret Police from Jadis's palace before the infamous event deceptively named the 'Fighting League' began with the forced random selection and collection of a member from groups and families chosen randomly first by the Witch at her palace, and it had the same narrator, the same words and the same scenes including the lies of the Witch's taking over of Narnia and the portrayal of her as being the hero that had rescued the Narnians from the war, and the portrayal of Humans as being merciless creatures greedy for more land. However, Gandalf was replaying the promotion as part of his educating the evacuated Narnians and showing and exposing to them the lies the Witch had told them for the past 35 years since she had usurped the throne and locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter, and wanted to remind them of what they had been forced to watch before being evacuated to here in order to show them the deception and temptation behind the Witch's so-called Fighting League before explaining it properly in words and of course, it had been very difficult for some who had been especially traumatised by the events such as Shadewing who had lost his son ten years before to the previous Massacre Event, to watch, for it had brought back horrible memories of the gory scenes in the Arena of Death during the main stage of the event, such as seeing their loved ones get mercilessly and ruthlessly slaughtered by the other battlers, even if those battlers were their friends or even relatives, and they had to be comforted by some of Gandalf's helpers. Gandalf knew that playing the promotion was going to be very difficult but he felt that it was the best option to remind the Narnians of what they had been duped into believing by it.

Then after the film had ended and the Faun had hit the pause button on the magic projector, freezing the film in its final scene with Romulus smiling after the promotion had ended, Gandalf walked onto the stage with his fan of nine tails sweeping out like a fan and turned to face the crowd, a serious and stern look on his face.

"I believe that film is what you guys have been forced to watch all over Narnia, correct?" asked the Kitsune, "if so, please put your hands, wings or paws up or rear up if you're a Horse and the like." Throughout the crowd, said limbs shot up and many of the members who were Horses, Bovines, Deer, Peryton and so on who could not raise their front feet, reared up to confirm to Gandalf that they had seen the promotion under force. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Dahlia, Snowwing, Crystal, Rubyfeather, Mensa, Shadewing, Quill and Emberflame were amongst the members who raised their hands, wings and paws. Gandalf's face morphed into a confirmatory frown.

"I thought so," said the nine-tailed Fox and mate of Kyukon, "I know it has been extremely difficult for me and for you to watch that promotion again and that so many of you would have been badly traumatised by the event for the past thirty-plus years via various ways such as the loss of your loved ones forced by that wicked Snow Witch and her cronies into that Slaughterhouse Arena but I just wanted to show and remind you of the Witch's devilish tool of this Massacre Event that she had intentionally and deceptively named the 'Fighting League' and the promise of a 'better life' you had to fight for, and the promotion she had ordered to be broadcasted up and down all of Narnia…"

The crowd said nothing except for as few murmurs that were uttered by some of them. Gandalf then moved on, an even sterner look on his face.

"As you can all see," said the nine-tailed Kitsune with a nod to the screen showing Romulus's face as he smiled in the paused film, "that film is a COMPLETE pack of lies, deliberately fabricated by Jadis and her cronies in order to cover up what really happened in order to deceive you lot about how and why she had come to power and had locked our entire country in this Eternal, Christmas-less Winter, as well as prey on and take advantage of your desperation to escape the freezing cold, starvation and oppression from her extremely beyond-corrupt rule over our land and her extremely, utterly unfair laws such as giving you most of your food, worshipping the golden statues made in her image (a project which, thank Aslan had not gone very far due to limited resources available to make those idols, and I do feel for the clans that had lost their land to the wicked Witch and her cronies due to their home being on top of or near an abundance of the Underworld diamonds and gems that those evil Beasts wanted to make those statues), in addition to portraying all Humans as evil and greedy for more land…"

Many of the members of the crowd uttered stunned murmurs at the revelation to which Gandalf and his mate and helpers weren't surprised.

"It has been part of the Witch's reinforcements to her utterly cruel and oppressive dictatorship on us Narnians," continued Gandalf in a more serious voice tone, "In fact, the establishment of this Decadal 'Fighting League', which is really nothing more than a Massacre Event as you remember or for those who had not seen it until the most recent one, you now know, is one of the WORST techniques of the Witch to inflict more heartbreak and devastation on us and you lot as well as being a form of the _sickening… bloodthirsty_ …" Gandalf practically shouted these adjectives as fury against the corrupt and… and… I honestly cannot think of a word that fits the event myself… so-called 'competition' of bloodshed boiled within him, "SADISTIC entertainment for the Witch herself and her cronies. This promotion serves as a cover-up of the true nature of the event and the true intentions of the Witch and her cronies and as such, it is called _propaganda."_

Confused mutters rolled through most of the crowd for some of them had not heard of the word before.

"What's 'propaganda'?" asked Kushanku in a quiet voice.

"It's the use of information in influencing a massive crowd of people's opinions and beliefs about something, even if that information is deceptive and false," explained Emberflame, "in this case, that promotion is used in portraying the Witch as a hero who had rescued us from the war when in reality, she is a bloodthirsty Beast who has usurped the throne and was the cause of the war in which she had sadly won, before subsequently locking Narnia in this Eternal Winter and her bringing of her corrupt law system upon us 30 plus years ago."

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal just exchanged glances before resuming listening to Gandalf as he continued to explain how the Witch really came into power by usurping the throne from the real King and Queen of Narnia, who had been humans, by sending some of her apprentices, some of who had been Kitsune whom she had trained in the forbidden branches of sorcery such as shape-shifting (which was one of the most FORBIDDEN branches of magic for obvious reasons), to pose as humans and trick and deceive them into luring them into Jadis's traps. As Gandalf continued to speak, Tesseract the Unicorn noticed that a certain Reptile, Platypus, Alicorn and a few Rabbits were missing.

"Wait, where are Troodon, Cloudhorn, Webby, Fluffy-Cotton and a few of her siblings?" asked he and with that, he began to search around Faline and the rest of her offspring, all of who were unaware that six of them were missing, as they continued to watch and listen to Gandalf's lecture, only to be commanded by an older Fairy to be quiet and resume his seat. Tesseract reluctantly did so but a bad feeling about the missing members continued to gnaw at him and he continued to flash worried glances about the crowd, hoping that those members were somewhere amongst them if they had chosen to sit somewhere else.

While Gandalf continued his lecture, near Kushanku and company, Bursyamo and three of his subordinates, together with a Wyvern and a Cockatrice, were preparing to meet the Marshlanders and see them into the base with the guards and watchers who were at the entrance through which that group of Narnians will enter. Kushanku and his little group turned and watched the six as they talked with each other about how the Northern Marshlands had also been affected by the Witch's corrupt system and her Eternal Winter curse. Curiosity rolled through them as the six mentioned creatures they had not heard of or seen before, such as Marsh-Wiggles and Ahuizotl. However, they resumed paying attention to Gandalf's lecture for that was most important.

"I'll explain about the Marshlands to you guys after the lecture," said Emberflame in a low voice to which Kushanku and the others nodded. Then Kushanku watched Bursyamo as he left with the other five members through a door and in the direction of the entrance to which the Marshlanders will enter.

 **Meanwhile**

The Marshlanders continued to follow the Thunderbird in the direction of one of the secret entrances to Gandalf's base. The crowd consisted largely of swamp and semi-aquatic creatures such as Marsh-Wiggles, Gillmen, Ahuizotl, Platypuses, Otters and Kappa though there were very few non-aquatic creatures present as well, such as a Bear and an Elephant who were likely rescued by the group as they passed by some villages. As the group walked along, the toughest Kappa, Marsh-Wiggles and Ahuizotl assisted in keeping an eye out for any of Jadis's minions that might be on patrol and if any were spotted, they will alert the Thunderbird and the other leaders who will then prompt the group to go into hiding. Because of these hawkeyed watchers, Trotterhoof and his group kept their distance and remained hidden from the Marshlander group to avoid being spotted which would result in unnecessary chaos and panic.

Trotterhoof the Pig, together with Alexandrite the Nekomata and her sister Padparadscha "Paddy" (who had Eureka and Citron the baby Otters), Cyril the Hippogriff, Desdemona the Griffin, Link the Peryton and Molayne the Dog still dressed in their Banshee/Shadow-like disguises, and Thundersparx the Raiju, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, and Milky Way the Pegasus who wore their invisibility cloaks continued to travel with their stolen sled with Trotterhoof, Cyril, Desdemona, Tundersparx and Link attached with reins and with Dashiell and Amberpaw the Cheetahs and a still-bound Nanu the Wolf in the cargo part of the sled and Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl and latest addition to the group riding in the sled with Alexandrite, Paddy, Molayne, Obsidian and Citron and Eureka as the pullers pulled it along. Ahhuayo was telling the other riders some more of his time with the Witch and her cronies including when he argued with a certain female Kitsune, who he could not remember the name of, about the barbaric Massacre Event and how the Narnians gorily slaughtered each other.

"That Kitsune was chatting to some of her friends, which were two other Kitsune, a Lizard-Man, a Nure-onna and several Nukekubi about how funny she had found watching the poor Narnians gorily bludgeon, butcher, you name it, each other in the Arena of Death. Her friends then subsequently laughed and mocked the devastating heartbreak the groups and families of those Narnians slaughtered in that Arena will be suffering," said the Ahuizotl angrily, "That's how SICK and BARBARIC that crowd of demonic monsters including the Witch are. It seems that this 'Fighting League' is their favourite event…"

"I know, we've observed a lot of their activities since we moved into our so-called, 'better home' with Thundersparx's father and our now-former family, Ahhuayo," said Obsidian firmly. In the back of the sled, Dashiell just glared at the talkers and resumed trying to doze with Amberpaw while Nanu said nothing except glare at Ahhuayo bitterly.

"And when I flinched at all that in disgust, that Kitsune turned to me and told me, hoping to get me to agree, how especially hilarious she had found it when she watched those desperate Narnians who did not want to fight try to escape only to be forced back into the carnage and slaughtered gorily. Such individuals included young Animals, old Animals, and pregnant mothers. When she mentioned those individuals, I flinched utterly repulsively," continued Ahhuayo, "she was a female Kitsune who is almost 200 years old and due to sprout her second tail soon as Kitsune always grow another tail every 100 years, is already an expert in shapeshifting and illusion creating, and has purple-black fur," the Dog-like creature with a handed tail then began to think and remember the Kitsune's name, "Oh, what was her name? I cannot remember. But anyway, we ended up arguing about her comments on those poor, vulnerable individuals getting taken fatal advantage of in the Arena of Death shortly after that."

"We sometimes observed you interact with that horrible Kitsune and complain about the gruesomeness of those Narnians barbarically killing each other," said Obsidian, before the six-legged Cat's gaze morphed into a dark look, "And believe me; that Fox's gaze was utterly _demonic,_ especially as she mocked your complaints and called you a coward sometimes _._ It was enough to send shivers down our spines and make Thundersparx flash some sparks off his mane."

"I'm not surprised," said Ahhuayo in understanding, "That Kitsune is one of the most… if not THE MOST… sadistic, bloodthirsty, psychotic, sly and barbaric minions of Jadis and of all the Kitsune who have joined the Witch's side with an absolute LOVE for gory violence and hurting helpless Narnians for the sheer fun of it, and she never… EVER… shows one BIT of remorse or sympathy whatsoever. Not to mention extremely sly and cunning and incredibly loyal to the Witch and one of her best apprentices. You _honestly_ don't want to meet barbaric psychopath of a Kitsune."

"How did the argument play out?" asked Paddy as she held the two baby Otters in her disguise rags to protect them from the cold.

"Well, it wasn't just any argument like a simple spat," said Ahhuayo, "It was actually a very fiery and lightning-flashing exchange of words. If I were to put it into the terms of this constant, Eternal Winter weather it would be a very violent blizzard whipped up by Krampus."

Obsidian shuddered at the mentioning of the name of that Father Christmas counterfeit who orphaned her when she was young but Ahhuayo wanted to use this to emphasize his point.

"Really?" said Alexandrite in utter shock, the other listeners also wearing astonished looks on their faces. Ahhuayo then launched into an explanation and began to replay the scene that happened between him and the Kitsune that went something like this:

 _Flashback_

The Kitsune and Ahhuayo were in the former's hut with the latter sitting on a chair with a disgusted look on his face and the former cooking a piece of meat (taken from a Talking Beast) in a cooking pot with the fire provided to her by a Hellhound. After the meat was cooked, the Kitsune took the lump and began to eat it. She offered some to Ahhuayo but he refused, preferring to eat fish since he had found out some time ago that the meat came mostly from Talking Beasts and did not want to commit the unethical crime of consuming the meat of Talking Animals. Annoyed and outraged, the Kitsune turned and sat down in a chair opposite the Ahuizotl, a glare saturated with pure anger aimed at the semi-aquatic Dog-like creature with spines and a tail ending with a fully functional hand.

"Ahhuayo," said the Kitsune angrily as she ate, "the Fighting League is SUPPOSED to be extremely violent and gory."

"Even if those fighters are pitted against their friends or even their relatives and even though some of them, such as youngsters and even pregnant mothers, are too helpless to fight and defend themselves?" retorted Ahhuayo.

"Yes," said the Kitsune with no hint of remorse whatsoever for the slain in the Arena of Death, regardless of whether they were young, helpless, pregnant or not. Ahhuayo's amber Reptilian eyes flashed in utter disgust and the horror you could not even imagine, and he also thought that his stomach was going to leap into his chest as it lurched. The Kitsune continued eating before going on.

"Look, Ahhuayo, it is vitally important… IMPORTANT… that our Queen is honoured… by EVERY SINGLE Narnian and ourselves… in every way possible," she added, "and that includes…"

"No, no, no!" snapped Ahhuayo furiously, rising to his feet, "ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not in WAYS like the Fighting League's playing out a few days ago!"

The look on the Kitsune's face morphed into an astounded one at the Ahuizotl's response, before her outrage returned.

"Look, it is IMPORTANT to celebrate our Queen and her conquering of THAT war thirty plus years ago along with her coming to power over all of Narnia," she said, "and the Fighting League is an ESSENTIAL part of it. You MUST understand its purpose, Ahhuayo, and to object and question its purpose is utterly BLASPHEMOUS to our Queen…"

"WHAT, EVEN IF THOSE POOR CREATURES ARE PITTED AGAINST EACH OTHER like MINDLESS, DUMB BEASTS such that they SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER in the GORIEST OF WAYS!?" shouted Ahhuayo at the top of his voice.

"YES, ABSOLUTELY!" retorted the Kitsune furiously, "It's an EXTREMELY vital PART in our EXALTATION of our Queen to join her in watching that event, and also THAT of those LOWLY NARNIANS as WELL! OUR QUEEN deserves the most MAXIMUM ENTERTAINMENT from that event POSSIBLE… every DECADE…"

At this, Ahhuayo suddenly felt his body begin to shake. His stomach was threatening to contract and he felt dizzy and light headed. Putting his fore-paws which were hands like an Ape's, onto the back of his head, Ahhuayo turned round and began to lose control of his breathing.

"This is OUR land, Ahhuayo," continued the Kitsune in a calmer voice, "and the Queen is the RIGHTFUL QUEEN of Narnia. Her exaltation cannot be maximised without HIGHLY ESSENTIAL events such as THE FIGHTING LEAGUE…"

This finally pushed the Ahuizotl to breaking point. Hyperventilating and with tears welling in his eyes as his emotions of anger, sadness and horror overwhelmed him, Ahhuayo darted for the door, yanked it open and rocketed outside. The Kitsune followed.

"Hey, GET BACK HERE, AHHUAYO!" she shouted. Ahhuayo, however, ignored her and continued rocketing through the snow and when he finally collapsed, he fell face down in the white stuff and began to really sob his eyes out in the exact same manner as on the day of the gory event when he saw the selected Narnians slay each other in the goriest of ways to the sickening cheers of the crowd and Jadis, including his own family. The Kitsune came over to him to talk him out of his hysteria.

"Ahhuayo, LISTEN TO ME!" she barked but Ahhuayo was having none of it, turning to the purple-black Fox with tears in his eyes that burned with pure rage, he growled, "Get away from me, you SADISTIC, BLOODTHIRSTY, PSYCHOPATHIC MONSTER! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Then sobbing hard, Ahhuayo rose to his feet and darted off like a frightened dumb Deer, the Kitsune looking on with a FURIOUS look on her face rushing after him and from there, the argument finally exploded, and I mean EXPLODED, into full-blown combat of shouting, screeching and name-calling.

 _End of flashback_

"And since then, I planned on leaving without a second thought," said Ahhuayo edgily, finishing the scene with trembling, sniffling and weeping, "And when I was given the task of going with a group of some other of Jadis's minions to a village to force them to worship an idol of the Witch, I took the opportunity to show my rebellion which resulted in my chase where you guys found me and rescued me."

The listeners looked on in utter sadness and sympathy before Alexandrite and Obsidian broke the sadness with a frown.

"Well, I'm not surprised that you left that twisted-mined Witch's place," said Obsidian angrily, "Our reasons for leaving were primarily because of concerns for our friends that we had been forced to abandon and our desire to be off the evil Witch's land…"

"That group of Northern Marshland inhabitants are quickly heading for cover," said Thundersparx from the front of the sled, interrupting Obsidian. He, Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Cyril, Link and Desdemona had spotted a change in the behaviour of the Marshlanders ahead of them and saw that they were rushing into a nearby leafless snowy thicket at the commands of the Thunderbird leading them. The riders in the sled apart from Nanu, Dashiell, Amberpaw, Citron and Eureka also spotted the Marshlanders rush into the thicket.

"I hope they hadn't spotted us," said Molayne worriedly.

"That's not possible," said Ahhuayo, "We're too far from them to be noticed."

"And besides that, none of them have seen us yet," said Trotterhoof.

"Then why are they rushing for cover?" asked Alexandrite. At this, Milky Way turned and saw movement on a nearby small hill. At this, alarm tore through the Pegasus and she drew in a sharp gasp, especially as she recognised that the movement was a small crowd of highly ugly and dark creatures.

"It's some of Jadis's patrollers," cried the winged Horse, "Hide!"

At this, the pullers, together with Milky Way herself, pulled the sled towards a nearby tree and hid behind it. Then Trotterhoof turned to the group members not wearing an invisibility cloak or the Banshee disguises.

"Dashiell, Amberpaw, Ahhuayo, you duck in the sled's cockpit while we keep an eye on that patrol group of Jadis's cronies until they move on," said the Pig urgently. Ahhuayo obeyed but Dashiell and Amberpaw disgruntledly went along while Paddy gave Citron and Eureka, both wrapped in some of the ragged black curtains and cloths Trotterhoof and his group had used and deliberately partially shredded to fashion their Banshee/Shadow disguises, to Obsidian who took them under her invisibility cloak. Thundersparx and Milky Way, also in their invisibility cloaks, rushed to the other side of the sled and hid while Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Trotterhoof remained, their Banshee/Shadow disguises properly adjusted so that they could resemble some of Jadis's minions in order to fool the incoming group of the real minions should they spot any of the Marshlanders and/or this group.

Then after the Marshlanders had hid and Trotterhoof and his group, those dressed in the black rags, had taken up a pose as Jadis's minions, the patrol group appeared fully from behind the hill, stopped and began to chat. From the sled, Alexandrite, Molayne and Paddy began to observe the group of creatures while Ahhuayo and Obsidian (who had Citron and Eureka in one of her middle paws tucked under her invisibility cloak) kept a close and stern eye on Nanu who was still bound and itching to raise his head. The Wolf opened his mouth to speak but Obsidian shot him a fierce, piercing glare and flared up her orange-red fiery markings to intimidate him into being quiet or else she would brutally claw his face, much to Nanu's fright so he was forced to comply. The group of Jadis's minions which consisted of one or two Banshees, their ragged black cloaks bearing a striking resemblance to the disguises Trotterhoof and his group had fashioned from black curtains and cloths, a Tiger who had fallen for the Witch's side, several creatures called Nure-onna wo were Snake-like creatures with a Humanoid woman's head (similar to how Sphinxes and Manticores had a humanoid head on a Lion-like body), one or two Manticores, and a group of Banshee-like creatures called Nukekubi who had the ability to separate their heads from their bodies to frighten opponents, and some similar creatures who could stretch their necks to extreme lengths such that their heads could snake anywhere while their bodies remained in one position, called Rokurokubi.

Rokurokubi, thanks to their ability to stretch their necks to crane their heads far from their bodies, often served as eavesdroppers and spies, in which they could literally stretch their heads from their bodies to move their heads within hearing range of any groups of foes to eavesdrop on their conversations about forbidden things like Aslan or the Golden Age Prophecy, without having to be entirely there and thus risk getting spotted, and if the talkers were chatting about those two subjects, the Rokurokubi would report back to the Witch and those Narnians would he arrested and either slaughtered or taken to the Witch to be turned to stone and added to her growing collection of petrified creatures who have blasphemed and/or have disrespected the Queen. Milky Way shuddered as she watched the elastic-necked Horrors as they stretched their necks and snaked their heads towards the thicket and begin to examine the surroundings including the thicket for any sign of any nearby Narnian that could be hiding. Nukekubi, however, had a completely different ability. Instead of stretching their necks like their Rokurokubi cousins, Nukekubi can detach their heads from their main bodies and float around, which was an excellent defence tactic against their foes as well as an eavesdropping method. If a Nukekubi was in danger, it can drop its main body and detach its head to escape while its 'body' served as a decoy for the foe to surprise and distract them, rather like how certain species of our world's lizards would drop their tail to distract their predators (this process is called autotomy, but the Nukekubi's method is far more extreme and frightening). Ahhuayo explained this to Trotterhoof and the others as he peered over the rim of the sled and watched the group of patrollers.

"Those Nukekubi can also use their ability to distract their foes for offensive purposes," said the Ahuizotl, "while the foe is distracted with the 'body', the Nukekubi can lash at them from a different angle, say behind for example, and savagely attack them by biting them or tackling them in floating head form. A group of Nukekubi used this technique to brutally subdue some rebellious Fauns during the Massacre Event while it was happening a few days ago when they were trying to start a rebellion to interrupt the event."

"It certainly is a terrifying and rather grotesque technique, I must say," said Obsidian in revulsion as she glared at the group of talking patrollers. Then Thundersparx's paw went up as a signal for them to be quiet.

"They're talking about Gandalf's base and also Gandalf and his mate themselves," said the Raiju in a hushed but urgent voice. At this, Obsidian and Ahhuayo listened intently as they began to hear the exchange of words between the horrifying creatures. Some of them were talking so loud that their words were hearable.

"Her Majesty is seriously getting more and more impatient, folks," said one of the Nukekubi, "When is that hidden base of those two wanted nine-tailed Kitsune discovered!?"

"Absolutely," said one of the Rokurokubi, "and when Her Majesty is impatient, she can be EXTREMELY short tempered."

"In addition to that," added a Nure-onna, "The news regarding the destroyed idol of our Queen in one of the villages isn't helping either. Those villagers are being severely punished by their Goblin owners and are being forced to rebuild and repair the damage to the statue…" when Thundersparx heard this, a wave of guilt washed over him. However, he had been too blinded by sheer anger to even think of the consequences it would cause when he struck down the Jadis idol with his lightning."

"While whoever is responsible for destroying the idol will be dealt with in the most gruesome way," continued the Woman-faced Snake creature in a growl of anger, to which Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way flinched.

"Apparently, according to one of the Goblins, a group of patrolling Banshees must have been responsible but that doesn't make any sense since the blast that struck the idol down had been lightning," said the Tiger who was a white big Cat with black stripes slashing over the snow-white pelt, to which the pair of Banshees flinched in disbelief, "Furthermore, only Púca, the Banshee force captain, has the ability to cast lightning from her fingers to brutally subdue her foes in addition to her extremely loud, piercing scream that is capable of inflicting massive sound-based damage to her foes ranging from severe hearing damage to even gorier results, and she would NEVER… EVER… consider in destroying anything dedicated to our Queen, such as those golden gem-encrusted statues…"

"Just a minute," said one of the Manticores before turning to one of the Rokurokubi as she continued to examine the thicket, her neck stretched so that her head was near the thicket's edge, "Can you see anything in that thicket, Horā?"

The Rokurokubi, named Horā, continued to examine the thicket with her head stretched from her body. As the elastic-necked Banshee-like creature's piercing glare scoured the thicket, the Marshlanders hid behind the trees while the Thunderbird protected some young Marsh-Wiggles with his wings, a worried glare on the elastic-necked creature as her head sailed by. Trotterhoof saw the Rokurokubi as she examined the area of thicket, exactly where the Marshlanders had dived for cover.

"We've gotta do something, Trotterhoof," said Desdemona worriedly. Then an idea entered Trotterhoof's head, so he turned to Thundersparx and Milky Way, a stern look on his face.

"You two keep a low profile in your invisibility cloaks," said the Pig, to which the Raiju and the Pegasus flashed him a "What!?" look.

"What are you gonna do?" retorted Thundersparx in a hushed voice. Suddenly, a Rokurokubi's voice sounded, "Hey, you group of Banshees. Have you seen any rebellious Narnians around here? We could do with some help."

At this, Trotterhoof flinched while Milky Way and Thundersparx covered their heads and feet with their invisibility cloaks. Dashiell, Amberpaw, Ahhuayo and Obsidian hid under the sack of food with Citron and Eureka tucked in Obsidian's middle paws, while Alexandrite, Molayne and Paddy sat on Nanu to keep him quiet. Trotterhoof then began to think of a reply, being careful not to expose his true identity to the Rokurokubi, whose head was stretched from her body and her glare was fixated on them, as she again asked.

"Oh, um…" stammered the Pig quietly.

"Excuse me, Banshees, I've asked you a question!" said the Rokurokubi in a harsher voice, demanding an answer. However, she did not see the 'Banshees'' true identity for the black rags resembled the cloaks of the real female Horrors infamous for their piercing screams which they uttered whenever they were about to kill an enemy. At this, Desdemona sprang into action and hid her Eagle face in the hood and put on the nastiest possible expression including dilating her pupils to their widest possible size for Banshee eyes resembled demonic eyes and were thus terrifying, and putting on her vocal impersonation of a Hag for Banshees' voices were creaky and raucous often like those of Hags. Carefully, she faced the Rokurokubi.

"Well, we don't know and we haven't seen any Narnian rebel groups around here, but if we do find them, we will report to you so that we can get those Narnians dealt with as soon as possible," said the Griffin in a Hag-like growl, "Thanks for checking on our progress. You may leave now."

As Desdemona spoke to the Rokurokubi like a Banshee, Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Milky Way, Cyril, Link, Alexandrite, Paddy, Ahhuayo and Obsidian shuddered under their covers and held their breath. Obsidian was trying to calm Citron and Eureka as they squirmed in her middle paws while Alexandrite sat on Nanu's mouth to keep him quiet as he also squirmed.

"Then make sure that you do," growled the Rokurokubi, unaware that she was talking to a Griffin posing as a Banshee, "because it is IMPORTANT that any Narnian that is rebelling against Her Majesty is reported, captured and taken before her in order to be either turned to stone or slaughtered for food."

Desdemona hardened her nerves as these words were spoken while Thundersparx and Milky Way flinched behind Trotterhoof, Cyril, Link and Desdemona in their invisibility cloaks and Obsidian felt her stomach lurch in the sled. Thankfully the Rokurokubi did not notice any of them and assumed them to be part of the environment due to their invisibility cloaks, or accompanying Banshees. There was a tense moment as the Rokurokubi watched Desdemona nod to confirm that she understood the reminder when a Manticore came in.

"Look, let's leave those Banshees to their work," said the ugly Humanoid-faced Lion-like creature with Bat-like wings and a Scorpion's tail, "We've got our own tasks to focus on."

"Right, thanks, my Manticore friend," said the Rokurokubi and with that, she withdrew her head and left the 'Banshees' alone. As soon as the Rokurokubi had withdrawn her head with the Manticore following her, Trotterhoof and company emerged from their disguises.

"Wow, good thinking and well played, Desdemona," said Thundersparx in astonishment to Desdemona's impersonation of a Banshee, "I thought that Rokurokubi had suspicion welling within her."

"Look, that other Manticore looks unsure," said Cyril. At this, Trotterhoof gazed at the other Manticore, who appeared to be a juvenile and a female for the mane was not as large (like in Lions, the size of the manes of Manticores was gender dependant with the males having larger manes than the females) and saw that her Humanoid face was laced with uncertainty. However, he wasn't concerned about this and watched on as the patrol group then moved on, for they felt that there were no Narnians here, and had failed to spot the Marshlanders who had been hiding behind the trees in the thick thicket. As the patrol group left, Ahhuayo heard one of the Nukekubi, after finishing examining the environment as well by sending her head floating around the land and returning to her main body, say something about one of the Kitsune apprentices of the Witch who was missing but as the Horror mentioned the Kitsune's name, the Ahuizotl's stomach lurched violently and he shuddered, his spines standing on end, similar to how the back hackles of a Dog rose when it felt threatened or stressed, and the female young Manticore also seemed to dislike that name as she followed the other patrollers.

"Something wrong, Ahhuayo?" asked Obsidian with concern. Ahhuayo, at this, took a moment to settle his stomach and his spines lowered. During this, Amberpaw and Dashiell emerged from under the sack of food and Alexandrite and Paddy stepped off of Nanu so that he could breathe while Obsidian calmed Citron and Eureka by cradling them with her middle paws.

"I'm fine, Obsidian," said the Ahuizotl, "Just a bit shaken when one of those Rokurokubi came so close to us…"

"Look, the Marshlanders are moving again," said Desdemona. At this, the others looked up and saw the group of Marshlanders emerge from the thicket and resume their journey to Gandalf's base once again. Trotterhoof then commanded the other pullers to start pulling again and with that, the group resumed following the Marshlanders, being careful to keep their distance from them as well as avoid getting spotted by any of them as they followed the evacuating inhabitants from the River Shribble and the Northern Marshlands.

"I hope Kushanku and his siblings and the others with him are okay," said Alexandrite as a thought for a certain Nekomata and his family entered her head. in response to this, Dashiell and Amberpaw just glared at the colourful Nekomata and returned to trying to rest as Trotterhoof and company continued to follow the Marshlanders who were by now close to one of the hidden entrances to Gandalf and Kyukon's base.


	39. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38- a near miss and a reunion**

Sometime later, Gandalf has reached the end of his lecture to the arrivals but he knew that he will have to repeat this first lesson to any Narnian still to arrive in the safety of his base, and he had been made aware of the approaching group of those arrivals-to-be during the dismissal of the crowd.

"The Northern Marshlanders are not too far away from one of the hidden burrow entrances, Gandalf," said the Basan rooster and leader, "however, they did run into a bit of trouble with a group of Jadis's minions, some of them being of the dreaded Rokurokubi and Nukekubi species known for stretching or detaching their heads from their bodies to examine their surroundings stealthily but thankfully they did not find them when they hid in a nearby thicket, according to the report of Rhubarb the Jackalope…"

"That's brilliant," said Gandalf sternly and gladly, "can you return to the burrow and help guide the Marshlanders through the burrow please?"

Bursyamo nodded and flew off. As the Fire Chicken left, Kushanku, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm and Satoshi appeared, curiosity enveloping them.

"Marshlanders?" repeated the first one. As he spoke, Emberflame with another Pyro named Fireflash, and Cumulonimbus and Brina came in to explain.

"The Northern Marshlands are an area of Narnia situated right near the border of our country to Ettinsmoor," said Brina, "The biggest river that runs through the Marshlands and along the Ettinsmoor/Narnia border is called the River Shribble."

"Cool," said Nyarth in fascination "Sounds like a boggy area with swamps and marshy terrain."

"That's exactly what the Northern Marshlands are," said Emberflame, "and because of the nature of the habitat, the inhabitants up there are mostly aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures like Marsh-Wiggles and Ahuizotl."

As Emberflame spoke, Fireflash came in and handed a book on the Marshlands to Kushanku and his siblings for them to have a look, which they did by flicking through the pages until they found the section on the inhabitants and saw images of the two species, along with the Kappa, the Gillman, the Platypus and the Kelpie (the type of Water Horse similar to a Hippocampus but whose manes resembled boggy plants or seaweed).

"But like every other region in Narnia, the Marshlands have been locked by Jadis in the Eternal Winter curse," said Brina sadly, "and as such, the area, which is as you said, Nyarth, is boggy, swampy and has marshy terrain, has been turned into a frozen wasteland of snow and ice that is continuous with the rest of Narnia."

Kushanku looked up at the Roc as she said this.

"And not only that," said Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird with a serious look, "the inhabitants, apart from those who have joined Jadis's side, such as the majority of the Kappa, some Gillmen, Ahuizotl and Kelpie, and even a few Platypuses, Marsh-Wiggles and Otters, have also had the incredibly corrupt law system bestowed upon them by the White Witch."

"Meaning they have to give ninety percent of their food to the Witch and her minions, or minions, give up one of their family or group members for the Massacre Event deceptively named the 'Fighting League', and perhaps have a golden idol of Jadis erected in their villages and towns, am I right?" asked Satoshi. Sandstorm gazed at the section about Marsh-Wiggles and saw that they often lived in some type of tent construction built in a cone-shape with a triangular entrance/exit hole in one side (a similar construction in our world that some human tribes such as the Native Americans built as homes, called tepees, had a similar design). A Marsh-Wiggle village consisted of these wigwams dotted quite far apart from each other for, as Sandstorm read, Marsh-Wiggles preferred their own field of privacy. Then the kits and Sandstorm put the book down onto a nearby stool to continue to listen to the Thunderbird, the Roc and the two Pyros.

"In addition," continued Brina, "After she had locked Narnia, including the Northern Marshlands, in the Eternal Winter, Jadis had rallied the Ettin Giants to wreak havoc on the inhabitants in order to force them into complying with her rules, such as giving a lot of their food to the Witch and her gluttonous minions. Some of the clans did refuse but sadly, those Giants had decimated some of them, among them an Ahuizotl clan and a few villages of Platypuses and Kelpies, when they refused to give up their fish and water plant farms and stocks they had been forced to establish when the freezing temperatures of the Eternal Winter curse killed off the majority of the fish stocks in the swamps…"

"That's _horrible!"_ said Nyarth in disgust.

"Looks like we inland Narnians aren't the only ones stricken with the constant threat of starvation because of the Witch's demand for food…" said Akira. Then Fireflash came by, her fiery humanoid form releasing flames behind her.

"That's one of the aspects of having a cruel, dictatorial, animalistic Beast like the Snow Witch in power, young Nekomata," said the Pyro with a fiery frown, "she has practically brought _everything_ in Narnia into a state of ruin," she then perked up, "but thankfully, her reign of terror and savagery will not last for ever, for we have the Golden Age Prophecy to look forward which will bring about the Winter Revolution."

"Winter Revolution?" asked Satoshi.

"The end of the Eternal Winter," said Emberflame, "According to the Golden Age Prophecy."

Cumulonimbus then said, "Which reads that:

 **Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,**

 **At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,**

 **When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death,**

 **And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.**

 **When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone,**

 **Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,**

 **The evil time will be over and done."**

The dark purple-black Thunderbird then smiled.

"And it will all begin when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve find their way into Narnia through a wooden box," he said. A smile of immense fascination and joy formed on the faces of Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm.

"And it will also mean that Aslan will appear too, right?" asked Satoshi excitedly.

"That's right," said Brina with a smile. The two Pyros Emberflame and Fireflash nodded.

"But when will Aslan come?" asked Nyarth.

"Ah, only he knows the day and the time, young Nekomata," said Fierflash, "Not even Gandalf and Kyukon know when he comes. The only knowledge of the Prophecy we have is in that rhyme and the riddle of the two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve coming through a wooden box into Narnia…"

"Wooden box?" repeated Sandstorm in confusion, "What kind of wooden box?"

A smile formed on Brina's beak.

"I'm afraid that is top secret as well, young Cheetah cub," said the Roc, to Sandstorm's disappointment. The ears of Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira also lowered.

"Don't worry," said Emberflame, "The riddle will also make sense when the time comes. We just have to keep our faith in Aslan and our hopes burning until he cometh."

This raised the heads and ears of the four Nekomata kits and the Cheetah cub and they gazed at Emberflame with small smiles. While Kushanku and the others chatted, there was movement behind a chair. A small orange Squirrel was hiding behind one of the chairs and table nearby and had been overhearing the whole conversation and as soon as Emberflame had finished, the Squirrel's face morphed into a look of delight but also a glare. However, none of the talkers noticed its presence but when Satoshi turned to look at the table and chair, the Squirrel darted away, appearing to Satoshi as an orange blur. Assuming it to be one of the Squirrel members, Satoshi brushed it off and resumed the conversation.

Then Nyarth's look morphed in to one of seriousness.

"But the White Witch will be a serious hazard to those four Humans, won't she?" he said.

"Yes," said Cumulonimbus darkly, "That Ice Serpent is a REAL expert in organising temptations and exploiting the weaknesses of her opponents. She is the Ultimate Temptress, Destroyer, Liar and the Mother of all Lies in Narnia."

"That explains the design of that 'Fighting League' promotion as well as its targeting towards us starving and desperate Narnians," said Kushanku.

"Leading to those poor unfortunate souls being thrown into the Arena of Death and slaughtering themselves like feral beasts," said Satoshi. He shuddered as he remembered the sanguinary scenes from the event back at Dashiell and his family's den in Green Leaf Village and they were still as vivid in his mind, and the minds of the other badly traumatised Narnians, as yesterday, especially in individuals such as Shadewing.

"And I'll tell you another fact about that Temptress," continued Brina, "She tried to tempt a certain Son of Adam, while he was on a quest to retrieve a Youth Apple from the Garden of Youth to plant the Tree of Protection, to eat the apple, and she very nearly succeeded in bringing him to serious ruin. Thank Aslan he resisted…"

"So yes, we must NEVER, EVER underestimate that Snow Snake's charms and temptations and their power," continued Cumulonimbus, "and certainly not her power in combat and her magic. In fact, her magic is powerful enough to bring down even a fully grown, nine-tailed Kitsune in one strike which was sadly the demise of one of Gandalf and Kyukon's oldest sons who tried to fight her only to meet his demise…"

Kushanku and his siblings flinched at this fact.

"So that would mean not even Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon would stand a chance against the Witch?" aside Kushanku.

"No, not even in the slightest," said Brina, "That is why Gandalf and Kyukon and their older offspring have retreated underground, in this secret base, to escape the Witch's wrath and clutches as well as keep a library of Narnia's history and Prophecies as ordered by Aslan."

Sandstorm, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira just gazed at the Roc and shuddered. Just then Tesseract entered the scene with Faline and a few of her children, and an adult male Alicorn.

"Excuse me, Miss Emberflame, Mr Cumulonimbus, guys," said the Unicorn, "Sorry to rudely intrude but we have a question. Do you know where Troodon, Webby, Ronno's son Cloudhorn, and six of Faline's kits, among them Fluffy-Cotton, have got to?"

"We've been looking everywhere in this room for them," said the adult Alicorn named Ronno, "together with Perry, the father of Webby, and his mate and Webby's sisters and brother, and Ena, Troodon's mother, and Troodon's brothers and sisters."

Emberflame, Fireflash, Brina and Cumulonimbus responded to this question with worried looks while Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth looked concerned.

"Weren't they by your sides during the lecture, Tesseract, Ronno and Faline?" asked Emberflame.

"Well they were present with us before the lecture but now they've disappeared," said Faline who was flanked by her equally worried kits. Then the Rabbit mother began to tremble violently, "Don't tell us they have wandered away. We still don't know the base very well and they might end up lost."

Cumulonimbus stepped forward and said, "I'll alert Gandalf and Kyukon about this and see what they can do," and with that, the Thunderbird darted off to find the two Kitsune couple, leaving the others to exchange glances.

"I wonder if they have wandered off after something curious or perhaps got distracted by something during the lecture, or perhaps have gone after that Fox whom Mrs Kyukon suspected of possibly being one of the Witch's minions?" said Kushanku. This was met by an angry glare from Brina, Emberflame and Fireflash when he particularly mentioned the latter possibility.

"I hope not," said Fireflash in a growl, "since she's been taken to a compartment that is _strictly_ for the workers trained to deal with intruders incarcerated in that room and NOT for kids to play around in since those intruders could be dangerous…"

This sent a massive jolt of dread sparking through Tesseract and also Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn, Fluffy-Cotton and her siblings' relatives when they heard this, especially Ena, the mother of Troodon, and Troodon's brothers and sisters, knowing them to be friends with Belladonna, that same Kitsune who Kyukon had ordered to be incarcerated until further notice. Then the adult female Theropod pattered over, a fearful look on her face.

"I hope my son and the other missing kids haven't gone down there, have they?" said Ena worriedly.

"Well, if so, then they will be in SERIOUS trouble," said Brina angrily before turning to Emberflame and Brina, "We'd better help in the search."

"But what about dealing with my conflict with Belladonna?" asked Kushanku.

"We'll deal with that later," said Brina, "But now, finding Troodon and the other missing kids is our top priority. They SHOULD have been here listening to the lecture and learning the truth about the Witch and the real reason why she is in power, as well as learn that the propaganda she had distributed about her dictatorship is nothing but a pack of lies to cover up the true intentions…"

Ena nodded in agreement and left to continue the search with Ronno, Faline and her present offspring, and Fireflash and Emberflame following. Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira have decided on another thing.

"I think we'll watch the entry of those Marshlanders into the base," said Sandstorm, "and perhaps search in that area to see if Troodon and the other missing members are somewhere near there?"

"Okay, but stay well away from the entrance," said Emberflame firmly as she left with Webby's relatives, among them his father Perry, to an adjacent room to help the Platypuses search in there, "for the last thing we want is any of the secret entrances being revealed to Jadis's minions as that would put the base's secrecy in serious jeopardy."

The five siblings nodded as Tesseract joined them.

"I'm coming with you," said the young Unicorn, "as I would like to help in the search for Troodon and the others in that area as well, and I'd like to meet those species from the Northern Marshlands in the flesh for I had never seen them before myself."

Kushanku smiled and with that, he, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira left with Tesseract following them.

 **Meanwhile**

Back outside and in the snow-blanketed aboveground, the Marshlanders were continuing their journey towards Gandalf's base, their journey nearly finishing as they were now close to their destination under the guidance of the Thunderbird and his assistants, closing in on one of the hidden burrow-like entrances with one of the Sphinxes, a few Fauns, two Jackalopes (one of them being Rhubarb), a Griffin and a few Basan (one of them being Bursyamo), standing and guiding the group towards them while at the same time, keeping an eye on the surroundings. The watchers around the group itself were also keeping a very close eye on the surroundings for any flash of creepy movement that would indicate the presence of Jadis's minions on patrol. After that narrow escape from one of the patrol groups earlier, especially with some of the members being species with the ability to stretch or detach their heads from their bodies to observe a wider area without manually going over to them almost spotting them hiding in the thick thicket, the entire group was particularly on edge and were desperate to get to Gandalf's base as soon as possible because if they were spotted by another patrol group of Jadis's minions again, they might not have a lucky escape unlike last time though they had been unaware that Trotterhoof and company may have contributed indirectly to their previous escape by posing as a group of Banshees to fool that previous patrol group to hide themselves earlier, and that group was following them from a safe distance.

Trotterhoof and company, still dressed in their Banshee outfits and invisibility cloaks and travelling in their sled with some of them pulling it along, continued to skulk carefully behind the Marshlanders as they closed in on the secret entrance to be met by the group of watchers stationed outside its mouth. Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Link, Desdemona, Cyril and Molayne were still wearing their Banshee outfits while Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way wore their invisibility cloaks. Travelling with them were Dashiell, Amberpaw, Ahhuayo, Citron and Eureka (in Obsidian's clutches and under her invisibility cloak), and also Nanu who was still tied up in the cargo section of the sled, and Trotterhoof, Thudersparx, Milky Way, Cyril, Link and Desdemona were pulling the sled along, the others riding in it. Like the Marshlanders ahead of them, the group was constantly checking their surroundings for any flash of movement from the patrol groups of Jadis's minions. As Trotterhoof and company moved along, Desdemona flew up into the air and spotted what appeared to be watchers to an entrance of some sort, especially as the lead Thunderbird and Marshlanders were greeted.

"Looks like we're close to the safety zone the Marshlanders are evacuating to, folks," said the young Griffin as she touched back down, "I can see a few Jackalopes, Fauns, a few Chickens, an adult Griffin and what looks like a Lion creature with a humanoid face and feathered wings greeting the Thunderbird at the front."

"Right, let's get prepared to approach that entrance to the safety zone and sneak in," said Trotterhoof, "and as soon as we're in, we'll shed these disguises so that we're not mistaken for Jadis's minions."

As the Pig said this, a wave of relief washed through the others, especially Ahhuayo, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way.

"I'm so glad that we're gonna be out of the Witch's grasp," said Ahhuayo gratefully, "I've been looking forward to leaving behind the HORRIBLE lifestyles of that Snow Animal and her minions, especially the Massacre Thing they have so wrongly named the Fighting League…"

"So will those Marshlanders," said Thundersparx as he watched the group, "And perhaps countless other Narnians who have been severely oppressed by that White Witch and her dictatorship…"

"I sure hope Kushanku and the other Green Leaf Villagers will have found somewhere safe as well," said Padparadscha "Paddy" with hope, before her gaze turned to the two orphaned Otter pups, Eureka and Citron, in Obsidian's middle paws, as they snoozed under her invisibility cloak, "and those two Otter pups will be safe as well."

As she spoke, Dashiell and Amberpaw just glared at her and returned to resting while Nanu, his paws still bound, said nothing but glared at the group, especially Ahhuayo, angrily and disgruntledly. Then the group began to very carefully approach the Marshlanders as they began the process of entering the secret burrow which in fact led to Gandalf's base underground under the guidance of the watchers at the entrance and the Thunderbird.

However, despite their care, Trotterhoof and company were unaware that they were making a big mistake. They were so consumed with so much bubbling enthusiasm at the thought of escaping the Witch's dictatorial and tyrannical grasp that they failed to gauge how visible they were in the clearing, and because of their disguises, they bore a striking resemblance to an actual group of Jadis's minion patrol group, especially against a sea of white snow in the sunlight. While Trotterhoof and company continued to carefully approach the Marshlanders from behind, at the secret burrow entrance to Gandalf's base, the Thunderbird (not Cumulonimbus for this individual had the commoner bright yellow and metallic plumage and not the very rare purple-black colour Cumulonimbus possessed) continued to help the Marshlanders through the entrance with the watchers while some of them kept a hawk-eye on the surroundings. Amongst the helpers were Bursyamo the Basan leader and a few of his underlings, Rhubarb and some of her assistants, the adult Griffin and the Sphinx.

"That's it, you lot," commanded Bursyamo as he watched the mixed group of swampland-adapted creatures enter the burrow in a narrow line, "Be careful not to step on each other's capes, tails or feet but keep up the speed."

Then one of Bursyamo's underlings, a Hen, stepped forward and helped a female Gillman carry a basket of young Gillmen, her offspring, into the burrow while a Kappa couple carried a few Platypus puggles, all apparently orphaned, close behind her. Then a Marsh-Wiggle tripped as his foot snagged on a stone but was caught in time by the Sphinx and helped through the burrow while another of Bursyamo's underlings, a Cockerel or Rooster, seized the rock and tossed it aside to prevent it from being a trip hazard to anyone else in the group. The Marshlander group continued to enter the burrow like a crowd of schoolchildren entering a school during the end of break time in our world only it was more crowded due to the urgency of their entry into the burrow. While the Marshlanders' entry continued, inside, Kushanku, Tesseract, Sandstorm, Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi were searching for Webby, Troodon and the others when they also watched the entry of the Marshlanders in their thick line into the burrow. As commanded by Emberflame they kept their distance from the entrance.

"So THOSE are the Marshlanders?" asked Tesseract in amazement when he saw the variety of swampland creatures walk past. A few of the passing members flashed him a gaze before continuing deeper down the tunnel. The Cats, however, continued searching for Troodon and the other missing members to stop and properly gaze at the incoming Marshlanders.

"Webby, Troodon, Cloudhorn," said Sandstorm as he called down a connecting tunnel, before turning in the direction of the passing Marshlanders and spitting the Kappa couple with some Platypus puggles.

"Webby?" asked the Cheetah cub. At this, the female Kappa shot him a frown.

"Who's Webby?" she retorted irritably with her mate also glaring at him. Sandstorm flinched and apologised and allowed the Kappa and her mate to continue to pass with the young Platypuses, some of the other members of the Marshlander group shooting confused looks at the brief scene before continuing. Pulling his gaze from them, Sandstorm continued down the tunnel, shouting Webby's name.

Back outside, Rhubarb, together with one of her underlings and the Griffin, were stood on top of the burrow's entrance continuously scouring the surroundings for any sign of Jadis's minions patrolling the area while the Marshlanders continued to enter below.

"Any sign of the Witch's minions or cronies, Rhubarb?" asked Bursyamo as he helped an elderly Otter through the burrow.

"No, Bursyamo but if there is, I'll sound the alarm," replied the Jackalope when suddenly, the antlered Hare's eyes picked out something against the white snow behind the Marshlander crowd still to enter the burrow. At first, she dismissed it.

"Urm, I do see something but I think that's just a black Dumb Beast passing," she said. As she spoke, the Griffin, with his Eagle-like eyes, glared at the form more carefully.

"Er, I don't think that's a Dumb Beast, Rhubarb," said the Eagle-Lion like Talking Beast warily. Then one of the Jackalopes, an underling of Rhubarb, gazed at the form more carefully as well.

"Especially if it has a sled with it," he said. At this, alarm tore through him.

"A SLED!" he barked. This sent a shockwave tearing through the others including Rhubarb and the Griffin and Bursyamo shot him a glare.

"Are you meaning to say a group of…" began the Fire Chicken but then the Sphinx glared at the group of black forms with the sled.

"I can see them," she said. Bursyamo then turned to the Thunderbird as panic began to boil dangerously within the Marshlanders.

"Scintillam, we have a SERIOUS PROBLEM!" shouted the Basan before turning to his underlings and the other helpers "Get these Marshlanders in the burrow PRONTO!"

Then the Thunderbird, named Scintillam spread his wings and took off to intercept the suspected group of the Witch's minions.

"I'll attack that group while you guys see the Marshlanders into the burrow," said the Thunderbird. The Sphinx, the Griffin and Bursyamo also spread their wings and took off after him to help while Rhubarb and the remaining helpers barked at the Marshlanders to hurry. However, a few of them at the back had already reached boiling point in their panic and had begun to bolt like frightened sheep in a flock at the appearance of a wolf. Terrified and seeing the black forms with the sled, the group began to scatter but Rhubarb barked at some Basan to fly in and prevent those members from fleeing in other directions. Inside, Kushanku, Tesseract, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Nyarth were made aware of the panic shockwave spreading through the Marshlanders indicated by their panicked cries and acceleration down the burrow tunnel.

"Now what's up!?" shouted Nyarth in irritation. Kushanku and the others daren't travel to the entrance of the burrow to find out because one, that would be disobeying Emberflame's orders to stay in the safety of inside and two, they'd be trampled underfoot by the panicking Marshlanders. Further down the tunnel, Crystal, Dahlia, Snowwing and a new friend, a young male Sheep lamb named Bombacio had arrived, also looking for the still-missing Troodon and the others and also to check on Kushanku's group when they saw the thick line of Marshlanders suddenly accelerate in pace. Bombacio, at this, shoved the Skvader, Jackalope and Parrot trio behind a nearby Light-Tree used to illuminate the burrow before hiding himself to escape the sudden stampede of Marshlanders.

"What's happening!?" cried Crystal as she watched the panicked Marshlanders rush by. None of the other three replied but they felt dread well within them as an idea of the cause of the panic entered their head, an idea they didn't like one bit.

Back outside, while the Marshlanders continued to rush into the burrow and the scattered ones were being herded by Bursyamo's underlings back to the main group at Rhubarb's command, Trotterhoof and company, who were still dressed in their disguises and had their sled, saw four forms, enraged screeches escaping their beaks and mouths, head right towards them. At this, alarm tore through them.

"We've been SPOTTED!" cried Desdemona. Thundersparx was about to reply when suddenly, a massive lightning bolt appeared and struck the snow near them, making the group jump as the bolt formed a charred crater in the snow. Then the next thing the group knew, they became under savage attack from an enraged Basan, Griffin, Sphinx and Thunderbird, the latter who had thrown the lightning bolt at Trotterhoof and company (unaware of their true identity under the ragged disguises) and next, the four entered defensive mode and began to viciously try and claw Trotterrhoof and company with the Thunderbird unleashing more electric bolts, the Sphinx seizing some ammo in the form of branches and rocks using her telekinesis to batter the 'intruders' and the Basan utilising its fire breath. Thundersparx shoved Cyril and Desdemona out of the way of the stream of fire that erupted from the Fire Chicken's beak which carved a trench of singed and melted snow in the spot where the trio had been earlier, while Molayne, Alexandrite, Obsidian (who had Citron and Eureka in her middle paws), Ahhuayo and Padparadscha seized Dashiell and Amberpaw and made a break from the sled as the Sphinx telekinetically threw a boulder at it and smashed it into the snow vehicle, sending pieces of it, and Nanu who was still bound, flying everywhere. Nanu then landed in some snow and after being stunned from the attack for a moment, recovered and scarpered, his paws still bound, to the safety of a nearby tree trunk while Alexandrite and Paddy dodged another boulder attack from the Sphinx. After this, the Sphinx began to mentally swipe at the sled riders with some branches, all enclosed in an aqua blue aura as they were held by the Sphinx's mental grasp, sending the sled riders into a panic. Then Trotterhoof, after dodging an aerial claw attack from the Griffin, began to cry out.

"Oh, don't attack us…" squealed the Pig as he and Milky Way dived to either side to avoid another lightning blast from the Thunderbird (named Scintillam) and also a fire stream from the Basan (named Bursyamo), "We're NOT Jadis's… minions…" he dodged another lighting strike from the Thunderbird, "Come on, it's US!"

Nearby, Cyril and Link were frantically dodging the Griffin's savage claw attacks. Nearby, while the commotion was happening, Nanu had managed to release his feet from his binds and as soon as he was free, he began to gaze in shock at the commotion when suddenly, his eyes landed on something sparkly and cube-shaped. It was a piece from the destroyed sled. Immediately, Nanu rushed out, seized the cube and darted back into his hiding place. Bursyamo then swerved round and glared volcanically at the 'Banshee group' with his plumage puffed out, still unaware of their true identities under the cloaks.

"DIE, you BUNCH OF SCREAMIN' MINIONS of the SNOW SERPENT!" bellowed the Basan and with that, he swooped down and unleashed another blast of fire at two of them, Desdemona and Molayne, only to miss as the two dodged and protested that they weren't Jadis's cronies.

Back at the entrance of the burrow with the Marshaldners still being guided in, Kushanku fought his way through the stampede to glimpse the conflict when he was suddenly stopped by Rhubarb and the helpers who glared at him angrily.

"You SHOULDN'T be anywhere NEAR HERE, young Nekomata," shouted Rhubarb angrily. Behind Kushanku, Sandstorm and the others appeared just as Kushanku spotted the conflict between Bursyamo's group and the group of 'Banshees' when he spotted a familiar face under one of the cloaks. At this, alarm tore through him.

"That's MR TROTTERHOOF!" he shouted, "CALL OFF THE ATTACK, QUICKLY!"

Sandstorm came in and also saw one of the 'Banshees'' faces and saw that it had a familiar Cat's face. Rhubarb continued barking at the youngsters to return inside when one of the Fauns noticed something odd about the 'Banshees'. At this, alarm tore through him as well.

Back with the skirmish, the Sphinx tried to hit a protesting Ahhuayo, assuming him to be one of the Ahuizotl who has turned to Jadis's side, with a log by telekinetically throwing it at him only for him to dive and roll out of the way, sending the log flying into the tree trunk and breaking into two. Amidst the panic and seeing that their protests that they were not Jadis's minions were falling on deaf ears, Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne began to quickly shed their black Banshee-like disguises while Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way did the same with their invisibility cloaks and began to protest to their attackers once more that they were NOT minions of Jadis. The moment their cloaks were shed and their true identities were revealed; Bursyamo spotted them as he swooped in for another attack. This sent alarm tearing through the Basan so he braked abruptly in the air and immediately turned to the Sphinx, Scintillam the Thunderbrid, and the Griffin.

"GUYS, halt your ATTACK!" shouted the Fire Chicken. The Griffin and Scintillam did so upon seeing the 'Banshees'' true identity but the Sphinx, who was still so consumed by the adrenaline of the skirmish, let loose a screech and telekinetically threw a rock at Trotterhoof and company until at the last second as she released her projectile she saw the 'Banshees'' true identities. However, she had already released her projectile and sent it flying at Trotterhoof and company but Ahhuayo came in, caught the rock with his tail-hand and threw it aside to protect his friends.

"Oops," said the Sphinx apologetically. After the skirmish had calmed down and as some of the Basan, Jackalopes and Fauns, sent in by Rhubarb turned up, Bursyamo turned to them.

"Folks, my underlings," commanded the lead Basan Rooster, "Take these Narnians to the burrow."

The newcomers obeyed and rushed over to a relieved Trotterhoof and company.

Soon, Trotterhoof and company, together with their shed cloaks, Nanu and the destroyed sled (to remove any evidence of their presence from Jadis's REAL minions, as well as any shed feathers and fur), were taken into the burrow. Dashiell, Amberpaw, Ahhuayo, Citron and Eureka were also taken in and Trotterhoof had explained to Bursyamo and company that Ahhuayo was a rebel against the Witch and that he had left her side to join theirs, so Ahhuayo was taken in as well. The rest of the Marshlanders had also been herded into the burrow and now, everyone was safely inside. As Trotterhoof and company were guided down the tunnel, a set of familiar voices erupted from nearby.

"MR TROTTERHOOF, ALEXANDRITE!" cried one of them. The others also shouted the names of Paddy, Molayne, Cyril, Link and Desdemona. At this, the seven of them turned round and saw a group of familiar youngsters, four of them Nekomata kits, one a Cheetah cub, and the others a Parrot chick, Jackalope kit and a Skvader kit, appear and leap over to them jubilant looks on their faces. Then within moments, the group collided and were locked in a massive group hug, much to the smiles of the onlookers.

"Oh, Kushanku, guys, you're alright!" cried Trotterhoof as he hugged the kids.

"We've been so WORRIED about you when Jadis came and took us and Soran and his family away from you and the other villagers," said Molayne. As the group broke their hug, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona gazed at their friends.

"We actually through that you have died when Jadis sent her minions to decimate Green Leaf and Purple Town," said Paddy.

"Oh, no, we have been commanded by Aslan to evacuate to safety," said Kushanku, before his ears and face fell, "But…"

"But what?" asked Alexandrite.

"But many of the villagers didn't listen…" said Satoshi in a thick voice. At this, a wave of understanding coursed through Trotterhoof and the other six for they knew what Satoshi was talking about. They had seen the devastation in those two places themselves when they went to look for Kushanku and the others shortly after leaving Jadis's castle and its grounds. The only survivors of the devastation were Dashiell, Amberpaw, Citron and Eureka, and they had been taken in by Trotterhoof and company during their presence and before their hasty escape from Purple Flower from the evil Krampus. Then Crystal moved on.

"So, how did you guys escape from that Witch's castle?" she asked. Trotterhoof smiled.

"Well, it's a long story, Crystal," said the Pig, "But we will tell you when we've settled in here…"

And with that, the group continued down the burrow after the remaining Marshlanders.

"I bet it's interesting," said Sandstorm with slight excitement and as he walked alongside Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira. He then turned to look at Dashiell and Amberpaw and wanted to leap into their paws for a hug but when he saw the sour looks on their faces pierce him and his adopted kit siblings, and then turn away as if not wanting to acknowledge their presence, a wave of sadness and worry came over the Cheetah cub.

Then the group disappeared with their supervisors including Bursyamo down the tunnel and into Gandalf's base with Obsidian (with Citron and Eureka in her paws), Thundersparx, Milky Way and Ahhuayo in tow and with Nanu under Thundersparx's fierce supervision, though the Wolf did have the sparkling cube he had salvaged from the destroyed sled. Kushanku and company looked forward to hearing from Trotterhoof and company, and also Thundersparx and his two companions, of their daring escape from Jadis's castle grounds… completely undetected by the Witch and her cronies…


	40. Chapter 39

**Chapter 39- explanations**

 **Later**

After Trotterhoof and company had been escorted into the burrow and led to the main lecture room where Gandalf had done his lecture to the Narnians that had already arrived (which was now being set up again in preparation for the Marshlanders who were still be educated on the Witch's lies and propaganda about her reign), they had been brought before Gandalf and Kuykon where they explained their whole story with Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne explaining how they had fashioned black curtains and blankets by putting tears in them to form ragged cloaks for themselves to disguise as Banshees or Shadows to blend in with the Witch's minions so that they could escape the Witch's castle grounds unnoticed while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way explained their story of spying on the Witch and her cronies during the ten year period between their family's settling into their 'new and improved home' after Thundersparx's father won the previous Massacre Event and the most recent one won by Soran. Citron and Eureka had been taken away by one of the Basan to be put into care while Dashiell and Amberpaw had also been escorted to join the other Narnians as they continued to settle into the base. As for Nanu, he had been apprehended by two Dragons, among them Viridi, after Thundersparx explained to them that he was one of Jadis's cronies despite Nanu's frightened protests and promising that he will not reveal anything to the Witch. He was to be taken to the dungeon compartment and held there for interrogation later. And Nanu was extremely terrified, genuinely terrified, unlike Belladonna who had been furious.

Ahhuayo also explained his time as one of the Witch's followers and described how he eventually came to rebel against the Witch due to all the disturbing things he had witnessed, such as the Massacre Event for the first time, in addition to all the lies he had been told as a young pup (baby Ahuizotl) about that event being fair and not as he had witnessed it to be. Then after Trotterhoof and company had finished their bone-chilling explanation of their escapes and journey to find safety and refuge, the astonished listeners had clapped, and Gandalf and Kyukon were especially surprised, but also glad that some of the members of the families of the victors hadn't fallen for the Witch's tempting trap to forget all about the other Narnians who had been left to carry on and pick up the shattered pieces of their lives after the Massacre Event had finished and when things returned to normal, including dealing with often-irreparably torn hearts from the loss of their loved ones in the Arena of Death, and the Kitsune pair was even gladder that three of them had the courage to observe and study the Witch and her minions and their behaviour for ten years which would serve as a teaching aid for the Narnians about the Witch's lies and propaganda, for they would be solid witnesses to tell their story.

"Well I'm so glad that you lot have managed to escape that horrible Snow Snake and Temptress's castle and surrounding area," said Gandalf firmly, to which Trotterhoof and the others nodded and smiled proudly, before Gandalf turned and gazed at the ragged black curtains and blankets Trotterhoof, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne had used to fashion their Banshee disguises, "and it truly was an excellent idea to disguise yourselves as some of that Witch's minions to escape undetected as well…"

"And we're really sorry to have caused panic amongst the Marshlanders and some of your assistants, Gandalf, guys, especially with our disguises, but we but we didn't want to shed our disguises for fear that we'd be found and returned to the Witch's castle and possibly killed," said Trotterhoof apologetically, his gaze especially on Rhubarb, Bursyamo, Scintillam the Thunderbird and some of the others who had spotted them initially and assumed them to be some of Jadis's minions, resulting in a few of them attacking Trotterhoof and company earlier. Scintillam then formed a disapproving glare when the Pig said this.

"You _honestly_ gave us a scare out there, seriously," said the Thunderbird, "We thought we had been followed by some Banshees and Shadows and had to take action…"

"Even if it meant killing you there and then, if you HAD been some of Jadis's cronies until you showed your true identities at the last minute," said Bursyamo in agreement. Trotterhoof, at this, rolled his eyes.

"I would rather DIE by getting roasted by a Basan or Dragon, zapped by a Thunderbird, clawed by a Griffin or beaten to death by a Sphinx than end up butchered at that Snow Witch's place for food," said the Pig to which Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona and Molayne and also Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way flashed a surprised look. Then Bursyamo shot Trotterhoof a confused look.

"Butchered for food?" repeated the lead Basan Rooster. Obsidian turned to him.

"While we were observing the lives of that Witch and her cronies," said the six-legged Wampus Cat, "We've witnessed a group of Talking Beasts get slaughtered and their meat processed."

At this, revulsion and astonishment tore through Bursyamo and the others.

"You're KIDDING!" shouted one of Bursyamo's underlings. Gandalf and Kyukon, however, were not surprised.

"That's why, Jadis," hissed Gandalf disgustedly, "She's an outright barbarian and dumb animal in EVERY sense of the word, besides the ultimate Temptress, Mother of Lies, and a downright bloodthirsty and greedy sadist."

Bursyamo shot the nine-tailed Kitsune an astonished look as Thundersparx came in.

"And you may be even more outraged at this as well," said the Raiju, "Some of those poor Talking Beasts' meat had been served to the victors and their families as well. It was that and our witnessing of those poor Talking Animals get slaughtered in that slaughterhouse of sorts that has led me and Obsidian to become strict vegetarians…"

"Some of the other Narnians will have gone vegetarian as well," said Kyukon in understanding, "But likely because of the slaughter of countless Narnians they had witnessed in that Arena of Death during the broadcasting of the Massacre Event, and as a result they have been traumatised for life…"

"I've seen that gory bloodbath with my own two eyes," said Ahhuayo nearby. He still shuddered at watching so many innocent Narnians get slaughtered in cold blood in that Arena and the memorial visions of friends and family members, both young and old, gorily fighting and slaying each other and the helpless, especially those as young as chicks, pups or other baby animal, and that pregnant Bear, trying to escape only to be forced back into the bloodbath by Jadis's Manticores and other helpers and gruesomely killed by the other battlers. Now that he was in the safety of Gandalf's base, Ahhuayo, for the first time since his escape from Jadis's castle, felt safe. Furthermore, he was glad that there were other Ahuizotl who were against the Witch, but he was still traumatised by the whole experience and will likely need a lot of time to recover from it.

"And as for those victors and the family members who have given in to the Witch's temptations of the 'better life' prize, they have become fat, extremely lazy and _utterly_ uncaring," said Milky Way before her gaze turned to Trotterhoof and his group, "with this Pig and his friends' family being the newest additions…"

"They will do," said Kyukon, "since the Witch's charms and offers are so great due to the difficulties she has trapped Narnia with the Eternal Winter," the mate of Gandalf released a sad sigh, "and since the Golden Age Prophecy's happening is in Aslan's timing, those individuals would rather have their best things now than wait until Aslan's coming, like those Narnians who have joined Jadis's side, among them quite a number of our offspring…"

"To tell you the truth it had been incredibly difficult to leave," said Alexandrite with a sad face, "The food was so good, there were a lot of things in that new home that we didn't have back in Green Leaf, it was warm and we had warmer and comfier beds to sleep in…" the colourful Nekomata shook her head sadly.

"Not to mention our bond with our other family members," said Molayne. A tear welled in his eye as he thought of Soran, Growler, Silver-Ears and the other Dogs who were his parents, cousins and his siblings and wept at their betrayal of Green Leaf Village leading to the slaughter of them and Purple Flower Town nearby.

"But we knew we had to leave due to how corrupt the place was with where most of the meat had come from, thoughts of Kushanku and the other Green Leaf villagers, and other reasons," said Paddy.

"We didn't want to stay and honour a usurper who is so BARBARIC and infamous for all these corrupt laws and events like the sanguinary Massacre 'Fighting League' thing…" put in Cyril with a growl. Desdemona and Link nodded in agreement. As Trotterhoof and company spoke, Kushanku came in with Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Nyarth. However, as the five did, two certain Cheetahs stood nearby with a cold glare lacing their faces aimed at them. Dashiell and Amberpaw glared at the quintet before walking away before Sandstorm and Kushanku turned and looked at them only to see them walk away without even a sliver of acknowledgement of the Cheetah cub, the Nekomata and the other three. However, Sandstorm and Kushanku merely brushed it off as the two being grumpy and continued to approach Trotterhoof and company, where they were noticed by Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way just as Trotterhoof had finished his explanation of his and his group's escape from Jadis. At this, the Raiju began to examine the four Nekomata, as did the Wampus Cat and the Pegasus, much to the confusion of the onlookers.

"I believe those four must be the offspring of Ferntail and Frosty," said Thundersparx, making confusion well within Kushanku, Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi and they exchanged glances.

"Ferntail and Frosty?" repeated Satoshi curiously. Then Obsidian came in to explain.

"They were a pair of Nekomata who helped to hide a number of Aslan believers from the Witch and her minions," the basalt black and very vivid orange-red marked Wampus Cat explained, "Ferntail had been pregnant with a brood of kits at the time."

Obsidian then examined the features borne by the four Nekomata kits and went on, "And because you look so much like those two fork-tailed Cats, especially you," she nodded to Kushanku, "with the white head hair and metallic icy blue body fur, features that Frosty had," she then scanned the features of Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, "and with the combined features of the pair that you three have, we have arrived at the conclusion that you four must be the offspring of those two Nekomata."

Shock tore through Kushanku and his three biological siblings and Sandstorm looked astonished.

"WHAT!?" blurted out Nyarth.

"You possibly know our biological parents!?" shouted Akira incredulously.

"B-b-but we were told that our parents had died when we were still very young kits," said Satoshi. Kushanku just looked on speechless and so said nothing. Then a wave of relief tore through Thundersparx as he approached them. Milky Way and Obsidian also began to shake at the same wave of relief.

"Oh, thank Aslan that you four have managed to survive that fateful night when your parents and the other believers in Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy hiding in that den had been slaughtered by Jadis's minions when my father betrayed them and told the Witch of their location," said Thundersparx jubilantly and tearfully to which the four Nekomata looked on confused, "I thought that you four had also been killed in that massacre but it seems that action must have been taken to ensure that your lives had been preserved…"

"What do you mean?" asked Kushanku. Then Emberflame glided in, her flames trailing out behind her.

"I'll explain the whole story a little later," she said, "But in the meantime, let's just settle into Gandalf's base."

Kushanku shot his older siblings Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi a confused look but they just shrugged. Then at Gandalf's commands, the group left to settle into the base.

 **Later**

The evacuees have all been checked in and seen in to their rooms and living spaces where they will be living and sleeping for the next few years until the Great Exodus to Archenland and out of the reach of the White Witch's tyrannical hand and cruel sceptre wand. However, they had a lot of preparations to make, such as training in combat and survival, before the mighty and difficult journey through the treacherous and unforgiving snowy terrain of Narnia and with Jadis's minion patrol groups on the prowl in every nook and cranny of the winter curse-bound land, it was clear that the whole crowd would require a wise leader to guide them and of course, Gandalf and Kyukon knew that Aslan would do the ultimate task in guiding the evacuees using visible signs. But while the very great majority of evacuees will be leaving for Archenland, several will be remaining with Gandalf and company due to the severe dangers of the Eternal Winter being too great for them. One kind of creatures who will be staying behind were the Pyros for the Witch's winter spell she had put upon Narnia was deadly to them and if any of these Fire Sprites stayed out in that air for too long, they would eventually succumb to the effects of the magically and unnaturally induced frigid air and slowly die out. Emberflame had experienced this several times when she had been out exposed to the dangerous air. It was like being a fish out of water in the hot sun's deadly rays which would spell death by dehydration for the poor animal, only the lethality was the winter curse air for the Pyros. And because Emberflame will have to stay behind with the other Pyros, it was going to be difficult for Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and also Dahlia the Jackalope kit, Snowwing the Skvader kit and Crystal the Parrot chick who viewed the Pyro as a motherly figure. However, they will have to eventually leave her behind to evacuate to Archenland in a few years' time.

Besides the Pyros, the Centaurs, Sphinxes, Fauns and other creatures that made up Gandalf and Kyukon's helper group will also be staying behind with only a few of them going with the evacuees. They will serve to assist Gandalf and Kyukon in the event of an emergency evacuation of the base and help carry all the precious books containing the information on Narnia's true history, the Prophecies and the other records, called the Chronicle books, to safety and away from potential destruction for Gandalf and company had spent centuries collecting these ultra-important records. However, that was to serve as a last resort plan if the worst came to the worst and the base's location and secrecy was discovered and sent to the Witch, and Gandalf and Kyukon had hoped that this would never, EVER happen for despite being 900-plus-year-old Kitsune who have very-well developed experience, knowledge and abilities such as telekinesis, they would not be able to stand a chance against the even MORE powerful Witch and her sorcery, which one of Gandalf and Kyukon's older sons, also a nine-tailed Fox, foolishly tried to take on only to be immediately flattened and crushed by Jadis, and that was what Gandalf and Kyukon wanted to avoid at all costs, and they wanted to preserve the lives of their other older offspring, a few of who were also fully-matured nine-tailed Kitsune.

While the evacuees settled into their rooms in the living compartments, Kyukon gave the Marshlanders and the other new arrivals the lecture on Jadis's lies and propaganda including showing them the promotion for the Massacre Event (called deceptively the 'Fighting League') with Obsidian and Milky Way being assistants. While Gandalf's mate educated the most recent arrivals, in the living compartments, Kushanku sat on his new bed while Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, together with Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia and also Shadewing, Mensa (Snowwing's mother), Rubyfeather (Crystal's mother) took their time to settle into their beds nearby, along with a number of other roommates, among them Ahhuayo, Thundersparx, Molayne, Desdemona, Link and Cyril. The compartment of the sleeping quarters was massive and was built with a honeycomb design like the dungeon compartment, with large holes in the walls, the rooms, and in each of these rooms were several beds. The rooms higher from the floor had barriers to prevent non-flying creatures from falling should they stray too close to the edge, but they were mainly designed for flying creatures like Birds, Pterosaurs, Pegasi and Bats while the lower level rooms were more suitable for non-flying creatures, especially those that were heavy such as Elephants, Bears and Centaurs. Levitating magic platforms rose up and down in front of the honeycomb and served as an elevator to carry non-flying creatures to the upper rooms while the flying creatures could access the upper rooms just simply by flying up and into them. Unlike the dungeon, the sleeping quarters did not have the dull design and the rooms' rims did not have the crystalline force-field projectors the dungeon's cells possessed that projected a solid screen of force field to seal in the prisoner or prisoners. Many of the rooms were large and were able to house several dozen sleepers at once. Kushanku and his siblings and company's room was in the third row from the ground floor and so had a barrier to protect the non-flying creatures from falling from the room, so that would mean that the non-flying creatures in Kushanku's room would require the assistance of one of the floating platforms to get them from the room to the ground and from there to the room. Also, a lot of the rooms had stacked beds, bunk beds, to house more roommates. These bunk beds had a maximum of five beds in a stack and the upper beds were accessible by a ladder, again for the non-flying creatures while the flyers didn't need to use them, and the beds were designed to suit any type of creature although some creatures such as Bats preferred to sleep by hanging upside down with their feet, so branches had also been installed for them as well. Also, the upper beds had railing to prevent the sleepers from falling out and onto the floor from a great height as well, and they were far more comfortable than the beds most of the evacuees had back at their old homes before leaving for here, and it was warmer too.

While Kushanku sat on his new bed, which was the topmost bed on one of the stacks of five, overlooking his roommates settle into their room with Nyarth occupying the lowermost bed of the bunk and Desdemona, Snowwing and a Raven taking the other three in that order from the fourth bed downward, Thundersparx climbed up the ladder and gazed at the Nekomata. The Raiju had something clutched in his paw.

"Hey, Kushanku," said the lightning Wolf-Cat in a gentle voice. He had learned the names of the four offspring of Ferntail and Frosty during their introductory talk on their way to this place. Kushanku, at this, turned his gaze to him.

"I believe this belongs to you and your three siblings," said Thundersparx and with that, he extended the paw containing the object. Kushanku looked on in utter astonishment as the thing, which was Lion-shaped, gold and metallic yellow and had a red thread looping through a hole in the top, glinted beautifully in the light of the mini magic light orb (every room of the sleeping quarter compartment had one), extended a paw and took it.

"Our Aslan reminder tag," said the Nekomata with surprise. On the ground, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira gathered to climb up the ladder to see Kushanku, prompting Thundersparx to climb onto the bed and allow them access. Sandstorm also followed. As soon as Sandstorm was on the bed, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira gazed in utter surprise at the Aslan tag in Kushanku's paws.

"Our basket tag that was attached to our basket when we were very young," said Akira in shock.

"Where did you find that?" asked Nyarth.

"I thought our adopted dad Dashiell got rid of it when he saw that it was about Aslan which was highly forbidden," said Satoshi. Thundersparx turned to the three Nekomata and Sandstorm, and also Kushanku as he joined them.

"We found it at your home village Green Leaf, which unfortunately had been totally decimated and ransacked," said Thundersparx, his voice threatening to break as sadness crept over him at the memory of the devastation of Green Leaf and Purple Flower when they had been reduced to nothing but places of ruin, "In fact, that tag belonged to your mother Ferntail and father Frosty before you were born."

The four Nekomata and Sandstorm gazed at the Raiju.

"So you know our biological parents?" asked Kushanku in surprise. He asked this question in lesser shock than last time. As Kushanku spoke, a fire woman appeared at the entrance to the room and glided towards Kushanku and the other four's bunk bed through the crowd of roommates as they continued to settle into the room. As Emberflame went to ascend up the bed to join Kushanku and the other five on the topmost, Kushanku's, bed, she thought she saw a flash of movement out the corner of her fire eye near a set of wooden drawers sat between Kushanku's bunk bed and another. At this, the Pyro stopped and turned in the movement's direction and saw a Squirrel crawl over the top of the wooden storage unit. Assuming the creature to be one of the Squirrels settling into the room for there were several of them, a family of them, present and examining their bed (the beds were also built to allow more than one small creatures such as Squirrels and Pigeons to share), Emberflame resumed ascending up the bunk bed and joined Kushanku and the others. However, the Pyro and the other creatures in the room, did not notice the Squirrel gaze up at Kushanku and the others and put on an extremely acidic glare when they saw the electric blue and yellow form of Thundersparx, as well as a certain Ahuizotl as he settled into another bed which was the second one up from the floor. Angry, the Squirrel dived behind the set of drawers and continued examining that Azuizotl's behaviour, a silent hiss escaping its mouth through its bared teeth with saliva dribbling out of it, its body trembling violently and its eyes burning with volcanic wrath.

Then as soon as Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Akira sat around the Raiju with Sandstorm, Thundersparx launched into an explanation of the former four's biological parents with Emberflame preparing to back him up.

"Your biological parents, Frosty and Ferntail, used to be friends with my father Lightningflash when I was only a cub ten years ago," Thundersparx began with the five listeners cocking their ears intently to the story, "and like you, they were strong believers in the Great Lion Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy that will bring about the Winter Revolution and an end to the tyrannical Witch's reign once and for all. they, along with a number of other believers in Aslan and the Prophecy, had a hidden den where they sought refuge from Jadis's patrolling minions searching for any believers in those two forbidden subjects to bring out and either kill or take to the Witch to be turned to stone, as well as any disobeyers of Jadis's corrupt judicial system such as refusing to send their chosen individuals by the Witch and her cronies to the Massacre Event deceptively named the Fighting League. Me and my family including my father Lightningflash and also Obsidian and her family, and Milky Way and her older sister were helpers of Ferntail and Frosty in hiding that group. Ferntail had been pregnant with a litter of kits at the time which we now know to be you four, and back then it was approaching the Decadal Massacre Event…"

Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Akira exchanged glances.

"Was Ferntail, our mother, almost selected for this 'Fighting League' then once our family was chosen to give up one of their members for the Slaughterhouse Arena while she was still pregnant with us?" asked Nyarth. A dark look came upon Thundersparx's face.

"Yes," said the Raiju in a low voice, "your family was one of the selected families and groups by the Witch to give up one of their members, regardless of whether they were young or old, sick or well, pregnant or not, and send them into the Arena of Death. My family and group were also selected and Lightningflash was then chosen," Thundersparx breathed a sigh, "but when a member from your family was to be selected, it was thankfully one of your uncles and not your mother and you four also."

This promted glances of terror to be exchanged between Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Akira and also Sandstorm and a couple of them actually felt their stomachs lurch.

"Then that would mean Kushanku and the other three would have been SLAUGHTERED along with their mother in the Arena of Blood," blurted out Sandstorm incredulously. Emberflame, who had heard of pregnant mothers getting thrown into the Arena of Death to be slaughtered along with their unborn offspring, did not flinch for she was unsurprised.

"Countless mothers of species who bear live young have been slain in that horrid Arena of Death along with their unborn litters and broods before, you five," said the Pyro to the utter horror and disgust of the five listeners.

"That is totally BARBARIC!" snapped Sandstorm.

"And murderous," put in Akira. Kushanku then turned to Thundersparx, "Is this true? Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth and I could have DIED along with our mother in the Arena of Death had our mother have been selected for the Event ten years ago?"

"Exactly, Kushanku," said Thundersparx without hesitation, "But thank Aslan that your mother and you four while you were still in your mother's womb hadn't been selected, and that one of your uncles has who sadly died in the arena."

"So what happened next?" asked Akira. Thundersparx continued.

"Shortly after the selection of countless members from countless groups to be participants in the Massacre Event had finished, the main Event took place and was broadcasted throughout Narnia via these crystalline screens or the magical TVs of some groups in their homes and as you will now know I believe, the fighting had been UTTERLY gory and gruesome."

Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm flinched for they had seen all that themselves and the scenes of the participants slaughtering each other was still as fresh in their minds as they had been since they saw them. Thundersparx continued.

"And at the end of the Event, my father Lightningflash emerged as the victor, and since then, all that changed including his relationship with Ferntail and Frosty who eventually had you four. A week after the event, me and my family were taken from our village by the Witch and her cronies and were carried to our new home stocked with everything a desperate Narnian stricken with the freezing winter, constant starvation and other hardships would even DIE to get their mitts on, and that was where the majority of our family members' attitudes changed, though Obsidian had lost her family to Krampus before the Witch came and took us away…"

Sandstorm, Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Akira continued to listen as Thundersparx then began to feel grief come upon him.

"Then things took a turn for the worst when my dad, Lightningflash, after he and the others apart from me, Obsidian and Milky Way had developed an uncaring attitude due to our 'new home' and better food given to us by the Witch and her cronies told the Witch where the secret hideout of Ferntail and Frosty was and that it had dozens of Aslan believers hiding in there. That was when Jadis sent a troop of Wolves and Manticores to hunt down the hideout and slaughter Frosty, Ferntail and the others in that den…"

Kushanku and the other four flinched for this was strongly reminiscent of Soran's betrayal of Green Leaf Village because of some of them being Aslan believers, and that had also been picked up by Desdemona the Griffin who was settling into the bed below Kushanku's one. A tear welled within the Griffin's eye and ran down her cheek as she remembered Soran's actions in betraying Kushanku and the others. Thundersparx continued.

"And it seems that either one of your parents or your friends had managed to escape the slaughter with you four safely in tow so that you would survive that fateful event," said the Raiju. At this, Emberflame came in to explain this.

"It was their mother Ferntail who actually escaped with these four kits on that fateful night during the raid," said the Pyro to the utter shock and disbelief of Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Akira and also Sandstorm while Thundersparx began to weep once again over his father's betrayal of Ferntail, Frosty and the others in that den that night.

"Wait a minute, you KNOW ABOUT OUR PARENTS' DEMISE!?" shouted Nyarth in disbelief.

"Then why didn't you tell us earlier?" said Kushanku. Satoshi and Akira nodded in agreement, too stunned to even form words. Emberflame launched into an explanation why she had kept this truth from the kits for so long.

"I didn't tell you four because I felt that you were too young to understand when Dashiell and Honeycomb took you in and when you asked me about your parents, I only told you that your parents left you four to be adopted by Dashiell and Honeycomb for your safety from the Witch and her cronies," said the Pyro, "But now that you are older, I feel it's time to tell you the truth… ALL of it this time."

Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm exchanged glances and began to listen intently as Emberflame launched into her side of the story. Thundersparx also began to listen.

"When Romulus, Malefor and their band of Wolves and Manticores stormed the secret den that night and began to slaughter everyone within it, Ferntail had managed to escape with you four in a basket. She was friends with me and also a Sylph, a Being of the Air, named Nova-Caeli. We, together with our Pyro and Sylph friends, had known Frosty, Ferntail and the others with them. In fact we had both known Frosty and Ferntail since they were young adults and before they became mates, thus we knew each other very well and had promised them to do whatever we could to help them and their family and friends in times of crises where we could, and we helped to keep the Aslan believers hidden from Jadis until that fateful night when those Manticores and Wolves stormed the den. Anyway, when Ferntail escaped with you four in that basket on that stormy, snowy night, she met up with Nova-Caeli who then took you kits moments before Ferntail herself was brutally slaughtered by some of Romulus and Malefor's minions, and I came in and guided her to Dashiell and Honeycomb's den where we left you four for the Cheetahs to take you in and that is where I joined them to see you four grow up. I told Nova-Caeli that I wanted to join the family to make sure that you four were alright which she agreed…"

Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth exchanged glances once again. It seemed to all finally make sense now and they finally knew why they were orphaned from a young age but also how they had cheated death even when still in their mother Ferntail's womb AS WELL AS have a narrow escape from that fateful night when Romulus and Malefor's pack stormed the den thanks to Lightningflash's betrayal of the group after he and the others had settled into their new home given to them by the Witch and her cronies, (which Thundersparx still feels remorseful over despite it not being his fault, though he did try and convince his father not to betray that group to no avail), but it was thanks to the co-ordinated efforts of their mother, Emberflame and also the Sylph named Nova-Caeli, and also Aslan's intervention, that they had managed to survive but Kushanku and his siblings were greatly grieved that a close friend of their parents would betray them to the Witch in an eerily similar way Soran and his group did after they had settled into their new homes near the Witch's castle.


	41. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40- they've gone MISSING!?**

 **Meanwhile, back at the Witch's palatial castle**

"MISSING!?" bellowed a female voice at the top of her lungs, "WHAT do you MEAN some of the VICTORS' FAMILY MEMBERS such as the RAIJU, THE PIG, THE WAMPUS CAT, THE PEGASUS AND SEVERAL OTHERS ARE MISSING!?"

This was accompanied by the sounds of smashing of crystalline glass and overturning of tables and chairs and those sounds erupted into the palace dining area where parties were held. Púca, the leader of the Banshees stood with Romulus, the captain of the Wolf Secret Police; Aku no, one of the Tenome, Malefor the Manticore and captain of the Manticore Secret Police, and the head of the Shadows named Pazuzu, stood back at a safe distance looking on fearfully as they watched Jadis throw an EXTREMELY volcanic (and I do MEAN IT) temper tantrum and smash plates and destroy chairs and tables. When Pazuzu and Púca had gone to visit the three victor families to deliver them even more enchanted food and discovered that some old the members from Lightningflash and Soran's families were absent, the Shadow and Banshee leaders had been utterly horrified and outraged and had reported this to Jadis while she had been speaking to Romulus, Melfor and Aku no about updates on the quest to find Gandalf and Kyukon and their base, which was still lacking in fruition much to the evil tyrant's blizzard of rage. While the five continued to watch Jadis blaze in her extreme wrath and destroy more and more of the plates, tables and chairs and throw cutlery everywhere, leaving pieces of broken crystal glass lay scattered like ice fragments on the icy floor in her wake, Aku no shot Pazuzu and Púca a stunned look, her eyes on her hands aiming for the Shadow and the Banshee and her mouth on her eyeless head forming a perplexed frown.

"And I thought that EVERY member of the victors' families and groups had settled into their new homes as well," said the Tenome.

"So did the rest of us," growled Romulus as he turned round to wallow in his disbelief.

"H-h-how can some of them just slip away like a Sylph?" continued Aku no. At this, Pazuzu glided away, his ragged black cloak-like 'garments' trailing behind him.

"We have NO idea, Aku no," he replied before turning to face the Tenome, "I even asked Soran, Lightningflash and the other members of those two Fighting League victors' families but they had no idea as to how those ten missing individuals had vanished…"

"The seven missing creatures from Soran's family are the Pig, those two Nekomata, one of the young Peryton bucks, the Griffin, the Hippogriff and one of the Dogs," explained Púca, "and the missing three from Lightningflash's family are one of his sons, the Wampus Cat and the Pegasus foal."

"We KNOW!" snapped Malefor, Romulus and Aku no at the same time, making Púca jump. Pazuzu just shot a gaze at the trio and said nothing; dumbfound completely gripping him like hypothermia from the freezing wintery curse on an exposed mammal. Just then the pattering of paws and feet sounded on the icy floor, accompanied by the groans and complains of a couple more creatures. Pazuzu looked up and saw a group of five Kitsune, all loyal to the Witch, as they approached their Queen with three Goblins as they dragged a pair of creatures along, for they had been sent by the Witch to seize them in their homes and bring them to her for face-to-face questioning the moment Pazuzu and Púca had finished their report of Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and the other eight's disappearance to the Witch. The Shadow, at this, was about to glide over to the group and tell them that Jadis (Her Majesty to him) was in a fit of extreme wrath. However, Pazuzu abandoned the idea when Jadis stopped her temper tantrum and destroying more of the plates, tables and chairs and turned to face the group.

"Your Majesty," said one of the Kitsune as he and his four comrades parted and allowed the three Goblins to drag in the pair of creatures, a Raiju and a Dog, and bring them before the Witch, "I believe you wanted to see these two regarding the disappearance of Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and the other eight from their families."

"Yes, you five," growled the Humanoid dressed in her icy gown and icicle crown with her icicle-sceptre, her wand, clutched in her left hand and with that, she turned her beastly, black, demonic eyes toward the Raiju and the Dog, which were Lightningflash and Soran. The five Kitsune and three Goblins backed away and allowed the electric Wolf-Cat and the Dog, the former who was very obese and the other starting to pile on the pounds from eating so much over the past number of days, slowly looked up at the fake Queen. As the Witch pierced the pair with her volcanic, black-eyed stare, her eyes as black as Death, Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor crept cautiously to Jadis's side, their glares laced with fury also fixated on the two fattening creatures. The very obese Lightningflash who was Thundersparx's father, and Soran, one of Molayne's cousins, then bowed before the Witch.

"Your Majesty," said the two respectfully and rose to timidly face her, "you wanted to see us?"

Jadis said nothing at first and continued to drill into the pair with her demonic stare so intimidating that you would think you'd end up petrified just by looking into those eyes, similar to how a certain Gorgon with snakes in place of hair turned her victims to stone just by simply glaring into her victims' eyes. Finally, the beastly Witch spoke.

"Absolutely," she growled in a low voice which sent shivers down the two's spines, "I want to know how some of your family members had slipped away and disappeared… and why you and your families are so CARELESS… in letting them escape like that."

"Yes, this is an _extremely_ serious matter…" began Pazuzu but then the lead Shadow shut his demonic mouth when Jadis abruptly shot him a glare and pointed her wand-sceptre at him as a gesture to "Shut up and let me deal with this!"

Pazuzu, with a flinch at the wand's point at him as though he expected Jadis to turn him into a statue, obeyed and complied. Then Jadis turned to face Lightningflash and Soran again, "So explain to me, you two. How… and why… did you allow those ten to go missing?"

At this, Soran and Lightningflash, both who were also extremely lazy due to their new lifestyle since their victory in the Massacre Event, especially the latter, remained silent for they were as dumbfounded and as confused as the Witch and her followers were regarding Thundersparx and the others' mysterious disappearance, and were also extremely ashamed.

"Oh, DON'T REMAIN SILENT AT ME, YOU TWO!" bellowed the Witch at the top of her lungs, her shouts echoing throughout her castle like a Banshee scream and making any crony within earshot flinch and shoot terrified gazes in the direction of the dining hall, "ANSWER ME THIS MINUTE! WHERE ARE THE PIG, THE TWO NEKOMATA, THE GRIFFIN, THE PERYTON, THE HIPPOGRIFF, ONE OF THE DOGS, THE RAIJU, THE WAMPUS CAT and the PEGASUS FROM YOUR GROUPS!?"

Near Jadis, Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor all flinched and the five Kitsune and the three Goblins jumped back by about three metres, the Witch's wrath startling them very greatly. Honestly, being on the receiving end of the evil Humanoid's temper was like facing a frigid pyroclastic flow from an icy volcano, and Lightningflash and Soran flinched violently as the Witch's fury sent an icy shockwave blasting through them like an explosive gust of freezing wind. Then after another minute of being gripped by the freezing fear from Jadis's sheer anger, Soran finally spoke but very timidly and slowly.

"W-w-we… did… not know… that they… would escape…" murmured the fattening Dog while Lightningflash remained quiet, too bloated from eating too many 'treats' to even speak. Near Jadis, Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor shook their heads disapprovingly.

"You seriously have dishonoured Her Majesty by allowing some of your group members to leave, you two," hissed Malefor, his piercing glare on the Dog and the Raiju, "We have given you the privilege of a better home, plenty of food, warmth from Her Majesty's winter to do away with the war, and now you insult her by allowing some of your group members to sneak off?"

"Shame on you!" growled Aku no in a low voice.

"Malefor, Aku no, shut up!" snapped Jadis, making the lead Manticore and Tenome flinch and comply. Then Jadis returned her cryo-volcanic glare onto Soran and Lightningflash, raised a hand and with all her might slapped the two of them, one after the other, hard across the faces, knocking them over. Soran and Lightningflash were thrown down by the devastating blow from the Witch';s hand slap on their faces, where they lay there, their eyes screwed shut from the painful slap on their cheeks. After this, Jadis turned to the three Goblins and five Kitsune, "Take those two ungrateful traitors back to their homes while I plan their punishment."

The eight said creatures nodded, seized Lightningflash and Soran and dragged them away, the pair in too much pain and swamped by laziness and shame to even care. Then turning to Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor, Jadis said, "Bring me a large trolley with three large shelves."

The five then began to scan the room for one until a couple of Wendigoes came in and handed one to the group.

"Here," said one of the Wendigoes, a female. Romulus and Pazuzu took the trolley, which was large and had three shelves, and rolled it over before Jadis just as the Witch pulled out a vial.

"What are you planning to feed Soran, Lightningflash and their families, Your Majesty?" inquired Púca as the Wolf and the Shadow joined her side. Jadis did not reply at first as she pulled the top from the vial and turned it upside down above the topmost shelf of the trolley. A silvery drip emerged and fell from the mouth of the bottle. It fell through space and splashed onto the crystalline surface of the trolley shelf. Then the liquid began to form a rising pile of icy sparkles from which a silvery plate and a covering materialised. Jadis then released another drop and produced another silvery plate with a covering. Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor and the two Wendigoes watched on as Jadis continued to fill up the entire trolley with more and more silvery, pure-ice-like, gem-encrusted plates and coverings, all of them very tasty and addictive cakes and desserts of every type. However, Jadis had also laced these treats with something else… something far more sinister. After she had finished filling the trolley and had put her vial away, Jadis turned to the seven.

"Take this trolley of desserts to Lightningflash and Soran's families and also tell them that they will be put through some EXTREMELY HARD LABOUR as PUNISHMENT for allowing those ten TRAITOROUS CREATURES to ESCAPE!" she shouted before hardening her glare, "and do NOT ask any more questions. The sooner those two traitorous families are dealt with the better!"

The two Wendigoes, Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor obeyed without question (they daren't ask Jadis any of these anyway for the Witch was so FURIOUS and they'd likely be turned to stone or killed if they did), took hold of the trolley and followed the five Kitsune and three Goblins' paths in the direction of the victors' village, the Witch watching on with her fury-saturated demonic stare.

After the seven creatures had left, the sounds of wing-flaps alerted the Witch and a bedraggled black bird with a naked, featherless head and neck appeared through a window and touched down before the Witch on a table. Behind the Vulture, four Ravens loyal to the Witch, and a Bat-Harpy followed and also touched down behind the bedraggled black Bird.

"Report on the progress finding Gandalf and Kyukon's base, Scimitar," said the pseudo-Queen. The Vulture, named Scimitar, replied with, "Still no sign of their secret hideout, Your Majesty."

"Yes, our patrol groups have looked absolutely EVERYWHERE in your kingdom with FRUITLESS RESULTS," put in the Bat-Harpy exasperatedly. One of the Ravens, however, was calmer and seemed to have some assurance.

"But we did receive a report from one of the patrol groups in which Malefor's daughter Dionaea and several Nukekubi and Rokurokubi had joined about a group of migrating Narnians but they have called off their pursuit of them saying that another group of your patrollers was dealing with them," said the Corvid.

"That's good to hear but it's NOT good enough that the base of those two nine-tailed Foxes still hasn't been found!" snapped Jadis fierily, "I WANT my nine-tailed Fox couple and their base found and I WANT THEM NOW so that those two Kitsune can be added to my collection of statues as trophies and their base destroyed along with ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT LION, THE GOLDEN AGE PROPHECY and EVERYTHING ELSE to do with Narnia's true history those two had collected over the past 900 plus years since that oversized Cat sung this place into existence."

"Oversized Cat? You mean that Lion As…" began one of the Ravens but Scimitar latched a talon onto his neck and yanked him close to his face saturated with fury and warning.

"You mention the blasphemous name of that Lion before Her Majesty and I'll slit ya throat and throw your carcass to the Wyrms to eat!" growled the Vulture, making the Raven, fear at the threat igniting within him, nod his head timidly while Jadis looked on furiously with a nod of agreement. Then Scimitar released the Raven and turned to the Witch once again.

"Now YOU LOT LEAVE while I get some PEACE and I EXPECT SOME GOOD NEWS ON THE SEARCH for GANDALF AND HIS BASE SOON!" screamed the tyrant to which the Vulture, the Ravens and the Bat-Harpy immediately spread their wings and lofted into flight. After seeing the group of seven winged creatures fly off in terror at her outburst, the Witch left for her throne. However, as the tyrant walked away, from behind the wall in the shadows, a creature had been watching the entire scene. The creature, which was a young female Manticore whose Lion's body was red with a few streaks of metallic fur strewn through it, especially in her small mane (female Manticores had smaller manes than the males); leafy green Bat's wings with a deep red underside sprouting from her back, and a glistening purple Scorpion's tail, then drew in a gasp and left for an exit to follow Malefor's group.

Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and Malefor and Wendigoes, who were now outside, continued pushing the trolley full of incredibly irresistible and tasty desserts towards the victors' place when a tall and muscular bipedal humanoid with a Bull's face and hooves, a spear and black fur came in. at this, Malefor shot the Bull-Man, a Minotaur, a fanged smile.

"I believe you have some updates on those deliveries from our scouts down to Narnia's shore, Bullface," said the Manticore wickedly. The Minotaur, named Bullface, stopped.

"Yes, I do," he said in a growly voice, "We're expecting a group of Merfolk, Seals and Dolphins whom our scouts have captured and have trafficked to here to be delivered anytime soon."

"That's excellent," said Púca wickedly, "and I hope some Merfolk, Dolphin and Seal-based platters of the finest meat from those captured sea creatures will cheer Her Majesty up from the disappointment we keep getting from this frustrating search for those two nine-tailed Kitsune's secret base…"

As she spoke, Aku no's mouth on her eyeless face protruded its tongue and painted the lips with saliva as the Tenome relished the idea of tasting some delicious Merfolk meat, and her hand-eyes also lit up wickedly, and Pazuzu, Romulus, Melfor and the two Wendigoes also looked forward to sinking their teeth into some sea meat. At a safe distance behind the group, the red furred, red and green Bat-winged and purple Scorpion-tailed Manticore, who had tracked the group and had been following it, drew in a horrified gasp. As Malefor's group relished the possible tastiness of the Merfolk's meat once those Fish-tailed Humanoid creatures were slaughtered and butchered like every other chosen victim such as Talking Sheep, Chickens and other unfortunate Beasts as seen by a certain Wampus Cat, Raiju and Pegasus from a certain family before their escape from the castle, a concerned and uneasy look formed on Bullface's Bovine face.

"What is it, Bullface?" asked Malefor. Bullface, at first, did not reply but when he saw the pressuring glares from the Manticore and also from Pazuzu, Aku no, Púca, Romulus and the two Wendigoes, the Minotaur decided to give the explanation.

"I… um… I don't think we should slaughter those captured Mermaids, Mermen, Dolphins and Seals," said Bullface uneasily to which disgusted looks were exchanged throughout Malefor's group.

"Why?" asked Pazuzu irritably. Not too far away, the young red, green and purple Manticore continued to listen in.

"Well you see," continued the Minotaur, "Those individuals are from another kingdom, the Kingdom of the Narnian Sea. Not only are we intruding into their territory to steal from their fish stocks but we're also capturing individuals from that Kingdom for our own… um… personal gain… and I'm sure the monarchs of the Kingdom of the Sea would not like it…"

"Look, Bullface," growled Púca, going up to the Minotaur, "Her Majesty wants some seafood added to our menu of lavish foods and if that Kingdom of the Sea objects, then that's tough."

"But it's gonna cause a war between our kingdom and the Sea Kingdom," protested Bullface, more boldly this time, "Can't you guys see that we're stealing individuals from that Merfolk Kingdom and trafficking them to here, in addition to stealing from their fish supplies? Suppose we were in their place and if what we're doing to them were were to happen to us? Her Majesty would surely be _fumed_ and would want some SERIOUS BLOOD from the thieving kingdom!"

"Indeed she would be, Bullface," said Romulus before a wicked smile formed on the Wolf's muzzle, "But our Queen is above ALL other Queens and Kings of Narnia, her name above EVERY OTHER name in all of Narnia including that of the mythical maned Puddy Tat that supposedly sung this land into existence in the beginning. She is capable of conquering EVERY kingdom on the ENTIRE disc and though she does not have any plans of invasion of the neighbouring countries yet," the Wolf's wicked smirk widened, "it is likely she would sometime in the future…"

"But _capturing_ individuals from those KINGDOMS, such as those poor MERFOLK, DOLPHINS AND SEALS from the SEA KINGDOM-!?" began Bullface but Aku no cut him off.

"You CANNOT question Her Majesty's motives, Bullface," snapped the Tenome, "Now if you excuse us, we have a delivery to give to two of our Fighting League victors and their families, and then they will be bestowed with some extremely hard labour jobs…"

And with that, the Tenome and the others with her barged past Bullface and continued with the trolley in the direction of Lightingflash and Soran's houses. Bullface looked on angrily.

"Well, if we EVER end up in a war with the Kingdom of the Sea because of what we're doing to their fish stocks and some of their members," growled the Bull-Man furiously, "Then the Queen only has HERSELF TO BLAME! And if you ask me, I think she's taking her BARBARIC ACTS WAY TOO FAR with capturing and TRAFFICKING POOR MEMBERS from another KINGDOM for her OWN GLUTTONOUS GAINS and WANTS! And furthermore, I think she's becoming like a FERAL BEAST to be honest!"

At this, Púca stopped the group, snapped round and shot the Minotaur a furious glare with her bone-white, scarred ghost-mask-like face. Romulus and the others did the same with fury-saturated glares.

"What did you just say about our mighty Queen, Bullface?" demanded the lead Banshee. Bullface said nothing.

"I said, what did you just SAY ABOUT HER, Bullface!?" shouted Púca in a louder voice, sending a shockwave of fear coursing through the Minotaur and making him jump and back away. Then Púca advanced towards the Minotaur. Nearby, the colourful young female Manticore watched from behind a snow statue and when she saw the Banshee stride towards Bullface, command Romulus and the others to continue their journey with the dessert-loaded trolley to Lightingflash and Soran's houses and then turn to face Bullface, screaming, "If YOU'RE gonna insult our QUEEN WITH THOSE WORDS and harbour that ATTITUDE as well as QUESTION HER AUTHORITY, you might as well DIE!" the Manticore, predicting what was going to happen, uttered "Yikes," in a whisper, whirled round, spread her green and red Bat's wings and lofted into flight, not wanting to watch what Púca did next to the Minotaur. As the young female Manticore flew away, she heard an extremely LOUD… blood-curdling SCREAM, the characteristic scream of a Banshee but only this was WAY, WAY LOUDER and more powerful for Púca was the leader of the Banshees, and because of the intensity of the power of the scream, it can also be used to blast enemies back. The Manticore, terrified, covered her ears with her Lion-like paws and flapped her wings harder to flee faster. Then during the extremely LOUD scream, a flash, accompanied with a loud electrified ZAP sound like an electrical zap from a Raiju, erupted behind the Manticore as Púca, who also had the ability to zap her enemies with lightning, dealt with the Minotaur with a final, fatal blow, all the while screaming extremely loudly. Then as soon as the UTTERLY piercing sound died down as the lead Banshee had stopped her screaming, the Manticore turned round and saw Púca in the distance, an unsympathetic, unremorseful look on her scarred, ugly Horror-like face, turn round and followed Romulus's group, but the Manticore did not want to see what had happened to Bullface, but it is obvious that he had been brutally put to death by the lead Banshee, both from her screaming and her electricity. Terrified, the Manticore flew on.

 **Meanwhile**

"WHAT do you MEAN Belladonna has ESCAPED!?" shouted a certain female nine-tailed Kitsune back at the base at a Centaur and a Dragon who flinched and backed towards their comrades, a few more Centaurs, a Minotaur and a few Fauns, and a Naga (Humanoids with a body of a Snake). Just like the Witch regarding Trotterhoof and company's disappearance, Kyukon was utterly _furious_ but unlike the Witch, she kept her volcanic fury under control and did not throw a massive temper tantrum by destroying things. However, she was extremely ANGRY that someone had allowed the suspect purple-black furred Kitsune to escape and now could be anywhere in the base, and it was the most FIERY anger she had EVER harboured in a long time for she and Gandalf rarely got this mad, but it was understandable. Kyukon's yellow and metallic yellow fur was spiked out and her nine tails were thrashing behind her like a Peacock's train, and she was especially agitated. The Centaur who had been one of the guards in the incarceration chamber, together with the others with him, timidly backed away as Kyukon shakily walked away from them to calm down and avoid suddenly lashing out at them and hurting them if her temper did flare up in its confines. The moment the Centaur and his group had reported Belladonna's disappearance to Kyukon, the nine-tailed Kitsune had erupted into a brief outburst but had managed to get it under control just before it could spiral out of control. Then Kyukon, after taking a minute to collect her composure, whirled round back to the Centaur and the others with him including the Dragon who was one of Viridi's underlings.

"I have ordered Belladonna imprisoned for good reason," she explained in a controlled angry voice, "I have sensed something NOT RIGHT about her and commanded she be incarcerated for interrogation. How COULD you allow her to ESCAPE!?"

At first, none of the incarceration chamber wardens answered but then the group parted to allow another Centaur, the one who had been in charge of the chamber itself and thus Belladonna, appeared, a furious look on his face.

"Kyukon, ma'am," he said, addressing the elderly Kitsune respectfully, "These young Talking Beasts are found responsible for Belladonna's escape."

And with that, he stepped aside to allow a Minotaur, two Centaurettes (female Centaurs), and a few Fauns, also wardens and guards of the incarceration chamber, to drag in a young Theropod Dinosaur, a Platypus Puggle, five Rabbit kits, and an Alicorn foal and throw them down before Kyukon. Then one of the Centaurettes shot the little group of kids, who were Troodon, Webby, five of Faline's kits and Cloudhorn a furious look as they lazily eyed the female nine-tailed Fox.

"And none of them except the sixth Rabbit kit are co-operative either," she said, "but I have sent one of the Fauns to bring in their relatives for a SERIOUS confrontation."

Troodon and the other seven with him barely flinched at this fact. It was clear they were still under the influence of the enchanted chocolate cake they had consumed earlier and they were DYING to sample that delicious treat again more than ANYTHING else, thus they didn't care about the anger they were facing from Kyukon and the guards. However, none of the guards knew this and Fluffy-Cotton, the sixth Rabbit kit who had fortunately, but also unfortunately at the same time, missed out on the 'feast' for she had been busy in distracting the Centaur guards so that Troodon and the others could free Belladonna. However, she was in equally deep and frigid waters as well. But Kyukon, though she did not know what happened in the incarceration chamber for she hadn't been there either, due to her centuries of wisdom, had a hunch about Troodon and his little group's behaviour, but the hunch made her stomach lurch and her muscles tense up uneasily, making her more agitated.

"Take those nine NAUGHTY kids to their parents," commanded Kyukon, before turning to the Dragon, "And Hunter, alert your commander Viridi about this and order her to set up a search group to search this base for Belladonna from TOP to BOTTOM!" the Fox hardened her glare, "Also keep an extremely close eye on EVERY individual evacuee in this base and WATCH their behaviour closely for ANY abnormality or suspicious traits."

"Yes, Ma'am," said the Dragon named Hunter and with that, he darted off to find Viridi and carry out the command while the Centaur warden and his comrades dragged away the seriously uncooperative Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn and the five Rabbit kits as the thoughts of sampling the chocolate cake continued to flood and saturate their minds like water in a sponge. Not to mention the desire to get their revenge on Kushanku in Webby's case and the Platypus longed to see the Nekomata kit in utter misery, and this was replicated in the minds of the other seven kids through not as intensely. Kyukon then turned to a group of four Fauns remaining, "you guys also go and meet with the parents of those eight NAUGHTY kids and the other Rabbit kit who have been down that forbidden chamber and help in the confrontation as those eight are unlikely to be cooperative, while I go and alert Gandalf about this serious problem."

The four Fauns nodded and departed to do just that while Kyukon left to find Gandalf, dreading his reaction over Belladonna's escape.

While all this happened, a certain female white Rabbit kit was summoned to a certain room where her mother was waiting. As she hopped along, several Narnian evacuees gazed at her worriedly, especially some kids, among them Dahlia the Jackalope and Snowwing the Skvader, and they clearly dreaded the worst. Tesseract the young Unicorn came in.

"Fluffy-Cotton's for it now, you two," whispered the Horned Horse, "Now that Troodon and the other missing kids have been found in the prison chamber, they are gonna be in a LOT of bother."

Dahlia and Snowwing did not reply and continued to watch Fluffy-Cotton as she continued to hop in the direction of the room where Faline and the other parents and relatives of Troodon and company, including Troodon's mother Ena, all who were utterly FURIOUS, were waiting. Then Ahhuayo happened to come by with a couple of Ahuizotl and a Kappa from the Northern Marshlands, and the four of them looked on at the white Rabbit kit as she hopped along, fearfully but Ahhuayo was the most agitated. He was trembling and was feeling sick and restless and was constantly being assured by his new friends that Kyukon, Gandalf and the base runners had everything under control. However, Ahhuayo's agitation continued to boil and churn like the snow in a severe blizzard whipped up by the Father Christmas imposter Krampus. Reluctantly, Ahhuayo moved on with the other two Ahuizotl and the Kappa.

Fluffy-Cotton then arrived at the entrance to the room ad was greeted by the furious glares from the parents of Troodon and company, among them her own mother Faline, and some Fauns, Centaurs and Dragons. The moment the adult Bunny's eyes found her white kit; she rose angrily to her feet.

"Fluffy-Cotton," said Faline in an outraged voice as Fluffy-Cotton sat down in utter shame, her ears drooping and flattening against the back of her head which they always did when a Talking Rabbit was utterly ashamed or sad, "How COULD you leave that _important_ lecture and help in allowing that suspicious Fox to escape!?"

The other adults glared at Fluffy-Cotton but said nothing. Fluffy-Cotton then began to timidly concoct some excuses.

"I… um… I'm-I'm s-s-sorry, Mother…" she began.

"You're SORRY!?" snapped Faline, "You THINK saying SORRY will mend the sheer DAMAGE you've done!? Absolutely NOT! I just cannot BELIEVE you would DISOBEY the nine-tailed Kitsune's COMMAND to stay OUT of that chamber for one, and PARTICIPATING in such a HEINOUS THING in allowing that SUSPECT FOX to escape for ANOTHER!"

Fluffy-Cotton just bowed her head as her mother continued, "I just cannot BELIEVE you did this… I just CANNOT at ALL!"

At the entrance, Tesseract, Dahlia and Snowwing, together with a few of Fluffy-Cotton's brothers and sisters, those that had obediently remained by Faline's side for Gandalf's lecture on the Witch's lies and propaganda about the Massacre Event, peered in and quivered at the scene, especially as Faline continued to yell and shout at her daughter over her participation in setting Belladonna free.

"Troodon talked me into it!" said Fluffy-Cotton but it did nothing to lessen the fury from her mother or the adults in the room.

"Oh, and so you WENT along with that DINOSAUR, that Alicorn, the Platypus and five of your OTHER siblings!?" retorted Faline, "Well that's NOT an excuse, young kit! You, together with the other five that had been absent, are a BIG embarrassment to the WHOLE FAMILY…

The Rabbit kits at the entrance winced when they watched Fluffy-Cotton flinch at Faline's statement, while Tesseract, Dahlia and Snowwing felt their nerves jolt and they actually began to shudder slightly, along with the Rabbit kits, and they also exchanged worried glances. Then a voice called them. At this, the group turned and saw Milky Way come in, a stern look on her face.

"Just leave Fluffy-Cotton to face the consequences, folks," said the Pegasus and with that, the group pulled their gaze from the scene in the room and walked away. Nearby, Ahhuayo was leaning against the wall, one of his hand-like paws pressed against it as the pale blue Ahuizotl began to breathe more and more rapidly, his two new Ahuizotl friends and Kappa trying in vain to calm him.

"What's gonna happen to Fluffy-Cotton?" asked one of the young male Rabbit kits.

"Whatever Mrs Kyukon plans on doing to them," replied Milky Way, "what she and the other few kids have done is TOTALLY STUPID, by the look of things."

Dahlia and Snowwing stole a glance at the corridor to the room behind them and heard Faline;'s voice continue to shout at Fluffy-Cotton echoing from the mouth of the corridor. Then Tesseract spotted a familiar form.

"Hey, guys, isn't that the Ahuizotl who managed to join you on your journey to here?" asked the Unicorn. At this, Milky Way and the others followed Tesseract's gaze and found Ahhuayo as he began to have a breakdown. His breathing had spiralled utterly out of control and he was trembling uncontrollably. A pang of concern flashed within Milky Way.

"Looks like Mr Ahhuayo is having a nervous breakdown," said one of the young Rabbit kits. Then Milky Way began to check on the Ahuizotl.

"Ahhuayo," said the Pegasus, "Ahhuayo, are you okay?"

However, the only response she got was an extremely distraught look from Ahhuayo before he told his three new friends to help him to the sleeping quarters, which Tesseract picked up as being, "I don't feel very well."

As the quartet walked away, Snowwing, Tesseract, Milky Way, the Rabbit kits and Dahlia exchanged worried glances.

It was clear that something troubling had sent the poor Ahuizotl into a state of panic and distress.


	42. Chapter 41

**Chapter 41- a small rebel group on the Witch's very own castle grounds**

 **Meanwhile**

The red-furred Manticore with the green and red wings and metallic purple Scorpion's tail touched down at the entrance to a small hidden cave were she was greeted by another young Manticore, a male, her age. This Manticore had brown fur, a large mane around his Ape-like face, orange Bat's wings and a black Scorpion's tail and a couple of ivory horns sprouting from the top of his head but despite his rather frightening appearance, this Manticore was friendly. As the female red, purple and green Manticore walked towards the entrance to the cave, the male Manticore greeted her.

"Ah, Dionaea," he said gladly, "You've arrived. I wondered what took you so long."

The female Manticore, named Dionaea, just breathed a sigh and walked into the cave.

"I've just been watching the Snow Witch issue that overweight Raiju and the Dog a punishment for allowing some of their family members to escape, Carface," she said to the male Manticore as he followed her, before her face morphed into a look of utter dumbfound, "but how in Narnia have some of those family members managed to slip away? I would have thought they would have been too charmed by the Witch's so-called 'life improvements' to even consider leaving it all behind to return to the poverty-stricken and snow of freezing temperature-locked outside."

"Especially with so many of the Witch's underlings patrolling the castle grounds," said Carface, the male Manticore, "If I tried to escape like that, I'd be caught easily and perhaps put to death there and then or turned to a statue by the Witch and placed amongst countless other turned-to-stone Animals and Nature Spirits like Dryads as part of her collection."

"Anyone's guess," said a voice from the back of the cave's throat, belonging to a Raven. With the Raven sat several other creatures, among them another male Manticore named Scorpius who was a close friend of Dionaea and Carface; a female Kelpie named Aldrovandra, a Raven named Silverwing (who possessed glistening silvery feathers in his wings, hence his name), and a Nekomata-like Bakeneko named Nyaonix (Bakeneko were very similar to their Nekomata cousins and shared most of their traits, such as the ability to walk on their hind feet, a smatter of metallic fur strewn through their pelt which were drab like in regular Cats, and were indistinguishable from regular baby Cats as kittens, long lifespans and also their ability to use basic magical abilities but the key difference between Bakeneko and Nekomata was in their tails. Unlike in Nekomata whose tails split as they aged, Bakeneko retained their single tails throughout their entire lives. They are not to be confused with Fire Bakeneko, fiery Nature Spirits that always took on fiery Cat form; these Bakeneko are flesh-and-blood). Nyaonix possessed the rare ability of telekinesis despite him still being around Kushanku's age, and was metallic blue and white with patches of tabby cat-like marks smothering his back. Also present was a female Amphiptere named Mairin, her sisters Sundew and Drosera, and their uncle Alain, all of who were simply Serpents with Bat-like wings (Amphipteres resembled Basilisks but had Bat-like wings like a Dragon, and thus could fly); Mairin was orange and green with a white underside while her uncle was vermillion and orange with a pale yellow underside. Sundew and Drosera were red and white though Drosera also had some patches of green thrown over her scaly hide and Bat-like wings; and several other Ravens, a few Wolves, a large black Pterosaur-like monster with bioluminescent patches on its body and wings called a Ropen, three Wolpetingers, a Mothman (Humanoid monster with features like a moth) and a Basilisk. This little group, like Trotterhoof and company and Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl, were against the Witch and her ways and thus had formed a secret rebel group in this cave, and the majority of them were youngsters. However, when they were around the other Witch's cronies, they disguised their disloyalty to the murderous Snow 'Queen' hidden under a façade of true loyalty, and some of them, especially Dionaea, bore an immense rancour for the tyrant and her followers and their treatment of the Narnians in the various barbaric ways such as the Massacre Event (deceptively called the 'Fighting League').

The group was sat around a wooden circle built into a round table of sorts and as Carface and Dionaea joined the table, the latter, who had founded the little group based on her hatred and desire to rebel against the Witch after seeing the brutality of the Beast's reign and her activities such as the Massacre Event, opened up the meeting.

"So, what have you guys got to report?" asked she. At this question, the Ropen stood up.

"Well, I've been to the Narnian shores and had been spying on that group of Chupacabra, Bunyips, Wendigoes, Xenojaws and Shadows standing at the frozen sea's edge waiting for some seagoing scouts to return with, what I've been hearing, the group of captured Sea Folk and Talking Sea Creatures through the use of propaganda and trickery. Among those unfortunate victims are some Mermaids, Mermen, Ichthyocentaurs, Dolphins, Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs and Seals, and I've seen those poor sea creatures get hauled, struggling and protesting profusely into the paws and hands of those horrible monsters who then forced them into some type of water-filled trolley to be carried off back to here."

Dionaea, at this, put on an unsurprised look for she had overheard Pazuzu's group talk with Bullface the Minotaur about their delivery to the Witch's castle for either the barbaric, unethical butchering for food or to be used as slaves, specifically the Merfolk since they had the ability to switch between aquatic and land forms, their tails turning into legs when on land and back into a fishtail when in the water. However, the transition was _excruciatingly_ painful for Merfolk so they rarely ventured onto land.

"Those poor captured sea creatures are due to arrive shortly," said the Manticore, "Thanks, Rodan."

The Ropen, named Rodan, nodded and sat down. Dionaea then stood up, a stern look on her Ape-like face.

"Well, when those captured sea folk arrive and are set up for selection for butchering," she said, "We're gonna rescue as many of those individuals as we can before that barbaric Witch's cronies slay them for food or force them into slavery," Dionaea's face hardened, "honestly, what that so-called Queen is doing to the creatures of other regions such as the Narnian Sea is going WAY too far, along with that Decadal Massacre League thing…"

"Oh, don't mention that bloodbath of an event," muttered one of the Ravens, her wings on her face, "Watching those poor creatures slay each other that gorily has given some of us nightmares for days."

"Yessss," put in the Basilisk with a snaky hiss for Basilisks were serpentine and tended to hiss their s's when they talked, "Not ONE of ussss hasssssss had a desssssssent night'ssssss ssssssleep ssssinsssse that day."

Her forked tongue flicked at the air after she had spoken this before retreating into her mouth. Silverwing who sat with his Raven comrades nodded to this in agreement.

"I couldn't even eat a bite since that day either, alongside finding out were most of the lavish meat had come from," muttered Nyaonix the Bakeneko wearily and with that, he placed his paws on his stomach and groaned.

"There's also another thing I must mention," said one of the Wolves named Argenti whose fur had a silvery metallic sheen, giving her a pretty appearance despite being a fierce Wolf.

"Yes," said Dionaea.

"While I was on a flight out on Alain's back with his nieces," said the Wolf, a nod to the Amphiptere and his three younger female nieces, "We have also seen that some of the Shadows and some Ropen and Mothmen had managed to capture the Rainbow Serpent, the guardian of the Narnian sun biosphere."

The word 'What' exploded from the mouths of the other members of the group as disbelief tore through them.

"You can't be serious," growled Dionaea.

"That Rainbow Coloured air Snake is a vitally important protector of the sun's plants and creatures," put in Carface. However, the look on Alain and his three nieces' faces, and that of Argenti, indicated that they WERE serious.

"I don't know where they have hauled the Rainbow Snake to for we had been forced to retreat when one of the Ropen spotted us," said Alain, "But I should imagine it would be taken to the spot where the captured sea creatures are to be set up for selection…"

"Well, if so," said Dionaea sternly, "Then we're gonna set that creature free as well. We're NOT gonna have that Witch use that guardian for her own evil ends and vanity."

The others nodded in agreement. The Rainbow Serpent, which resembled a giant, highly iridescent Snake with scales that reflected all the colours of the rainbow and had sails flowing down its sides like the fin of a Squid's mantle, was an air guardian that glided, or rather swam, gracefully through the skies of Narnia by flapping its sails and had been created by Aslan from the beginning to be the protector of the sun which, unlike our world's sun which was a fiery ball of burning gas and plasma, was a biosphere with its own biomes and ecosystems, complete with its own seas, valleys and mountains. A variety of unique plants, such as the medicinal Fire Flower, grew here. Very few individuals had ever visited the Narnian sun and the Rainbow Snake would only allow those who did not have any intentions of harming the sun's immensely fragile biosphere to set foot (or belly in the case of those that did not have legs, such as Basilisks) on the surface of the glowing sphere. Gandalf and Kyukon were amongst these utterly few to have been to the sun to collect some plants, such as Fire Flowers, as part of their mission to build their base for the then-upcoming Eternal Winter (also called the Age of Winter) once Jadis usurped the throne. The two Kitsune had also been there to learn how to form magic light orbs for their base and keep them running, for obviously, an underground base would need some form of light to allow its occupants to see and live in the dark compartments. Light orbs were also crucial in providing light energy for Nanrian plants to grow, which was essential for the underground crops the Kitsune pair and their helpers had planted in their masses to provide the occupants and all the evacuees with plenty of food. If the Rainbow Serpent was captured, there were no guardians to protect the ultra-precious and extremely fragile biosphere of the sun which would allow ANYONE, even those with evil intent, to access the biosphere 'star' to possibly collect its resources for their own evil plans and wants, and their lack of care for anything else could potentially decimate the ecosystem of the sun and that was the conclusion Dionaea and her group had arrived. The Rainbow Serpent must be freed at all costs once it had been brought to the Witch's castle.

While the group continued to chat, Aldrovandra the Kelpie proposed a question.

"How are we gonna set those Merfolk, Dolphins and whatever other sea creature that had been captured free, along with the Rainbow Snake?" asked the water Horse. Murmurs rolled through the group as each individual tried to propose an ideal plan. Then Dionaea's Ape-like face morphed into a wily grin.

"I'll tell you guys how," she said, "we're gonna join those captors of those creatures and pretend to help."

This was met with rather uncertain looks from the rest of the group. However, since many of the Witch's cronies, their leaders, and even the Witch herself, saw these individuals as loyal followers, especially Rodan, Scorpius and Silverwing, all of who had even been recently promoted to be the Witch's higher ranking officials before doubts about her reign set in, they could use this status to their advantage but this would come with a catch; it would also mean losing their status in the process if they were ever caught. Then Dionaea called together the group.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do…" said the Mantciore and with that, she launched the discussion of the plan into motion. While the majority listened to Dionaea, Nyaonix shot the three Wolpertingers, a young Wolf and Mairin a worried look.

"Come to think of it," said the Bakeneko, "I haven't seen Ahhuayo or that purple-black Kitsune lately."

"Maybe they've also left the Witch's side after doubting her reign?" asked one of the Wolpertingers, a male.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the reason Ahhuayo has left," said Mairin with her Bat's wings folded, "after all, he had been utterly traumatised by the Massacre League thing a few days ago, watching those countless Narnians bloodily slay each other in cold blood."

"Not to mention the sickening entertainment so many of the Witch's minions including that Fox and the Witch herself got out of it," put in another Wolpertinger, a female. Then a worried look came upon Nyaonix's face.

"Well, I hope that Kitsune isn't out causing trouble for any of those poor Narnians," he told the other four, "Since I know her to be an UTTER psychopath."

"'Psychopath' isn't the word I would use to describe that Fox's BARBARIC lust for bloodshed and torturing creatures," said Mairin with disgust, "She's an utter MONSTER… more than that in fact."

"And she's incredibly loyal to Jadis," added the third Wolpertinger, another male, the first male also nodding to this in agreement. Nyaonix shuddered as his mind began to play a flashback to a time when he and the Kitsune were on an outing with a patrol group to a village of the Fauns during the 90 percent food collection time.

 _Flashback_

In a Faun village, a group of the Witch's cronies had arrived to forcibly collect 90 percent of the food deliveries from each Faun family and group. Like every other village and town in Narnia, the Faun villagers, together with any adopted Talking Beasts or other creature present, were struggling to get by with constant food shortage and the freezing snow, and the strictly mandatory 90 percent food collection for the 'Queen' put even more stress on the villagers as they were often left with so little food given to them by the food black market importers that there wasn't enough to fill an single Faun or creature's stomach, much less an entire family or group. Furthermore, attempts to hide food was strictly forbidden and the food collectors from the Witch carried a strict search demand to ransack their home for any food hidden in any nook and cranny and of any of those hiding spots were found to contain food, the family or group was often severely punished. Despite the misery of the constant winter and the difficulties it brought along with the Witch's tyrannical rules, many of the villagers tried to keep themselves occupied to keep their minds off those consequences.

As the group of the Witch's cronies, among them Nyaonix and the Kitsune, the former who had been quite young at the time, arrived, many of the Fauns and other creatures had been chopping down trees to use as firewood while some youngsters played in the snow by building a variety of snow creatures or have snowball fights. Then as soon as the collector group had arrived and began to go round the village and demand the 90 percent offering from each family or group using large bags to collect the food, Nyanoix and the Kitsune departed from the group to play, an adult Hellhound ordering them not to interfere with any of the villagers, not to go too far from the group, and to return to the group once they had finished with the collection of the 90 percent of the food deliveries from the villagers, to which the pair nodded. However, as the Bakeneko and his (then) Kitsune friend began to play, the former began to hear of complaints from some of the Fauns. At this, Nyaonix stopped and began to listen.

"But we WON'T have enough left to last us a DAY, much less a WEEK!" groaned one of the elderly Fauns, two Fairies hovering near him, sour and disgruntled looks plastering their faces as well, as the leader of the collector group, an elderly Chupacabra, stood there, a demanding look on his face that they and their villagers hand over the food offering regardless of the fact that they would be left with so little food. Then Nyaonix gazed closely at the Faun, the Fairies and their assistants as they were standing before the Chupacabra and noticed the disgruntled looks on their faces.

"Look, it's by orders and the law of Her Majesty that you hand over 90 percent of your delivered food as part of your respect to her, whether you like it or not," growled the scrawny and ugly Dog-like creature lacking any fur and with long claws on its paws, "now command your villagers to hand over their family and group's offering, or face SERIOUS consequences!"

Nyaonix looked on and began to feel a wave of sympathy envelop him as he watched the younger Fauns around the patriarch of the village, gaze back at the Chupacabra with distressed faces, especially some females who seemed to have young kids, indicating that they were not at all happy with the command. Reluctantly, they left for their houses to gather 90 percent of their food deliveries and return to hand over those food 'offerings' to the Chupacabra and his assistants. As Nyaonix continued to gaze at the dispersing Fauns and other creatures with them such as Fairies and watch them return with the 'offerings' with a worried and concerned look, the Fox came in.

"That is how it's supposed to be, Nyaonix," she said, "it is important that Her Majesty gets her due offerings, whether it is in food, in materials or in lives."

"Even if those families and groups, especially mothers with kids, face potential starvation?" asked Nyaonix in a stunned voice. The Fox nodded before a smile formed on her muzzle. Then her paw reached into a small bag she had brought along for the trip and pulled out some type of toy bear she had made back at her home on the Witch's castle grounds where the Witch's cronies lived. This teddy bear was made of dark brown fur-like material and had glassy eyes and a shiny blue bowtie on its neck. However, this teddy bear was not your typical cute teddy bear you probably had as a kid. This teddy bear was extremely ugly, had enormous fangs like a Manticore and had been crafted to look like one of the demonic toys minions of the Father Christmas impersonator Krampus for this Kitsune had an ENORMOUS love for such a frightening style.

"Let's just take our minds off those Fauns and their co-inhabitants, shall we," said she in an oily, before presenting her toy to Nyaonix, "Meet my teddy bear named Teddy Klaue. He is one of my closest friends and I have decided to take him with us on our journey to collect the 90 percent food offerings from the villagers and towners up and down Narnia…"

Nyaonix gazed at the seriously creepy looking toy bear and backed away uneasily, the unsettling glare of the toy seemingly boring into him and making the skin under his fur crawl, his nerves shudder and his muscles tremble.

"Oh, don't be afraid of him, Nyaonix," said the Fox in a seemingly soothing voice, "He's a very nice teddy bear. He won't hurt you."

"B-b-but he resembles one of those toy minions of that Goat-like monster who poses as Father Christmas that has c-c-captured and killed or even… _devoured_ … c-c-countless young Narnians," said Nyaonix as he continued to shudder at the unsettling stare of the toy in the Fox's paw. The Fox just smiled.

"It may do so but he's nothing at all like Krampus's teddy friends. Anyway, let's go for a walk with him. He hasn't been out of my bag in a while and he could do with some fresh air."

With that, she took her toy bear and walked off. Nyaonix reluctantly followed and soon, the pair was walking towards a group of working Fauns and other creatures as they continued to chop down trees and prepare the logs for firewood. The sounds of chopping rattled the air as metal blades struck wood and cut it up into smaller pieces before being piled into wheel-barrow-like sleds to be towed off to the village to be used as its fire source or materials to make wooden tables, chairs and other household objects, as well as replacement planks for the houses that had wooden roofs whose planks had worn down, either from rot or physical damage. While the Fauns and a few other creatures continued to work on cutting down trees (avoiding the Dryads' trees), and cutting up their logs and branches, Nyaonix and the Fox walked over to them and ascended a leafless tree, the Fox's wicked-looking teddy bear still in the latter's paw, gripped firmly so that it didn't fall out of the Kitsune's foreleg as she ascended the tree to the lowest bough. As the pair reached the lowest large branch of the tree and climbed onto it, Nyaonix flashed a glance back at the other members of the collector group and saw that they were nearly finished as the food bags were piled in the back of the large sleds used by the food collectors for travel.

"It's nearly time to go," he said, "we shouldn't be too long up here. Why are we in this tree, anyway?"

"I just want to take Teddy Klaue on a short sightseeing trip," said the Fox and with that, she placed the teddy bear in front of her so that its unsettling, bug-eyed and bare toothed gaze which resembled a devilish smile faced the working Fauns and Talking Animals. Nyaonix looked on and watched the Fauns and their company in their firewood making process, their axes and other sharp blades which glinted in the winter sun's light, continuously hacking and slashing away at the wood while some Dogs and Cats (ordinary Cats), some of the creatures who had moved into the Faun village for refuge and help in survival in the Eternal Winter, helped to tow away the finished wood pieces to the village in the sled-like trolleys. None of the workers were aware that a Fox and a Bakeneko were watching them from the lowest fork in the tree's boughs, one with a toy she had made. As Nyaonix continued to gaze at the Fauns and their helpers, their faces twisted with effort as they hauled the wood or chopped it up and some Fauns raising their hands to their foreheads to wipe away the sweat that had built up on them from the hard work, and the Fauns themselves puffing and panting, an evil smirk formed on the Kitsune's muzzle.

"I think Teddy Klaue could do with a better close-up of those workers, Nyaonix, don't you think?" said she in a slightly scheming voice, to which Nyaonix shot a confused look. The Fox then lifted her teddy bear.

"Up here doesn't seem like a suitable standpoint for him at all," continued the Fox.

"But it's an ideal enough spot," protested Nyaonix, "Why do you want to change your mind? Do you want to climb down from here and observe those workers closer on the ground?"

The Fox's wicked smirk widened. "Not just climb down from this tree, Nyanoix," she said in a more sinister tone of voice, to which the Bakeneko shuddered. And with that, the Kitsune raised her toy and dropped it towards the snow.

"Tell those Fauns and Talking Beasts down there my teddy bear says 'hello'!" said the Fox and as her teddy bear hit the snow, the Kitsune flashed her eyes at her toy, a sinister orange light enveloping both her eyeballs, both narrowed with the devilish look on her face. Nyaonix saw what she was going to do.

"NOOOOO!" screeched the Bakeneko in alarm and attempted to lunge at her to stop her but the Fox raised a paw and blocked his attempts, her paw smacking in the Bakeneko's face and holding him there. Then what happened next threw EVERYTHING into total chaos. The teddy bear became surrounded in an orange aura and within a split-second, its size suddenly exploded to many times its original dimensions (however, in reality, it still remained its original size but its altered version was a magical illusory shell). Furthermore, its unsettling look was transformed into an even MORE monstrous and demonic version of itself such that it looked like a giant monster towering over the worker Fauns and their helpers. Then a massive scream erupted from some of the workers when they saw this 'beast' suddenly appear out of nowhere and tower over them menacingly and before long, a MASSIVE discombobulation exploded throughout the working area, followed by an explosion of immense turmoil in the form of a series of accidents. One Faun's axe sliced accidentally through a log of another nearby tree, sending it toppling down and smashing onto a table holding some processed logs ready to be loaded into the carts and towed away to the village. As one end of the table collapsed under the tree's weight, the other end was flung up like a trebuchet, a weaponry device that catapulted projectiles in our world. And some of the logs loaded onto that end were propelled in exactly the same way. Nyaonix watched in utter horror as the flying logs careened through the frigid air towards the village and smashed through the wooden roof of one of the houses, apparently the patriarch's house, in a mighty crash and forming a massive hole. Then Nyaonix whipped his head back around as though a bee had stung him in the face in that previous direction and began to watch the chaos whipped up in the woodworking area in the form of an explosive chain reaction and ensuing carnage.

As Nyaonix watched on in utter horror and sheer astonishment, his mouth dropped open, his ears pricked up at the maximum straightness and his eyes inflated out of their sockets at the carnage playing out before him, flinching at every crash of wood, cry from each Faun or other creature and other sounds, the Fox near him also watched the carnage but not with a look of utter horror or astonishment as though her plan had whipped up the chaos unintentionally. Nor was she watching the chain reaction with guilt or "Oh, NO, what have I DONE!?" sort of facial expression. Instead, the Kitsune's muzzle was stretched into a wide smile, and an extremely sadistic look was plastered all over her face. And rather than flinch at every sound as the chain reaction carnage continued in horror like Nyaonix next to her (the violence of the carnage was no different from that in the Arena of Death where those poor Narnians gruesomely slayed each other), the Kitsune was instead smiling demonically at the whole scene and the chain of events as though the whole thing was absolutely hilarious, and the occasional snicker escaped her widely smirking mouth especially as a Faun or Talking Beast got seriously hurt and cried out in agony, or gruesomely killed. There was absolutely NO SLIVER of remorse or guilt on her face WHATSOEVER. It was all pure laughter, sheer enjoyment and utter relish in the most sadistic, psychotic and sickening way possible. From the village, some of the villagers, upon hearing the sounds exploding from the woodworking area all darted out and swarmed over to the scene. The Fox saw the incoming crowd and said in a sickeningly humorous voice, "Time to go!"

With that, she dropped from the tree's bough, seized her teddy bear at the foot of the tree, whose illusory form she had given it had faded, and bolted like a deer. Nyanoix followed; immense fright and horror at the carnage propelling him like fuel and his horrified gaze fixed for a few more moments on the continuing carnage until he had to pull it away as he followed the Fox. As the pair tore after the food collecting group just as they were departing, the Kitsune shot Nyaonix a look of sadistic laughter.

"That sure was fun, wasn't it?" she said, her voice breaking from the laughter as it threatened to erupt through her normal speech, "Maybe we could do it again in future?"

Nyaonix shot the Fox an immensely horrified look. Then as the pair jumped into the sled, Nyaonix flashed one terrified glance back at the work area as the villagers swarmed all around it and saw that the chain reaction had stopped. Wails of anguish and horror erupted from the villagers as they gazed in disbelief at the carnage (it's so disturbing and bloody and so much like the Arena of Death, I won't describe in detail what had happened) while in the village patriarch's home; more wails erupted through the open door. The Kitsune also gazed back at the distraught villagers as they examined the carnage she had whipped up in horror, her teddy bear clutched in her paws and her face laced with the purest sadism you could ever imagine. Then the Hellhound came in.

"Well done, you two," he said, "You've obeyed my command to return to our sled after our food collection process is finished. Now let's move on to the next village."

"But what about those poor Fauns and Talking Beasts badly injured in the woodworking area?" asked Nyaonix with a gesture to the carnage in said area. He then shot the Kitsune, who was still sniggering sadistically at watching the carnage she had whipped up in that area as well as the anguished wails of the villagers, an outraged look. The Hellhound gazed at the Kitsune and then at the brutally decimated woodworking area, as well as the anguished villagers. To Nyaonix's further outrage, the black Fire Dog with blood red eyes did not flash one bit of concern or sympathy for the scene.

"Just leave them there," he said, "it's not our problem."

"But she here caused that whole mess!" protested Nyaonix, a gesture at the still-sniggering Kitsune.

"Look, Nyaonix," snapped the Hellhound, "Let's just move to the next village or town, okay?"

And with that, he howled to the leaders of the group and with a THWACK of the reigns connecting the sleds to the Yule goats, the sleds were off, the food collection from the village in tow. Nyaonix gazed back at the decimated woodwork scene and the distraught villagers one last time as he was carried away in the sled, and felt a tear well within his right eye. Not only was he outraged at what the Kitsune had done but he was also outraged and upset at the Hellhound and the other group members' lack of concern for the villagers and the gory mess of where the Fauns and company were processing firewood had been. Furthermore, there was nothing he could do to help those villagers for the older cronies of the Witch wouldn't allow him.

 _End of flashback_

Nyaonix wept as he continued to remember what he had seen in this flashback, particularly for the creatures in that Faun village who had lost loved ones in the incident because of what the Kitsune had done when she had made an especially frightening illusion of her teddy bear to frighten the woodworkers in the first place. Furthermore, they had also lost their patriarch so they were left without a leader as well to help them and provide them with wisdom. That patriarch had been an experienced and wise Faun and an important heartbeat of the village and now he was gone, and the rest of the village were as devastated and as doomed as an elephant herd without their highly experienced matriarchal leader slain at the hands of merciless poachers. In addition to this, and even worse, that Kitsune Nyaonix remembered was still as remorseless as she had been when she caused that whole mess, and she still talked about it and laughed about it even now, and that had been the final straw on the Bakeneko's friendship with that Fox and as a result, he had broken away from the Kitsune and never spoke to her again, and still she was as remorseless and as sadistic about that poor Faun clan and the adopted non-Faun members and the loss of their patriarch as well as the Narnians slain in the Arena of Death. As Nyaonix continued to weep for the Fauns and other creatures in that village as well as the Narnians that had died in the bloody Arena during the Massacre Event, Mairin placed a comforting wing on his shoulder.

"You're not on your own regarding that Fox and her diabolically sadistic thirst and bloodlust for seeing in others in agony," said the Amphiptere.

"It's not just the Kitsune and her sickening love for all that, Mairin," replied Nyaonix in a slightly edgy voice as his emotions were threatening to spill over, "It's also those Narnians that had lost their lives either out in the winter-stricken country or slaughtered in that Arena of Blood. Not to mention those slain in the butchering area to be processed as food…"

"Oh, don't EVER mention that HORRIBLE literal slaughterhouse place besides the Arena of Blood," said Mairin with a flinch of disgust, "That always brings back memories of that Kitsune, the same one responsible for the calamity in that Faun village with her teddy bear, when she tortured and abused those poor Talking Chickens, Pigs, Sheep and other creatures while she was tasked in slaying them for their meat, and she gave them a slow and painful death to do just that…" the winged Snake then began to sway as memories of those scenes flooded her mind as well, "I'll NEVER, EVER forget that demonic and utterly… SADISTIC… look that Fox had while she was torturing those poor creatures."

"She was honestly and UTTERLY sick and psychotic, I can tell you," said Sundew with Drosera and the three Wolpertingers near her flinching at the description of that horrible Fox's nature, "I sure hope she isn't roaming out there in the winter-stricken country of Narnia causing any of those suffering creatures trouble…"

"Let's just pay attention to Dionaea's plan," said Alain, before his gaze turned to the Manticore as she glared at them as if to say, "Excuse me!", "I can tell she wants our attention."

Mairin, Nyaonix, Sundew, Drosera and the three Wolpertingers then resumed their attention to Dionaea as she continued describing the plan on rescuing the captured Merfolk and other sea creatures.

 **Later**

Back in the victors' houses, Soran and his group including his father Growler, mother Silver-Ears, sister Zira, were stuffing their faces on the tasty treats given to them magically conjured by Jadis and given to them by Púca, Pazuzu, the two Wendigoes, Malefor, Romulus and Aku no. Lightningflash's family had also had their 'treats' delivered and like Soran and his family, the members were gorging themselves as well. As they watched the group of greedy Animals, all of who was already gaining weight, extremely lazy and totally unbothered chow down the food with crumbs flying everywhere and all over the place, Pazuzu glared maliciously at them.

"Enjoy it while you can you traitorous fat Beasts," growled the lead Shadow in a voice that sounded like that of a snarling Dog when it was threatened, "You've got something else ahead of you, and if you want to sample that food again, you're gonna HAVE TO WORK for it."

None of the gluttonous members flashed him a hopeful or despairing glance as the IRRISISTIBLE tastes of the treats made them yearn for more and stuff more of it down their throats like a bunch of greedy gannets and pelicans, throwing more pieces of cake and crumbs everywhere and making a huge mess on the floor in the process. Cake and pudding crumbs and icing smeared all over their mouths and fronts and the floor was becoming strewn with more of the crumbs as they rained down from the gluttonous Animals' mouths. As they continued to watch Soran's family, or the rest of them, gorge themselves, Aku no gazed at her teammates.

"I still don't get how those ten have managed to leave this family anyway," said the hand-eyed Hag known as a Tenome.

"Well, we don't know and we DON'T LIKE IT one BIT!" snapped Púca in a voice that sounded like a raucous spoilt brat, "If I had ever caught them, I'd have zapped them with my lightning and with a mighty scream to kill them there and then…"

As she spoke, Malefor left to outside when he heard his name get called. As the Manticore emerged from Soran and his family's new 'house', his eyes landed on a pair of Humanoids with legless Snake-like bodies from the waist down.

"We bring good news, Malefor," said one of the Naga, a male, who was loyal to the Witch, "The Merfolk and the other sea creatures that our sea scouts have managed to lure and capture have arrived on Her Majesty's castle grounds."

"Also, the Rainbow Serpent has been delivered by the Ropen and the Mothmen," said the other Naga, also a male.

"That's excellent news, my Naga friends," said Malefor with a wicked smile, his fangs showing through the smirk, "Now return and see in the captors of those creatures and the Rainbow Snake while we get down to sorting out those lowly sea rats and decide who will become food and who will become slaves."

Both Naga nodded when one of them noticed the two Wendigoes and Pazuzu and Púca glare maliciously at a certain Dog and the rest of his family as they gluttonously gorged themselves on the treats from the trolleys and messing the floor with crumbs and pieces of them.

"Why are Pazuzu and those other three glaring bitterly at those victors, Malefor?" he asked. Malefor, at this, put up a Lion's paw and blocked the Naga's view of Soran and company, his eyes firmly closed.

"Never mind those traitorous rats, you two," said he, "just carry out my command. Those rats are in BIG trouble since they had allowed some of their members to escape and disrespect Her Majesty."

"Escape?" repeated the other Naga in confusion.

"That sounds awfully serious," said the first Naga. However, he and his companion were forced to ditch their curiosity when they received a piercing glare from the lead Manticore and comply. Warily, they left to meet with the captors of the sea creatures. After the Naga had left, Malefor left to get the labour area ready for Soran and Lightningflash's groups once they had finished chowing down the treats given to them by Jadis. Nearby, a Raven with silver on his wings had been watching the whole scene from behind a rock and had overheard the whole conversation, as well as the change of treatment of Soran and his group. Alarmed, he opened his wings and took off to find Dionaea and her group to inform them of the sea creatures and the Rainbow Serpents' delivery. However, there was nothing he could do about Soran and Lightningflash and their families for they were under heavy guard by the Witch's cronies but he had decided to leave them to suffer the consequences of their actions in the Arena of Death and their slaying of countless Narnians.


	43. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42- a daring act**

 **Soon, after Soran, Lightningflash and company had greedily finished their meal**

"Alright, you good-for-nothing SLIME-WORMS; GET MOVING!" bellowed Pazuzu, armed with a stick and his demonic face saturated with pure thunder and impatience, at a group of certain creatures as they were forced into shifting heavy rocks which were used to build fires to cook meals, amongst them certain creatures. He then lashed out at one of the fattened Goats from Soran's family and gave her a mighty whack in the side with his stick, sending shooting pain from the point of impact through her body and making her yelp and weep tears, while another Shadow lurched forward and gave her a hefty shove from behind to get her moving in accordance to the lead Shadow's commands.

"GET to WORK, NOW!" screeched Pazuzu at the other members of the two families. At a distance, Púca and the mate of the lead Wendigo named Gothel watched on with unsympathetic glares as Soran, Lightningflash and company, all of them saturated with laziness and the reluctance to work, as well as the thoughts of more treats overstuffing their minds like the desserts had their stomachs for Jadis had saturated those magically conjured cakes with a spell to make them many MORE times addictive to add to their suffering. Because of this, the poor creatures were practically OBSESSED with those treats, but they had to work for it and to make things worse, Jadis had no intentions of giving them anymore of those treats and had planned on giving them far less appealing and lavish food such as utterly stale bread or meat that had gone off for ages (yes, I'm not surprised that you're grossed out by this. So am I, but don't forget how truly EVIL and BARBARIC Jadis is).

"They're gonna be working like that for Her Majesty for the rest of their lives for their betrayal in allowing those family members to escape, among them the Wampus Cat, the Pegasus and the Pig," said Púca before her gaze turned to an extremely miserable and obese Lightningflash as he struggled to shift one of the rocks, two of the Shadows armed with whips lunging at him and hitting him over and over again like cruel owners beating a horse or other beast into working and forcing him to lift it up and carry it, "and in his case, one of his sons as well."

"Yes, absolutely," said Gothel, her menacing silvery moon-like eyes also on the victors-reduced-to-slaves creatures, "What they have done is utterly UNFORGIVABLE. Those escaped members from their groups could be _anywhere_ and they could reveal the truth about Her Majesty's regime to the other Narnians which could lead to a rebellion taking root."

"Her Majesty has actually sent search-and-destroy groups out to find those escapees and slaughter them on the spot a while ago, Gothel," said Púca to which the enormously slouched bipedal Satyr-like Beast with seemingly barely any muscle under her skin such that the anatomy of her ribs and skeleton were visible nodded in agreement. While Soran and the others struggled with the rocks, their slave-drivers beating them mercilessly with the sticks such that some of them had been inflicted with the first signs of open wounds at the impact points, several young followers of Jadis of various creatures came round to watch the scene. When they saw the suffering creatures, the youngsters took to mocking and scorning Soran and the others and began to hurl all kinds of vitriolic mockery and abuse at the former victors, amongst them comments about their weight, especially Lightningflash's family to which the eyes of those creatures flashed with seer hurt. However, Pazuzu and his group did absolutely nothing to restraining the mocking youngsters and continued beating the creatures to shift the rocks and to build the bases for the cooking pots ready for the sea creatures once they were delivered.

Then turning their backs on Soran and Lightningflash's groups as they continued to suffer torments from the youngsters and beatings from Pazuzu's group as well as their own reluctance to work and shift the heavy rocks at risk of injury, and walking away in the opposite direction, Púca checked her watch.

"Oh, it's almost dinner time," said the lead Banshee, "and it's a celebratory dinner as well as it's still the anniversary of Her Majesty's triumph in capturing Narnia and becoming its Queen."

"Okay, I'll call those youngsters over there," said Gothel and with that, the ugly Wendigo left to shout for the youngsters, who were still mocking and scoffing at Soran and company and their reduced state, of the time while Púca left to fetch some more youngsters and her Banshees.

 **Later**

In the dining hall of the Witch's castle, the tables (after the destroyed plates and chairs were cleared away once Jadis had calmed down from her enormous temper tantrum from Trotterhoof, Thundersparx and company's sneaking away, though she was still simmering silently in rage) were loaded with a massive amount of food of various types, among them the meat of the unfortunate Talking Beasts that were forcibly slain and butchered, and the fruit and vegetables collected from the villages and towns up and down Narnia, like before and the Witch and her cronies were seated around them. It was still the period of celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Witch's conquering of Narnia so it was essentially a party, though not as wild as it had been before, during and shortly after the Massacre Event. The wide variety of the horrible followers of the Witch (some of them, among them Pazuzu and his Shadows, were absent for they were tending to other matters such as forcing Soran and Lightningflash's groups to perform the heavy labour), as well as the Narnians that had betrayed their species and joined the evil Snow Beast's crowd, were pigging out on the large amount of the variety of food. Sitting at one end of the long tables, Dionaea, Carface and some of their group members including Nyaonix the Bakeneko were sat, reluctantly eating the food and avoiding touching the meat similar to how Trotterhoof's group had done after finding out where they had been sourced. Just as the creatures were preparing to sit around the tables, Púca had called for everyone to bow to the Witch and pray to her and give thanks to her for their home in Narnia and for the food before taking their seats, but Dionaea's group did not truly give thanks to the Witch, instead doing it without meaning to cover up their true attitude towards the wicked Humanoid.

Sitting near Dionaea and Carface was Malefor, the head of the Manticores and he was talking with Gothel the Wendigo and her mate, the head of the Wendigo species and also a creature called a Chimera, a three-headed beast that had a Lion-like body like as Manticore but with a Deer's head situated behind the Lion's head and a Snake for a tail. All Chimeras were three individuals sharing one body and almost all of them were loyal to Jadis. However one Chimera was part of Dionaea's group and was a rebel. Malefor was discussing the arrival of the captured Merfolk and other sea creatures, and the Rainbow Serpent with Gothel, her mate and the Chimera and the plans on butchering them for their meat and hide, especially the Rainbow Serpent's hide for the Witch as decoration to which Dionaea, Carface, Nyaonix and the others within earshot found repulsive. During this, Nyaonix was examining the Narnians that were eating with the cronies of the Witch and shuddered.

"Have you guys heard of a stone slab called the Stone Table?" asked the Bakeneko in a low voice to Dionaea and the others nearby.

"Stone Table?" whispered Dionaea confused. Carface also tilted his Ape's face to one side in confusion as well.

"What's a Stone Table?" asked he.

"It's a large slab of rock mounted on four rock pillars, apparently having been there even before Jadis usurped the throne and locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter," Nyaonix flinched when he saw one of the Banshees glare at him from across the table before resuming eating, "and the Witch had just started to use it to slay a few of the traitorous Narnians on that rock in some sort of ceremony," Nyaonix 's whispers shuddered before his timid gaze travelled to some of the Fauns, Kitsune and several other Narnian creatures as they continued to eat with their 'friends', "I've actually witnessed a Kitsune and a Faun get bound and slaughtered on that Table by the Witch and some of her cronies before as the first few victims…"

This sent shivers down the spines of Dionaea, Carface and the other listeners.

"Are you meaning to say that the Witch is fickle and could change her mind about those traitorous Narnians, choosing to put them to death at any time?" asked Dionaea in a low voice. Nyaonix timidly nodded.

"Yes, those Narnians, apart from a few of them, are treading on thin ice. I've also overheard Pazuzu and some of his comrades talk about Soran, Lightningflash and their groups potentially becoming sacrifice victims on that dreaded slab of rock eventually once they are unable to work anymore," continued the Bakeneko, "Apparently, traitorous Narnians are property of the White Witch and she has a right to kill them on that slab…"

"Sounds like a dreaded place to be," said Carface nervously.

"It is," said Nyaonix, "In fact, when I visited it for the first time with my family when I was quite a young kit, before I saw that Kitsune (not that psychopath who devastated that Faun clan) and the Faun were killed on it, believe me, it sent shivers down my spine. I can't imagine anyone being bound and placed on that square slab of rock and then killed, and I thought that the Massacre Event was an event of death for so many Narnians in which those poor victims slaughter each other in the Arena of Death to fight for this 'better life' prize, but now…" Nyaonix trailed off, a blockage caused by lack of understanding of the Stone Table's use having formed in his production of words. However, he was unaware, and was too young to understand, that the Stone Table had a MASSIVE and IMPORTANT purpose that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Massacre Event; THAT decadal event had been invented by the Witch as a form of sickening entertainment in watching countless hapless Narnians slay each other in the goriest of ways; the Stone Table on the other hand, was a sacrifice spot for traitorous Narnians and had a far more serious role. Nyaonix then frowned in perplex as he remembered something else mysterious about the Stone Table, "But while we were gazing at the Stone Table, I also noticed some very strange markings etched in the sides of the square slab on which victims are placed and killed…"

Glances were exchanged amongst the listeners.

"Markings?" repeated Dionaea.

"What did those markings look like?" asked Carface.

"They appeared to be some sort of writing," said Nyaonix, "as they resembled bizarre letters but they appeared nothing more than confusing gibberish that made no sense whatsoever when we examined them up close…"

"Well if that is the case, then those markings are probably not important," said Dionaea, trying to assure the Bakeneko. However, she, and the others with her, were unaware that that writing Nyaonix had examined with his family were totally the opposite to Dionaea's statement but the meaning had been hidden from the examiners for the time being, hence why Nyaonix found the writing to be nothing more than a jumble of symbols etched into the Stone Table's sides. Nyaonix then felt the assurance quell the curiosity about those confusing markings on the Stone Table somewhat and resumed eating an apple with Dionaea and the others also resuming eating fruit and vegetables, but rather reluctantly for they knew where this food had come from but there was something even worse afoot on these tables too. While Dionaea, Carface, Nyaonix and the others with them continued to eat, one of the Xenojaws handed them a crystalline wineglass-like cup filled with a dark red liquid resembling blood.

"Here, drink this," said the hideous Alien-like monster. Dionaea and the others gazed at the beast and the cup filled with the liquid.

"What is that?" asked Carface. A Nukekubi in disembodied head form then appeared.

"It's supposed to induce vomiting so that you can eat more food," she said and before Dionaea and the others could ask what she meant, the Yokai species hardened her smirk, "In other words, make you sick."

"Yes, it's very important in banquets like this," put in Malefor who sat nearby, his Apelike mouth stuffed with meat. At this, revulsion tore through Dionaea and the others like a shockwave and made them flinch and a few of them backed away from the cup of red liquid offered to them by the Xenojaw.

"Can we be excused please?" said Dionaea repulsively and before anyone could ask why, she dropped from her chair and left with Carface, Nyaonix and the others in tow, leaving Malefor, the Nukekubi and the Xenojaw to gaze at each other in utter chagrin, with Malefor uttering something under his breath about the group as they crept away.

As the group sneaked out of the dining hall entrance where they were joined by Alain, Mairin, Sundew, Scorpius and the others in the group and then walked towards the exit of the castle; Dionaea gazed at her friends.

"We are practically stuffing large… LARGE… amounts of food into our stomachs and then vomiting it all up and out wastefully to chow down even more food," said the red, green and purple Manticore in disgust.

"While those poor Narnians are out there," said Alain as he slithered out of the door after his nieces, a sad gaze directed at the snowy horizon, "are starving to death… with _barely_ a sliver of food on their plates or in their bowls…"

As the older male Amphiptere said this, Nyaonix had another flashback of himself and the psychotic Kitsune while they were talking about the devastated Faun clan:

" _I cannot believe you would do something like THAT!" Nyaonix told the Kitsune as she proudly played with her Teddy Klaue bear, disbelief flaring within the Bakeneko, "Those poor Fauns and their adopted Talking Beast members are likely to be traumatised for the rest of their lives after witnessing the gory mess you have reduced the group of woodworkers to, alongside the death of that patriarch…"_

" _I love doing stuff like that," replied the Kitsune without a sliver of remorse, "and besides that, it's a whole lotta fun… and hilarious," her gaze then morphed into a glare as Nyaonix shuddered in disbelief at the Kitsune's insatiable love for seeing things suffer and get gorily slaughtered, the exact same trait that had also been troubling an Azuizotl as well, "I'm surprised you don't know how to have fun. You see, those stupid Narnians don't deserve our sympathy…"_

Nyaonix was pulled back to the present when he heard the Basilisk say, "Not to mention the unfair mandatory 90 perssssent of food offering from the food deliveriessss and any indoor crown cropsssss asssss well…"

"Correct, Magna," said Dionaea, "And if you ask me, that is completely exploiting those food black market workers who are working EVER SO HARD to import the food from the countries outside this winter-stricken land just to feed the starving Narnians in this country…"

The others including the Basilisk named Magna and Nyaonix nodded in agreement. As the group exited the castle, they spotted a trio of Lizard-Men walk past and based on how the scaly Humanoids with tails walked away, not noticing the presence of a group of young creatures that should be in the castle dining hall gorging themselves with the amount of food standing at the entrance to the castle. One of Alain's nieces, Sundew, picked up what the bipedal Reptiles were talking about and saw how they appeared to be in a hurry.

"Sounds like the captured sea creatures and the Rainbow Serpent have been delivered, Dionaea," said the young Amphiptere. At this, Dionaea glared at the three Lizard-Men as they disappeared in the direction of an area she knew.

"Alright, then," she said, "Let's follow those three Lizard-Men and head to the area and put our rescue plan in action."

And with that, the red furred Manticore with green and red Bat's wings and purple Scorpion's tail left with the others in tow. As they left, Carface gazed at Nyaonix seriously.

"You might wanna get your telekinesis ready," he whispered. Nyaonix nodded and with that, the group followed the three Lizard-Men to the area where the captured Rainbow Serpent and the aquatic creatures had been taken.

Minutes later, Dionaea and company had arrived at the area, which was a slaughter spot, and hid behind some rocks and slabs resembling the tombstones on a cemetery and peered out at the Lizard-Men as they met with Pazuzu and some of his Shadow underlings. The slaughter spot was a _horrible_ place and the large boulders and a scattering of smaller white rocks with holes and sticks, bones, made the place look like a graveyard and not too far away from where Dionaea and the others had hid themselves was a fenced off area where victims such as Talking Pigs, Chickens, Sheep, Goats and Bovines, were taken and slain and their meat butchered. It was the exact same spot where a certain Wampus Cat, Raiju and Winged Horse had been and had seen some of those poor victims get killed for their meat and now it was going to be used for a certain group of victims lured and captured from the Narnian Sea. In the distance, Dionaea spotted Soran and company continue to work miserably under the abusive supervision of some of Pazuzu's Shadow underlings, some of them lashing at the poor creatures and beating them mercilessly with sticks as well as shouting all kinds of abuse at the Dog and his family to forcibly get them moving and continue to work without slacking off. However, they were none of Dionaea and her group's concerns; their main concern was for the captured Merfolk and other sea creatures from the Narnian Sea and the Rainbow Serpent and setting them free before Pazuzu and company could go through with their horrible plans with them based on the Witch's orders.

"There they are," said Silverwing the Raven with a point of a talon, prompting the heads of all the group members to follow the Raven's point and spot the deliveries as they were towed by some Chupacabra, some Black Dwarfs (among them Gollum) and a Giant who was loyal to the Witch in some sort of trolleys and cages. Then Magna the Basilisk who was the tallest and so got a better view of the delivery cargo, carefully raised her head and limbless upper body to examine the captured victims from a different height but when her orange-red eyes examined those victims, chills rolled through her Serpentine spine, especially when her Snake's eyes picked out a distinctive creature withy sparkly, colourful scales stuffed into a metallic, crystalline cage.

"Dionaea, guysssssss, look," said the Basilisk in a low voice. At this, Dionaea and the others did so and when they saw Gollum and his gang appear with the victims in their clutches and then stop before Pazuzu and his group. The carts the lead Black Dwarf and his group used resembled crystalline tanks and they were filled with water and in those water-filled containers were Humanoid-like creatures resembling Human men and women but with a fish's tail from the waist down.

From the waist up, the Merfolk resembled Human men and women. The males, called Mermen, had the appearance of handsome Human men with short, sparkling hair and a muscular build in their torsos. Their hands, which were bound together, were webbed, ideal for propulsion through the water and they had a fin running down their backs. The females called Mermaids, resembled beautiful Human women and had long, flowing hair that ran down to their waists. The hair of both sexes were glistening, varying in different shades of blue, silver and green much like the patches of metallic fur borne by Nekomata, Bakeneko and Kitsune in their pelts. Their Human-like halves varied in skin shades, from the pale Caucasian colour to dark brown. Their fishtails, which resembled a cross between the tail of a fish and a Dolphin, had glistening scales of various colours with blue, green and silver being most common, though rarer colours like red, orange, yellow and purple had also been observed in Merfolk tails. The tips of the Merfolk's tails ended in glossy tailfins that were flat and horizontal like the fluke of a Dolphin and three more rowed fins ran down the back and sides of the fishtails. These Merfolk individuals appeared to be young adults based on their size and appearance, and the other creatures caught with them, the few Dolphins, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Ichthyosaurs, Seals, and Penguins who simply resembled the regular dolphins, seals, turtles and penguins, and the extinct ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs in our world, only larger and with the abilities to talk and think like people, also lay struggling in the water carts, their limbs bound tightly. They and the Merfolk's mouths were also gagged so that they could not talk or protest, and Dionaea could see that one or two of the Dolphins' snouts were showing signs of wounding for the materials used to gag their mouths appeared to be made of some sort of icy metal and it was cutting into their skin as the Sea Mammals struggled, and based on their size, the captured Dolphins, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Ichthyosaurs, Penguins and Seals also appeared to be young adults but Dionaea could see that one of the Dolphins was smaller than the others and thus appeared to be a Calf, or Dolphin kid.

"Catching these foolish, gullible sea creatures certainly was easy, according to one of the Mothmen when they reported to us that they handed them over to us," gloated Gollum sadistically, is bulging eyes fixed on the writhing and struggling Merfolk and sea creatures, "They certainly did fall for it hook, line and sinker."

"They did a great job in luring those soon-to-be meals and slaves by offering them a better life in Narnia and luring them into a trap they had set up," said Pazuzu with a wicked smile on the poor sea victims, to which Dionaea and her group flinched, "but now that we have those idiots delivered, it is time to decide which of them will be sacrificed to Her Majesty and their meat butchered for food and which of them will be made into slaves."

Terror and fright ignited within the writhing Merfolk and sea creatures when they heard this and the Dolphin Calf shuddered violently, releasing squeaky moans through its bound snout, especially as Pazuzu rubbed his shadowy, bony hands gleefully and sniggered. Then a Naga's voice rang out.

"Here's the Rainbow Serpent the Mothmen and Ropen gang and some of your Shadows had managed to catch and cage, Pazuzu and Gollum," it said. At this, the leaders of the Black Dwarfs and Shadows looked up and saw a group of Snake-Humanoids slither in with an even bigger cage. From their hiding place, gasps were drawn in through the mouths and beaks of Dionaea and her group.

"That must be the legendary Guardian of the Narnian Sun and its biosphere," said Argenti, one of the Wolves. Dionaea and the others said nothing, however, as they gazed at the enormous creature in the giant cage made of an incredibly tough material resembling a cross between ice and our world's diamond.

The Rainbow Serpent was a massive creature and was about the size of a Sea Serpent Dionaea and her group had sometimes heard in stories of sailors who had ventured out in the Narnian Sea and ended up meeting their demise at the clutches (or rather, the slithery body) of one. In fact, the Rainbow Serpent resembled a cross between a Sea Serpent and a Chinese Dragon. It did not have legs, but its most eye-catching feature was its scaly hide. Its scales practically resembled the hardened scales of a fish, and those scales, which were shiny and iridescent, shone in the colours of the rainbow. the scales near the Snake's head were metallic red, and that red colour faded to metallic orange and then yellow down the Serpent's neck and upper body before continuing from yellow through metallic lime green, dark, green, aqua blue, dark blue, violet and magenta at the tail. The Serpent's underbelly, however, was very different. Unlike the shiny metallic scales on the creature's back, the scales covering the belly appeared white but shone in a rainbow of colours depending on viewing angle. It appeared that the scales on the belly had the properties that bent light and reflected it within them such that it crossed its own paths, causing interference in the form of the colourful sheen in the scales, much like how the surface of a substance called bismuth or oil in water in our world affected light. The Serpent also had a large, glittering transparent head fin fanning vertically out from behind its head, the transparent skin of the fin glistening in a rainbow of colours as light shone through it, and its body was adorned with two large horizontal fins running from the creature's neck down to the tip of its tail like an eel's fin or the mantle fin of a squid. This enormous fin, which the Rainbow Serpent appeared to use to propel itself through the air, also shone in the colours of the rainbow especially when they undulated, again, like the mantle fin of a squid as it swam. The Serpent's Reptile eyes were silvery but they did not have the sinister, menacing silvery sheen of a Wendigo's eyes. Instead, the eyes of the Rainbow Serpent had more beauty associated with them, much like the beauty of the Narnian moon reflecting on the glistening sea but when the Serpent was enraged, those eyes would flash an angry gold colour, and Dionaea and company could see the rage in those eyes just now for the Rainbow Serpent was writhing in its cage and roaring to be freed.

"It sure was flabbergasting how those Ropen, Mothmen and those Shadows had managed to catch that creature," said Alain as he examined the giant colourful metallic creature as it writhed furiously in its cage, "had managed to subdue and catch that creature. In fact, that Rainbow Serpent had managed to kill some of its captors before it was subdued and bound."

"I heard it's rarely ever seen," said Argenti, flinching with the others as the Rainbow Serpent released a mighty hiss at one of the Shadows that attempted to examine it, making it flinch and jerk back, "certainly close to the ground and that only a few Narnians had ever seen the creature. It is also very powerful and thus should be impossible to capture but looking at it in that cage now…"

"Some of the captors had been badly hurt or even killed when trying to catch that air Snake, Argenti," said Alain firmly.

"The Witch I think is planning on skinning that creature and using its metallic rainbow hide and fins as part of her attire which she takes immense pride in," said Rodan the Ropen in a dark voice. however, Dionaea glared at the Rainbow Serpent as it continued to struggle in its massive cage, its eyes, which were normally a silvery colour, blazing a wrathful and fiery sun-gold and its mouth uttering roars and hisses, the Giant trying to whack it with a club to get it to submit only to fan the flames of the Sun ecosystem Guardian's anger all the more.

"Never mind what the Witch is planning to do to that air Guardian OR to its rainbow hide and fins," growled the Manticore in a low voice, "It must be freed and released at all costs, along with those poor sea creatures in those trolleys over there…" she then moved her glare to the Merfolk, Dolphins, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Ichthyosaurs, Penguins and Seals in their binds as the Shadows and three Lizard-Men moved their water-filled carts into position for the selection. The other members gazed at Dionaea in agreement. The Rainbow Serpent was a key guardian of the Narnian Sun's ultra-fragile biosphere and with that Guardian out of the way, anyone could access the Narnian Sun with potentially devastating consequences. Then as soon as they saw Pazuzu and his group turn their backs to see to Soran, Lightningflash and the others under the supervision of their stick-armed Shadow slave-drivers, Dionaea prepared to make the first move, her eyes focussed on the Rainbow Serpent for she wanted to free it first.

"Okay, this is what we're gonna do…" she began with the others.

A moment later, the Rainbow Serpent was glaring at Pazuzu and the others as they talked with the Shadow slave-drivers, their backs turned on it and the writhing sea creatures and Merfolk in the water carts. One of the Dolphins appeared to have managed to free itself of its bind and turn to untie its fellow captured creatures, starting with one of the Penguins, its beak, flipper-wings and feet bound together and shut. While this happened with the Dolphin shooting timid glances at Pazuzu's group to ensure that none of them turned round or looked their way, the Rainbow Serpent in its cage stopped writhing and turned in the direction of someone else as it sneaked towards its cage. Nyaonix, together with Argenti, Silverwing, Scorpius and Aldrovandra the Kelpie, slowly crept towards the creature in its cage, trying to gently assure it that they meant no harm. However, the Rainbow Serpent, after suffering abuse and torture at the hands of its captors, lunged and hissed at them in its cage, making the group flinch. While Nyaonix and company sought to the Rainbow Serpent, Dionaea and the others went to rescue the Merfolk and the other captured Sea Creatures. When one of the Mermaids looked up and saw Dionaea suddenly appear, seize her face with her Lion's paws and yank off the cloth gagging her mouth, she felt fear ignite within her while Carface and Rodan untied the four other Merfolk, three Mermaids and a Merman, kept with her in the water cart.

"Please, don't hurt us!" begged the Mermaid but Dionaea said, "Shhh, we're helping you outa here so be quiet."

"Yes, we don't want your captors being alerted to our actions in freeing you," said Rodan in a low voice as he freed the Merman of his binds. After they had untied the sea creatures, Dionaea and her group began to move the water carts containing them towards their hiding place.

"I cannot believe those HORRIBLE creatures lied to us," growled the Dolphin, a bitter glare on Pazuzu and the others as they continued to talk, their backs turned on what was happening, "Those creatures apparently told us that Narnia had a good life and before we knew it, we were caught in these nets and towed away against our will and bound on that beach."

"What has happened to Narnia anyway?" asked another Mermaid, her gaze examining the snowy landscape as far as they could see, "Is it winter or something?"

"Not to mention the rulers who are supposed to be ruling this country," put in one of the Seals, "I thought Narnia's monarchy was one of fairness and justice…"

"It's a long story," said Dionaea as she towed the cart away, "But that's not important. We need to get you outa here before those corrupt monsters over there proceed with the next step of their plans."

The Seal gazed at the Manticore in wonder and shuddered. The other Seals, Penguins, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Ichthyosaurs, Dolphins and the Merfolk also shuddered for they already knew what that was. While Dionaea and the others tugged the sea creatures in their carts away, Nyaonix was using his telekinesis on the locks on the door of the Rainbow Serpent's cage, a direct approach having been abandoned due to the Serpent being too enraged and thus dangerous for it to happen. Nyaonix had his eyes tight shut with effort, his paws focused on the locks and the locks surrounded in a blue aura and shuddering as he tried to telekinetically unlock them and free the Rainbow Serpent who was still hissing viciously and writhing in its cage. The bars of the cage and the slabs forming its roof and floor were made up of an extremely tough material reminiscent of a cross between our world's diamond and the Witch's icy material and had seemed to have been purposely used to hold particularly powerful creatures like the Rainbow Serpent and prevent them from escaping and because the Serpent's capturers were sure that the material of the bars and slabs were strong enough to contain the creature, they seemed to have used locks of a weaker material to keep the Rainbow Serpent within its container, and since the cage's material was too tough even for a Bakeneko's telekinesis to distort and that the locks were made of a weaker material, suitable for even the telekinesis of a young Bakeneko to operate on, Nyaonix had chosen these locks as a target to free the Serpent, though it was still taking him a lot of mental effort to undo them and he was starting to get tired. Argenti, Silverwing, Scorpius and Aldrovandra watched on in angst as Nyaonix continued to try and undo the locks.

"Hurry, hurry up, Nyaonix," said Aldrovandra, her gaze glancing at Pazuzu and company in the distance. Dionaea and the others turned up with the freed Merfolk and other Sea Creatures just as a few ' _clicks'_ sounded as Nyaonix finally managed to undo the locks. However, it had exhausted him of his mental energy and he collapsed to the ground, fatigued. After this, Rodan lurched forward, seized the cage door and flung it open, before backing away as the Rainbow Serpent; its eyes still a golden colour from fury, a mighty hiss and roar escaping its mouth and its long, rainbow-sparkly Eel-like fins undulating, before it began to slither out of its cage. However, just as the Rainbow Serpent was crawling out of its cage, a shout erupted from nearby, prompting Dionaea and the others to dive behind their hiding places of rocks and tombstone-like slabs, pulling the captured Merfolk and sea creatures in their carts with them. Pazuzu and a Naga were the first to arrive but as they rushed towards the Rainbow Serpent, the powerful colourful air Reptile roared at them and snapped its powerful jaws at them, making them retreat back, the jaws missing Pazuzu by inches, much to his horror. From their hiding place, Dionaea and the others watched on as Pazuzu tried to approach the Rainbow Serpent with the Naga only for the enraged creature to lunge at them again and seize the Naga in its jaws, making them look away as the creature then began to maul the Snake-Humanoid.

"What a BRUTAL AIR GUARDIAN!" said Scorpius in utter horror at the Rainbow Serpent's ferocity.

"That's what you get for messing with such a powerful creature," said one of the Mermaids unsurprised.

"What's HAPPENED!?" demanded Gollum as he and some of the Black Dwarfs and Shadows rushed in to see the commotion.

"The RAINBOW SERPENT has ESCAPED ITS CAGE!" cried Pazuzu, especially as he watched the Rainbow Serpent toss aside the now-deceased Naga and turn its wrath on him and the others.

"But HOW!?" cried one of the other Naga as some of her comrades rushed off to see to their dead teammate, "We had used a LARGE number of locks to seal it in its cage and the materiel is TOO TOUGH for it to just bust out like that… YIKES!"

The Naga was forced to dive to one side as the enraged Rainbow Serpent lunged at her and tried to clamp its jaws onto her, only to miss by inches and snap at thin air with a mighty whip-like crack. Then the Air creature turned its furious golden-eyed glare on Pazuzu and his Shadow underlings in the air as they tried to throw ropes to restrain the creature and lunged at them, forcing the Shadows to scatter as it slammed its jaws at them, catching one of the Shadows by the rim of its cloak. After this, the Serpent began to swing its head this way and that with the screaming Shadow in its mouth like a T-rex, much to the utmost horror of Dionaea and her group. Then Scorpius turned to the captured sea creatures.

"Now what are we gonna do with you guys," he said.

"Well, we could turn into our legged land form but it would mean going through an EXTREMELY painful metamorphosis to achieve that," said one of the Mermen, before his gaze turned to the Dolphins and the Ichthyosaurs, "But those sea Mammals and Reptiles will not be able to do anything since we're so far from our sea home…"

Dionaea gazed at the fish-tailed Humanoid and then at the Dolphins and the Ichthyosaurs, seeing that he was right. Dolphins and Ichthyosaurs weren't built to be land creatures and if they tried to venture onto land, they would be completely helpless. And the Seals, Plesiosaurs, Turtles and Penguins weren't very adept on land either. Then before Dionaea and the others could mutter and complain about this dead end, a shadow cloaked them, making them flinch. To their surprise, it was the Rainbow Serpent, and its eyes were now silver but they were filled with sternness as they bore into Dionaea and her group. After gazing at the group for a few seconds, it lowered its body and flicked its head with its eyes on the sea creatures as if to say, "I'll take those creatures back to the sea."

Dionaea exchanged glances until finally, Dionaea gave the command. As quickly as they could, the group transferred every single Merfolk, Plesiosaur, Turtle, Ichthyosaur, Dolphin, Seal and Penguin from the water carts and loaded them onto the Rainbow Serpent's back.

"HURRY!" cried Dionaea as she heaved the young Dolphin calf onto the colourful Air Reptile's back with Carface lifting one of the Ichthyosaurs. While this happened, Pazuzu and company looked a right state. Some of the Black Dwarves, one of the Lizard-Men and two Naga had been badly injured by the Rainbow Serpent when it furiously attacked them and some of the Shadows were in tatters and in agony while the other Naga were cradling their dead friend. However, that Naga was not the only fatality. One or two of the Black Dwarfs were trying to wake up Gollum, another casualty from the Rainbow Serpent's attack when the Rainbow Serpent had performed a tail swipe on the Black Dwarfs when they tried to restrain the Serpent from below.

"Gollum," said one of the Dwarf to the lead Black Dwarf's limp body worriedly. While Pazuzu's group continued to sort themselves out from the discombobulation caused by the Rainbow Serpent's unexpected escape, Dionaea's group had finished loading the captured sea creatures onto the Rainbow Serpent's back and some of them, among them Argenti, Nyaonix, Alain, Sundew, Mairin, Drosera, Silverwing and a couple of Ravens, and Scorpius, had climbed onto the Reptile's back as well. However, a shout had erupted from nearby but it was not from Pazuzu's group.

"GO," cried Dionaea, knowing that capture was imminent, "Take those sea creatures back to the sea and some of my friends to safety, NOW!"

The Rainbow Serpent nodded and with that, and with its Eel-like fins undulating, the glistening and colourful Air Reptile lofted into flight, Rodan also lofted into flight with the three Wolpertingers, Aldrovandra, Magna and the Mothman on his back as well an d followed the Rainbow Serpent. Dionaea and Carface were about to follow but the pair found themselves apprehended by a bunch of Lion's paws, reptilian hands and several other appendages from a variety of other of the Witch's cronies.

"I SAW what you and the others with you had done, you NAUGHTY DAUGHTER!" snarled a familiar Manticore as he glared thunderously at Dionaea whom the latter recognised as Malefor, her father.

"B-b-b-but Dad…" began Dionaea but Malefor cut her off, commanded some of the Witch's followers to release her and seized her himself while Carface was dragged away by some Nukekubi and Xenojaws to be carried before the Witch for his participation in the whole event as well.

"COME WITH ME, YOUNG LADY!" bellowed Malefor as he fiercely dragged Dionaea away, not caring if he was inflicting pain on her or not, "You have gone TOO FAR THIS TIME! I told you NOT to interfere with the DELIVERIES and you have NOT LISTENED…" Dionaea winced sharply as Malefor twisted her front right paw while dragging her around a corner. Then moments later, Dionaea was flung hard into her room. Her left paw went to her hurting right and she gazed timidly at her father's wrathful face.

"You STAY IN THERE and THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" roared Malefor, "Until HER MAJESTY decides on WHAT TO DO WITH YOU!"

And with that, he slammed the door so hard that you'd thought that the frame around it would crack. Then poor Dionaea slumped down on her bed, completely frightened, stunned, and terrified, but she had hoped that the Rainbow Serpent, the freed sea creatures and some of her friends who had climbed onto its back, along with Rodan and his cargo, had fled the Witch's cronies but she also worried for Carface and a few other of her group members who had unfortunately been captured.


	44. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43- the effects of Belladonna's treat on Troodon and his group**

 **Meanwhile, back at Gandalf's base**

Troodon the Theropod, Webby the Platypus, five of Faline's Rabbit kits, and Cloudhorn the Alicorn had been placed in a detention room as punishment and for questioning for they were too young to be detained in the dungeon compartment by Kyukon's orders. Supervising these naughty kids were three Dragons who restrained them, a Centaur, Perseus, and a Naga who was against the Witch and one of Gandalf and Kyukon's assistants, and these five adults were going to give Troodon and company a serious interrogation. However, this was not going to be an easy task for Troodon and the other seven with him were still saturated with the craving for that delicious chocolate cake Belladonna had fed to them after they had freed her, thus they were utterly uncooperative. Not to mention they had nasty plans to make things miserable for a certain Nekomata kit and despite being in a lot of trouble and receiving a good shouting at from their parents and relatives, among them Ena (Troodon's mother) and Faline the Rabbit, they still refused to behave, and their bad behaviour seemed to be getting worse as the chocolate cake cravings continued to grow like a fire. Then after seating them on one side of a table in the detention room with the three Dragons keeping hold of them so that they did not attempt to escape, Perseus and the Naga with him, a female named Anaconda, then turned their glares on the youngsters as they sat on the opposite side of the table.

"Right, you eight," growled the Centaur sternly as he opened up the interrogation, "It is time for your questioning in your heinous act in allowing Belladonna to escape."

The eight youngsters, despite how stern Perseus and Anaconda were, disgruntledly refused to make eye contact with the Centaur and the Naga for all they could think about was sampling the cake again, and as their stares floated in space away from their interrogators' glares and their minds were swimming in the immense desire for more cake as well as what Belladonna proposed to them in order to receive it.

"Oh, don't go staring off into space, young 'uns," said Anaconda firmly, "This is a very serious matter we must discuss. Now pay attention."

"Do as you're told," whispered one of the three Dragons with a firm tap on Troodon, forcing the Dinosaur into facing the Centaur and the Naga. The other seven with Troodon did the same, but their faces were laced with reluctance and disdain. Then Perseus proposed the first question.

"Okay then, tell us," said the Centaur in a low, stern voice, "Why did you disobey our orders and those of Kyukon and Gandalf to stay out of that dungeon and allow that Fox to escape?"

Troodon and the other seven remained silent and Webby's glare wandered off into space again.

"Don't pretend you don't know anything, you eight," said Anaconda in a low firm growl, "Answer Perseus's question now."

"We don't know," said Troodon emotionlessly. It was clear that he and the other seven with him were itching to leave the room but Anaconda, Perseus and the three Dragons refused to let them go anywhere.

"Unacceptable answer," snapped Perseus adamantly, "You have been down there against our orders and the orders of Gandalf and Kyukon and have allowed Belladonna, who had been imprisoned based on Kyukon's discernment, to escape. Why did you help that Kitsune escape her containment?"

No reply at first until finally Cloudhorn spoke, but it was the sort of voice tone a wise kid or person in a workplace knew NEVER to use against their elders or superiors such as a boss.

"There was _nothing_ wrong with her," said the Alicorn foal disrespectfully, making Perseus, Anaconda and the three Dragons recoil in shock, "She didn't deserve to be thrown into that foul prison."

"Now let us GO!" added Webby in an equally disrespectful voice tone. Outside the door to the detention room, Ena, Faline and Rubyfeather the Parrot, Crystal's mother, came past and shot a disbelieving look at Troodon, Webby, Cloudhorn and the five Rabbit kits when they heard how they spoke to Perseus and Anaconda, not to mention their behaviour as one of the Rabbit kits hurled an insult at one of the Dragons when that Dragon tried to rebuke him.

"My Troodon's NEVER behaved like _that_ before," said Ena in appal, "He's normally a well-behaved lad who is always respectful."

"So are Cloudhorn, Webby and those five Rabbit kits of mine," said Faline. The Rabbit then flinched when she heard one of her sons retort, "Don't speak to us LIKE THAT!" at Anaconda when she scolded him and his four siblings, three brothers and a sister, to sit still and stop hurling abuse at the three Dragons who tried to help and restrain them. Then the Rabbit mother felt something within her snap. Storming into the room, she barked at her son to do as he was told and respect Perseus and Anaconda and the three Dragons. As the adult Rabbit doe (female) entered the detention room, a Kitsune appeared, but it was not Gandalf or Kyukon. This Kitsune was in fact one of that couple's older children but she was not yet a fully matured nine-tailed Fox. She still had the red and metallic red fur of a still-maturing Kitsune and she possessed eight tails, each tipped in white like a regular Fox's tail, which indicated she was not yet 900 Narnian years old. However, because she was over 800 years old, she was quite well developed in her wisdom, knowledge, intelligence and had very limited telekinesis, but once she reached year 900, she will grow her ninth tail and her fur will change from red to ivory gold-yellow like Gandalf and Kyukon's. A small number of other older children of Gandalf and Kyukon were also close to becoming fully matured Kitsune and were the successors of their parents in the tasks such as running the base should anything happen to Gandalf and his mate, so they were only their helpers at the moment.

As the red furred, eight-tailed Kitsune stopped and glared into the detention room at the scene as an argument between Faline and her five kits erupted in the detention room with Perseus, Anaconda and the three Dragons trying to break up the spat, Ena and Rubyfeather turned their gazes to her.

"I cannot believe the change in those eight kids' behaviour since they left our side in that lecture on that Witch's 'Fighting League' promotion and how it is a pack of lies to enter the dungeon and free Belladonna, Alstroemeria," said Ena in an edgy voice from the shock and appal still at the change in her son and the other seven kids' behaviour boiling within her, "The only kid who doesn't seem to show that sort of change in behaviour is Fluffy-Cotton, another of Faline's kits…"

Alstroemeria, at this, formed an unsurprised frown on her face.

"That questionable Fox must have fed something incredibly addictive to those eight kids as we've theorised," said the eight-tailed Kitsune, "Mother (Kyukon) was in fact the one to formulate that theory and deduction to explain the horrible change in Troodon and the other seven's behaviour as you can now see…"

At this, disbelief tore through the Parrot and adult female Theropod.

"Are you meaning to say that my son, Faline's five kits and that Platypus puggle and Alicorn foal have possibly eaten something that could have made them like that?" retorted Ena with a gesture to the detention room. Alstroemeria, a look of dread on her face, nodded.

"But how?" asked Rubyfeather, "How could Belladonna have fed something to those eight kids to make them as they are now? She didn't have anything on her to make such an addictive piece of food."

"Certainly not any tools to make a cake or a pie or anything of the sort, anyway," put in Ena. However, a dreadful glare formed on Alstroemeria's face.

"Don't _ever_ underestimate the trickiness of a Kitsune, you two," she said in a low, deadly tone, "especially a Kitsune who has fallen for You-Know-Who's side."

Ena and Rubyfeather did not reply to this. Then suddenly, the commotion in the detention room explosively escalated as Anaconda's voice erupted.

"Right, that's ENOUGH!" shouted the Naga. At this, Alstroemeria, Ena and Rubyfeather peered in and saw that the three Dragons and Anaconda had managed to restrain Troodon, the five kits, Webby and Cloudhorn and struggle with them away while Perseus came out with Faline in his arms, the latter emitting sobs, her eyes tight shut and weeping tears and a cloth over her nose, held there by her paws and when the trio saw that it was stained in a bit of red had formed on the cloth and that Faline was not just in sadness, a sharp gasp each entered their mouths and beak and a pang of anger and disbelief flared within Rubyfeather.

"Unbelievable!" hissed the metallic red Parrot in horror and outrage. Then after Perseus had explained to Alstroemeria what had happened to Faline before leaving with the Rabbit to a medical area, the eight-tailed Kitsune was in the detention room in a flash. Ena and Rubyfeather stood outside and watched as Alstroemeria commanded the three Dragons and Anaconda as they struggled with the eight, furious kids, "Get those eight in those detention cubicles, NOW!"

The detention room was also built with cubicles to hold misbehaving kids and Troodon, the five Rabbit kits, Webby and Cloudhorn were going to be placed in two or three of them but since the eight of them were so saturated with their desire to eat more of the chocolate cake and the urge to escape the adults' grasp that it was proving to be extremely difficult. Then suddenly, then sound of a foot striking a face occurred and the next thing that happened, a grey blur and three brown and white blurs shot out of the door, barging past Ena and Rubyfeather and knocking the pair right over.

"Hey, Troodon, you three Rabbits, GET BACK HERE!" shouted one of the Dragons as he bolted after the four escapees. Ena also scrambled to her feet and barked at the four escaped kids but Troodon snapped back around and gave the two adults an extremely rude hand gesture, emitted an extremely VULGAR remark (so vulgar that I will not type it) and shot off. The three Rabbits also spat vulgar remarks at the adults and followed Troodon, leaving Ena, the Dragon and Rubyfeather in a state of UTMOST outrage and appal, the biggest amount of appal they had ever harboured for these kids.

"So NAUGHTY!" shouted Ena furiously, her anger against her son and what he had just said to her boiling dangerously within her, "When I get my claws on that son of mine I'm gonna THROTTLE HIM!"

Just then, the sounds of loud slamming of doors exploded from the detention room, alongside the sounds of tantrum-screaming and abuse from two Rabbit kits, an Alicorn foal and a Platypus puggle as Alstroemeria, the other two Dragons and Anaconda managed to shove these four into the cubicles and shut them in. After this, Alstroemeria emerged from the detention room, a faint bruise forming on her cheek under the fur. Her face was saturated with pure outrage.

"That Belladonna's for it now," she growled to the Dragon, the Parrot and the adult Theropod, "She REALLY HAS badly influenced those eight kids in the worst way possible."

"Has she always been troublesome even when she was a cub?" asked Rubyfeather.

"It's too complicated but she's always been a problem cub when I was a youngster and when Mother and Father were still in their breeding years and training for Jadis's return," replied Alstroemeria as Anaconda slithered in with an ice pack which the Fox took and placed on her kicked cheek.

"Ah, that's better," said the eight-tailed Kitsune as she relished the fading of the pain from the bruise, "Thanks, Anaconda."

The Naga flashed a 'You're welcome' smile.

"She's been a problem cub?" asked Rubyfeather.

"It's complicated like I've said before," said Alstroemeria, "But let's put that aside for now. We need to chase down Troodon and the other three Rabbit kits and apprehend them before they get into any stupidity," a look of dread then formed on the Fox's face, "Who knows what sort of trouble those four will end up while under the influence of whatever that Belladonna brat has fed them…"

Ena and Rubyfeather gazed at each other and then followed Alstroemeria and Anaconda to devise a method in catching Troodon and the three escaped Rabbit kits while the two Dragons sought to the detained Cloudhorn, Webby and the two Rabbit kits in the detention room as they continued throwing a MASSIVE paddy, demanding to be let out. However, they were NOT going anywhere and behaving like THAT will not get them anything, at all!

As they continued to run on, Troodon and the three Rabbits formulated a variety of plans on what trouble they would like to cause a certain Nekomata, one of Nyarth's brothers. One idea was getting him into trouble which could involve breaking a valuable possession of someone and pinning the blame on the Nekomata so that that fork-tailed Cat could end up on the receiving end of that character's fury for breaking his valuable possession. Or they could plant a seed of rumour and have it spread like a vicious, toxic weed throughout the base about the Nekomata so that the Nekomata could be shunned. 'Yes, that sounds like a good idea,' thought Troodon as he dived into an entrance to an air vent and scrabbled into the piping system with the three Rabbits following. However, Rubyfeather dived in and managed to seize the tail of the last Rabbit with a talon and yank him out of the vent, Ena and Alstroemeria and several Basan who had been on duty and had heard the commotion in the detention room as well as see four blurs, three brown and white and one grey, rush past them with two of them getting rudely knocked over, rushing in to help. The moment the Rabbit kit was out of the vent and in the adults' clutches, he began to scream, writhe and vomit all kinds of caustic words too disgusting to type, but the adults weren't having any of it. Then when the Rabbit kit swiping Rubyfeather across the face with a paw swipe and inflicting a small scratch, Alstroemeria lost it.

"Take him to the detention room," commanded the eight-tailed Kitsune to the Basan to which they obeyed. Then with the kit continuing to scream and writhe and spew more disgusting words and threats, the Fire Chickens dragged him in the direction of that room with Ena, Rubyfeather and Alstroemeria looking on. Then Alstroemeria turned round and peered into the vent but to her dismay, the other three including Troodon were nowhere to be seen.

"We need to alert Mother and Father about this," said she and with that, they left to find Gandalf and Kyukon.

 **Later**

Throughout the base, the rest of the evacuees, those who will be going on the great Exodus to Archenland, were preparing for their next lessons in the next big subjects such as their trip to Archenland in a number of years' time, training in combat and use of the medicinal plants. Gandalf and Kyukon wanted all the evacuees suitable for combat and guiding the massive crowd to Archenland trained in various combat and survival subjects to see which individual best suited to what type of skills for the two lead Kitsune knew that if the massive crowd were to run into any danger, the fighters will need to be prepared and be able to defend themselves and everyone else while the healers will have to know how to deal with injuries and other medicinal issues, and all these activities will take place in the training compartments of the base. The search for Belladonna was still continuing and she still had not been found while the search for Troodon and the remaining two Rabbit kits had just started on Kyukon's orders after Ena, Rubyfeather and Alstroemeria reported their behaviour and disappearance to the mate of the lead Kitsune.

While all this was going on, Nanu the Wolf who lay in his cell in the dungeon compartment was gazing miserably and disgruntledly into space. Like how Belladonna was, he was confined in his cell by an invisible, transparent force field projected by the magical force field crystals rimming the entrance to his room. While he continued to lay there on his bed staring into nothing, one of the dungeon wardens, a Centaur, stood with a Pyro, a Capelobo, a Raiju, a Wampus Cat, a Pegasus or Winged Horse, and a few Faun guards. The Pyro was Emberflame, and the Raiju, Wampus Cat and the Pegasus were Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way respectively and these four had come down to the dungeon with Gandalf's permission to examine Nanu for the trio seemed to have noticed something about his behaviour despite his allegiance to Jadis.

"I'm afraid that young Wolf will have to be contained and interrogated until Gandalf and Kyukon are sure he is safe to release," said the Centaur firmly, before his gaze turned to the sulking purple-black Wolf in his cell, "But if he's _truly_ one of that Witch's followers, he will have to be dealt with."

"I still cannot believe what that young Theropod Dinosaur and the other kids with him had done in setting that suspicious Fox free and allow her to potentially run amok in the base," said Thundersparx in a low, disappointed voice.

"It was a very FOOLISH and STUPID thing to do," said Emberflame angrily, her fire-hair and other body flames dancing into the air, "Belladonna could be an extremely dangerous Kitsune."

"And Ahhuayo is still feeling very unwell and restless as well," put in Obsidian worriedly as thoughts for that Ahuizotl entered her mind, "he's refusing to eat, sleep, or participate in the mandatory training lessons…"

"Do you guys think that Ahuizotl knows, or could know, something about that Fox?" asked the Capelobo. Thundersparx and his companions shook their heads.

"We tried asking him that question but he didn't want to answer," said Milky Way, before the Pegasus entered thought, "but based on what he's been telling us about a Kitsune he used to know who displays psychopathic, bloodthirsty behaviour with an absolute, overinflated love for gory violence and seeing Narnians suffer and slay each other bloodily…"

"Please," said one of the female Fauns, "Let's leave that subject to our searchers and also to Gandalf and Kyukon for now," her glare then returned to Nanu in his cell, "for the moment, we need to interrogate that Wolf…"

At this, Nanu in his cell, when he heard this, jumped to his feet and gazed timidly at the group through the transparent force field sealing him in his cell.

"P-p-p-please don't hurt me," said the Wolf as he began to shudder as though he expected the group to jump at him and attack him. At this, the Centaur clip-clopped over to the force field-covered entrance to the Wolf's cell and glared at the Canid. Emberflame glided alongside him, leaving behind a fiery trail like a fireball as she moved through the air, and as soon as the pair was before the cell's entrance, Nanu timidly backed away, his face saturated with timidity and fear.

"Not unless you behave, Wolf," growled the Centaur sternly, "and since you are from the Witch's crowd, you should be contained."

Nanu gazed at the Centaur and then at the Fire Woman hovering next to him, her fire-eyes also fixated on him in a stern look.

"Gallopdash is right, Wolf," said the Pyro firmly, "we do NOT want any of that feral Snow Beast's followers spying on this secret base, especially the library compartment and its secret information, and leaking all that to their leader."

At this, Nanu stood up, trying to put up a brave shell but that shell was extremely fragile for he was still very afraid. He then glared defiantly at Emberflame and Gallopdash in an attempt to hide his fear.

"Her Majesty is NOT a feral Snow Beast, you two," he said as boldly as he could but he was fearful for the Centaur and Pyro's actions, "She is a very nice, very friendly person."

At this, Thundersparx, Milky Way and Obsidian rushed up to the cell and stood near Emberflame, angry and disagreeing looks on their faces.

"Look, we've said to you before countless times during our escape from Jadis's castle to here," said Thundersparx who was obviously sick and tired of going over this again and again now, "Jadis is NOT who you keep saying she is."

"Yes, after ten years of spying on her and her followers' behaviour and lifestyle before we left with Trotterhoof and his group," continued Milky Way, "We can tell that your statement about her is utterly false."

"That Witch never has been very nice since Aslan's speaking of Narnia into existence, anyway," said Gallopdash with his arms folded. Nanu lowered his ears in disappointment. Then Emberflame began to reason with the Wolf in a sad, persuasive tone.

"Nanu, don't you realise that that person is a liar and the Mother of all lies, as well as a bloodthirsty destroyer and cruelty-lover who has always been like that since she came into Narnia?" said the Pyro. Nanu flinched.

"Wai-wai-wait," he retorted, "Her Majesty was born in this world. She did not come from some… faraway land or something…"

"She's not from ANYWHERE in this world at all," said Obsidian, "in fact, she's not at all born ANYWHERE in this world. She originates from a completely different world altogether.

"Called Charn to be exact," said Gallopdash, finishing Obsidian's sentence, "She entered into this world along with several Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve and also the Horse who eventually became the ancestor of all Pegasi through Aslan's command."

At this, Milky Way flashed Gallopdash a surprised look. However, it was true. Milky Way and every other Winged Horse as well, was descended from that individual Winged Horse who was sent on a quest with two young Humans by Aslan to the Garden of Youth and retrieve an Apple from that Garden to plant and grow the Tree of Protection that served as a repellent against the Witch until it died. This event was contemporary with Gandalf and Kyukon's transformation by the same Great Lion from regular Foxes into Kitsune, who then received the tasks of becoming the mother and father of all Kitsune and recording the key events of Narnia's history since its creation up until now, hence their nicknames 'Chroniclers'. Nanu looked up at the Centaur with a perplexed look on his face.

"I've never heard of THAT story," he said, "Neither have I heard of some ordinary Horse becoming a Pegasus," his gaze landed on Milky Way, "The Pegasus species had evolved from some six-limbed Horse-like creature that descended from their own microbe species that lived in the primordial seas of Narnia millions of years ago, alongside every other kind of Beast and Creature that had also evolved from those various microbes with Centaurs have one type of microbial ancestor and the Kitsune and Foxes having another…"

"No, the majority of the creatures of Narnia were formed from the earth by Aslan, Nanu," said Emberflame, "With some of the selected beasts being transformed into Talking Beasts. The Kitsune are all descendents of Gandalf and Kyukon while all Pegusi are descended from that first Winged Horse who went on the Garden of Youth quest with two Human kids…"

"His name was Fledge," said Milky Way, "And I'm one of his descendants as I've read in one of Mr Gandalf's Book of Records. But that's not the important thing we're discussing here at the moment. Let's return to the path of the Witch's true nature and what she has done to Narnia, as well as its inhabitants."

Nanu gazed at the group through the force field and said nothing.

"She's usurped the throne from the previous King and Queen of Narnia, locked the entire land in the Eternal Winter where spring, summer and autumn, along with Christmas, have become completely obsolete and non-existent," explained Thundersparx, "and following all that, she has bestowed upon everyone an incredibly corrupt ruling system."

"Such as the Decadal Massacre Event which she has named the Fighting League to cover its true, bloody nature," continued Emberflame who shuddered at the memories of seeing the utmost violence of the fighting in the arena back at Dashiell the Cheetah's den before the evacuation to Gandalf's base, "the rule in giving ninety percent of the food delivered to us which often results in so many on the brink of starvation, and the threat of freezing to death from the constant winter and cold, the magic of it which is deadly to certain creatures such as my own species, the Pyro who cannot survive in it for a few minutes…"

"And the Witch and company's living with the extreme comfort with plenty of food, warmth, sufficient shelter, and other luxuries despite all that," put in Milky Way, before a look of disgust came upon her face, "Not to mention their wasteful usage of food such as gorging themselves on so much of it and puking it all up again to eat more of it…"

Nanu flinched in revulsion and twisted his face into a look of disgust.

"You're not serious," he said.

"We are," said Thundersparx sternly, "We've seen it all, Nanu, there's no denying it."

Obsidian and Milky Way nodded in agreement.

"Haven't you seen the state of so many Narnians in their towns and villages during any of your outings with the patrol groups, Nanu?" asked Obsidian, provoking the Wolf to thought, "Honestly, that lot is starving… freezing to death… and in the case of those that had lost loved ones in the Arena of Blood during the Massacre Event every decade, severe heartbreak and hopelessness…" the Wampus Cat then paused sadly, "and also loss of hope in the Golden Age Prophecy."

"We've in fact seen it in those evacuees ourselves when we asked them about the Prophecy," said Gallopdash, "and believe me, the vast majority of them seemed to have grown cold in their faith in it and also Aslan…"

"They've been so ravaged by hunger, thirst, the cold, severe oppression (for example by hard labour and slavery in some places) and the trauma of the Decadal Massacre Event, and everything else at the hands of that cruel tyrant," said Emberflame, "that they seemed to have all but given up on that Prophecy and also Aslan himself. That is why the majority of them, especially youngsters, expectant mothers and young parents with offspring, had migrated to here for temporary shelter and relief from the Witch's tyranny, before the great Exodus for Archenland where we will be staying until Aslan comes for the event called the Winter Revolution…" the Pyro's fire face then morphed into a serious look, "Which brings us to the next important point…"

"Jadis wants this base discovered and destroyed, and Gandalf and Kyukon seized and turned to stone," said Gallopdash, "She is so keen on doing away with ANYTHING to do with Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy and also Narnia's true history that she will stop at nothing… NOTHING… to achieve that goal, and if this base and Gandalf and Kyukon's records on Narnia's history and the prophecies they had collected over the years from Narnia's creation up until now are ever… EVER… discovered and reported to the Witch, it would mean…" the Centaur trailed off as he shuddered at the unthinkable consequences that would come if that were to happen. Nanu tipped his head to one side in confusion.

"It would mean?" repeated the Wolf.

"It would mean the end of Gandalf and Kyukon's ultra-IMPORTANT Aslan-given task," said one of the Fauns seriously, "and that is what we want to avoid for as long as the evacuees are here and when they leave for Archenland, at ALL costs."

"Which is why we MUST remain hidden for as long as possible," said Emberflame seriously with the Fauns, the Capelobo, Milky Way, Obsidian and Thundersparx all nodding in agreement. Nanu gazed at the Pyro and the others in the group. Confusion was clearly welling within the Wolf and he was unsure of which to believe: Jadis's claims of her origins and her reason for usurping the throne or what he was being told which the truth was in fact. Gallopdash frowned.

"We'll leave you to think about that, Wolf, but remember, the Witch isn't who she says she is," said he and with that, he commanded the others with him to leave.

As the group left, with Milky Way leaving last for she had given him one last gaze, Nanu returned to lying in his bed, a sullen look on his face as he began to go over what he had been told in his mind. Jadis and her cronies' treatment of the Narnians… the massive mandatory (and horribly unfair and unjust) food offering which always resulted in the givers being left with barely enough to feed them for a week, much less a month… the resulting starvation of those Narnians while Jadis and company (including himself before he met Trotterhoof and company) had MASSIVE amount of food to enjoy wasting in MASSIVE amounts by eating loads and throwing it all up again, and repeating the process, especially during important events such as the Witch's anniversary in usurping the throne… their attitude towards the heartbroken, traumatised Narnians that had lost group or family members in the Massacre Event, slain by their own friends in the goriest of ways to the sickening entertainment of the Witch and her crowd… it was truly a lot to take in and think about and Nanu was trapped in a massive whirlwind of confusion, conflict and discombobulation. For all his life, the Wolf had always admired Jadis and seen her as an angelic, flawless, beautiful figure with an extremely kind heart saturated with fairness, a motherly nature and caring attitude. However, based on what he had been told and his own observations, it appeared that the angelic figure he had of Jadis in his fantasy was NOTHING AT ALL like the tyrannical, lying, sadistic and bloodthirsty Jadis in reality, and that upset him greatly. Distraught, and his fantasy and the facts of reality about the Witch clashing like a war in his mind and his eyes starting to weep some tears, Nanu settled into his bed as Milky Way, Emberflame, Obsidian and Thundersparx left while Gallopdash, the Fauns and the Capelobo resumed their warden duty.

 **Meanwhile, back at the Witch's castle**

Dionaea continued to lie on her bed in her room, her right paw which had been badly twisted by her own father Malefor when he dragged her to her room after she and her friends had set the Rainbow Serpent and the captured sea creatures free still causing her a lot of pain, and by now, it had swollen. As she felt the area of injury where it was most painful with her left paw, her Ape-like face twisting with the teeth gritted and her upper body flinching as she felt sharp spears of pain shooting from her wrist, Dionaea felt dread at the injury well within her. She arrived at the possible conclusion that her wrist had been badly sprained, or worse, broken but it was indeed extremely painful. It was though a spike ball had suddenly sprouted in the young Manticore's wrist and was jabbing at the anatomical pieces in the joint and because of this; Dionaea could not place weight on that paw. Then rolling onto her front and rising out of her bed, the Manticore began to limp with her front right paw raised off the ground, her teeth still gritting from the pain emanating from her injury, utter disbelief that her own father would twist her own paw to the possible point of fracture but Malefor had been so angry with her that he never even gave it a thought.

As her painfully twisted wrist continued to bother her, Dionaea's mind swam in the flood of worry for her friends. The majority of them, among them Nyaonix the Bakeneko and Scorpius, had managed to escape with the Rainbow Serpent and the sea creatures but the few that had remained and were captured, such as Carface and two of the Wolves, she was most worried for. Dionaea dreaded what sort of package those few will be facing from the Witch for she was a walking volcano. Despite her being a Snow 'Queen', her temper was like boiling magma that exploded uncontrollably whenever she got angry and believe me, the Witch had absolutely NO control over her temper WHATSOEVER so if you EVER made her angry, all bets were off, and Dionaea had only ever witnessed Jadis unleash her volcanic eruption of wrath at some of her own cronies before, and someone had ended up badly wounded.

'That will be me eventually,' thought the terrified Manticore as she shuddered, remembering what Malefor had told her before he slammed the door, 'I'm gonna have to face serious wrath from that Snow Queen if I am brought before her…'

The Manticore then began to limp and hobble around as she grew restless, thinking about what to do. However, as she did this, she suddenly heard something. It was the sound of a breath of air, like a gentle breeze and it was coming from the window which made of a transparent icy glass, and tightly closed. Dionaea, perplexed, immediately turned to the window and as she did, she thought she saw a golden aura form outside. This aura was sparkling but also flickering, much like golden fire. It was beautiful, but Dionaea found it to be frightening, especially as a deep, thick voice emanated from the fiery aura as it began to morph into a fiery sphere. Timidly, the Manticore jumped onto her bed and covered her face with her left, uninjured paw and a green and purple-red Bat-like wing to shield her face from view of the flaming golden ball of light which continued to take shape. The light from the shaping orb sparkled beautifully onto Dionaea's wing.

Dionaea continued to cower under her wing as the deep voice continued to say her name. When she realised that the golden fireball was not going to harm her, she slowly peered from under her wing.

"Dionaea…" called the voice.

"Wh-who's that?" asked Dionaea timidly, quivering with a wing over her face, too afraid to look at the golden orb which was now in the shape of a shimmering Big Cat's face surrounded by golden flames that continued to flicker like a Pyro's fire. Carefully, she uncovered one eye from under her wing and gazed timidly at the golden Big Cat's face as its black, onyx eyes glared back at her in a dreadful fierceness. However, despite the fierceness, the Big Cat spoke in a gentle, deep voice.

"That was a very noble thing you've done a while ago, Dionaea," said the Big Cat face, golden fire surrounding it and blazing in a golden shimmer of majesty, and Dionaea identified it to be a Lion. The Lion face continued, "It was vitally important that the Rainbow Serpent is set free so that the Narnian sun's extremely fragile biosphere is protected from evil hands… and you have also rescued those captured and innocent Mermaids, Mermen, Dolphins, Ichthyosaurs and Seals from certain death at the evil Witch and her followers' corrupt clutches as well…"

Dionaea continued to cower under her wing and shudder, refusing to look the Lion in the eye directly. The Lion face then turned to the window and breathed onto it. The lock bolting the window shut clicked out of its socket and the sheet of tough ice glass was swung open. The Lion face then returned its stern glare on Dionaea as she slowly moved her wing from her face just in time to see the open window.

"Now I want you to escape this place and fly to Archenland," continued the face sternly, "You'll find your escaped friends there. Make sure that you DON'T look back and DON'T stop over the frozen Narnian landscape. Stay in Archenland until the Winter Revolution comes."

Dionaea gazed at the Lion face.

"Winter Revolution?" repeated she, "When will that be? And also what about my friends who had been captured, like Carface for example?"

A sad look came on the Lion's face.

"I'm afraid those individuals have already been turned to stone by the Witch," said the Lion, "But don't worry. They will be set free at the Winter Revolution which is set at a time only I know."

Dionaea gazed somewhat disgruntledly at the face when suddenly; the sounds of footsteps sent alarm tearing through her and snap her gaze to the door. The Lion face grew sterner.

"Now leave for Archenland, Dionaea, and make sure that you DON'T stop or look back," said the Big Cat in the burning mane in a firmer voice, "Go! Some of the Witch's cronies are coming."

Then before Dionaea could speak again, the Lion's face faded, its golden light fading with it and leaving behind nothing but the usual dismal wintery grey light of the frigid Narnian sky. Dionaea stood there for a moment but when she heard the footsteps get louder, she shot one last terrified glance at the door before bolting for the open window. Scrambling onto the sill and being careful with her injured right paw, the young Manticore spread her wings the moment her entire body was on the sill. Then with one flap of her wings, Dionaea lofted into flight and began to make a mad break for it southward. She increased her altitude from the ground until she was high enough such that the frozen land of Narnia was spread out before her like a white blanket. Then resisting the urge to flash a glance back at the Witch's castle, Dionaea rocketed in the direction of Archenland.

Back in Dionaea's room, the door was suddenly kicked open and Malefor, Dionaea's father, stormed into the room. Behind him, a Chupacabra and a Gorgon stood with chains ready to shackle Dionaea the moment Malefor seized her.

"Alright, Dionaea, it is time for you to be brought before her Majesty to be put to death," shouted Malefor but when he saw that there was no-one in the room, he stopped in angry stun.

"Dionaea?" he asked as he began to look around, "Dionaea?"

He then glared at the Chupacabra and Gorgon at the door as they also peered into the room. When they saw that the young female Manticore was nowhere to be seen in it, the Chupacabra glared at Malefor.

"Don't tell me she's…" began the sickly furless Dog-like creature when the Gorgon's eyes landed on the open window.

"Look," she said with a finger point. At this, Malefor turned and followed the Gorgon's point to the open window. At this, the older male Manticore walked over to the window and jumped onto its sill such that his front paws were clasped onto it. He then began to scan the outside and as he did, rage began to boil within him dangerously.

"No-o-o-o-o-o," he whispered in angry silence while at the door, the Gorgon and Chupacabra stood there, speechless and befuddled.

Dionaea had mysteriously escaped, and Malefor knew that he was in serious trouble with the Witch for escaped traitors, especially those that were related to leaders, was a BIG no-go.


	45. Chapter 44

**Chapter 44- training begins**

 **Back in Gandalf's base in the lecture room**

"In a few years from now, perhaps around five to six years depending on circumstances, you lot will be on your way south from here to Archenland," said a female Humanoid creature who stood near the projected image. The crowd of evacuees had gathered in the lecture room once again, just like before when Gandalf gave the lecture on the Witch's promotion of the Massacre Event and exposing the lies behind the propaganda involved in the film. Among the crowd were Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Nyarth and Sandstorm; Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal with their parents or carers Shadewing, Mensa (Snowwing's mother) and Rubyfeather (Crystal's mother); Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne; and Thundersparx, Milky Way, Obsidian, Ahhuayo, Dashiell and Amberpaw. Many of them were listening intently to the lecture which was about their Exodus to Archenland delivered to them by a Humanoid who was actually a Mermaid in land form (legs replacing the fishtail, allowing them to walk) based on her metallic green hair. She wore a dress for modesty for transformed Merfolk into land Humanoid form were exposed, which they did not like one bit at all and preferred to have their modesty strictly protected.

This Mermaid was amongst the few Merfolk that had been previously caught by the Witch's cronies from the sea, much like the group Dionaea and her team had rescued earlier, and some of them had managed to escape to Gandalf and Kyukon's hidden base where they sought refuge, but it had not been an easy escape for those Merfolk had to transform into their land form through an extremely painful metamorphosis in which their tails were cast off and the trunk split into legs, and only a few had managed to flee successfully, the others having been unfortunately caught and slaughtered by the Witch's followers. Now these refugee Merfolk had been given the task by Gandalf and Kyukon as helpers of the base and this Mermaid was carrying out one of those tasks, giving the lecture of the Eternal Winter Exodus and the preparations to be made.

"But before you lot make the journey, you must go through some very strict preparations and training for it will NOT be safe for you guys to just make the journey without any knowledge of how to defend yourself should you run into any danger, or how to treat injuries if someone got hurt on the way, amongst other things, for the journey south will be very treacherous and risky," continued the Mermaid. While the Mermaid continued talking, Dashiell and Amberpaw were staring off into space while nearby, Faline, Ena and the relatives of Webby and Cloudhorn were restless, still obviously disturbed from the change in behaviour of Troodon and the other kids that had eaten the chocolate cake, and Ahhuayo was struggling to concentrate despite having some Otters and Kappa nudge him to resume paying attention to this important lecture. It was clear that Ahhuayo was severely still troubled by something. The Mermaid continued.

"So in the coming few years, you lot will be undergoing a rigorous training programme which will involve us teaching you the basics of combat, medicine including how to treat injuries and the application of medical plants and potions such as the Narnian sun fire flower juice…" Akira gazed at her brothers Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Kushanku with a smile of fascination and resumed listening to the lecture while nearby, Dashiell shot Kushanku and his siblings a glare and looked away. Akira shot her adopted Cheetah father a frown before resuming her attention to the Mermaid, "and of course, navigation. We will start training you in all areas to begin with to see which of you are best suited for which field, as well as what subfield you are best suited…"

"Well, I like medicinal plants and…" began Akira but Trotterhoof fired a "Shh!" at her to tell her to be quiet.

"…For not all of you will be developed in all fields. Some of you will be better at combat than the other fields while some of you will be more skilled at medicine and so on," continued the Mermaid, "so once we have sussed out which field you are best at, we will work on specialising and training you in those fields to hone in those skills more. So basically, some of you will be fighters, some of you will be medical healers, some will be navigators, while a few of you will have a combination of the above…"

Kushanku then began to drift into thought. Which field was he best in? He knew he could fly by spinning his two tails and had launched himself several times into danger before to rescue whoever was at the mercy of those life-threatening situations, such as the snow beast Yuki-onna and the Eagle Beast, but was he a good fighter? He resumed his attention on the Mermaid as she continued.

"And once we are sure that you have trained and practiced in those fields, we will be testing your knowledge by giving you simulations to put your skills into practice. But without further ado, it is time to introduce your first training lesson. It will be in the field of combat and we will be introducing you lot to the variety of combat skills which will be adjusted according to your species for a Centaur, for example, might carry out sword fighting differently to a Faun, and a Cheetah will have different combat skills to a Dog or a Wolf…" Dashiell and Amberpaw just let loose a yawn each at this for they appeared disinterested, much to the chagrin of some nearby individuals like Trotterhoof, "and furthermore, a few of you will have the rare abilities of basic magic, elemental abilities like electicity, and telekinesis, especially if you're a Raiju, a Bakeneko or a young Sphinx and the like…" at this, Kushanku scanned the crowd and picked out Thundersparx who sat with Obsidian and Milky Way and also a few Nekomata-like Cats that had a single tail instead of a forked one, and some young Humanoid-faced Lion like creatures with feathered wings. These Bakeneko and Sphinxes had been rescued from the hard labour zones by some of the other Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs (who were perched along the poles near the ceiling observing the crowd and making sure that they were paying attention, and Blaze was among them) and some of them had the ability of telekinesis. The Mermaid continued, "but in this lesson, we will be primarily focusing on the use of weapons like swords, which will involve wooden substitutes to prevent injury; archery and the use of flails which will be soft yarn balls attached by string to a stick…" smiles of excitement formed amongst much of the crowd but Dashiell and Amberpaw just shrugged while Ahhuayo asked one of the Otters what did the Mermaid say, the Otter replying by repeating the sentences.

"Now before we leave for the training compartments, we need to discuss some very important rules," said the Mermaid in a sterner voice. At the door, Kyukon came in with Bursyamo and some helpers. The Mermaid frowned, "First off, absolutely NO fighting with the other group members. Remember, we are friends. None of us are followers of the Witch. We will only be carrying out sparring and mock combat but that is ALL! Engagement in real fights will be applied when you encounter REAL danger on your Exodus to Archenland…" as the Mermaid spoke, a Rabbit crept towards the crowd and sat with the other Bunnies to listen. The Mermaid continued.

"Then after the training session is complete, we will turn our attention to the first medicine lesson which will involve an introduction to the medical plants and basic injury-treating skills…" Akira smiled widely at this but then the Mermaid said, "But I'll talk more on that after the first combat lesson. Right, let's head down to the training compartments!"

With that, the air above the lecture room became flooded with the impact of paws, hooves and feet as the crowd began to move and head over to Kyukon, Bursyamo and their group who prepared to lead them down to the training areas.

 **And so**

In the training compartments, the combat lessons were underway. The evacuees had had an introduction to the various combat styles by Perseus who was a combat expert and now, nearly all of them were scattered throughout the training compartments, which were large rooms dotted with dummies, target boards and other practice items, engaging in combat training and learning how to use a variety of weapons. Some Talking Beasts and Creatures were engaging in mock swordfight using the sword-sticks, some were training in archery in the target practice section using the bows and arrows provided, and some were training on throwing fake spears that were sharp enough to penetrate the dummies (which represented the Witch's cronies) to practice long-range attacks using spears. While all this was going on, Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal walked through the crowd, unsure of where to start. Nearby, Thundersparx was practicing using a yarn ball flail while Obsidian was going through a swordfight tutorial with an older Wampus Cat, one of Kyukon and Gandalf's helpers, on how to use a sword (by using a sword-stick) with her front paws as well as rearing up onto her other four legs to engage in a swordfight.

"Obsidian certainly looks interesting in using a sword over there," said Nyarth with a smile, the others also gazing at the charcoal-black and fiery orange-red marked six-legged Cat as she continued paying attention to the older male Wampus Cat whose fur was a grey colour. Then the group saw some Fauns come by, discussing something.

"I hope they find Belladonna soon if she's such a troublemaker," said Crystal worriedly.

"She IS a troublemaker," said Sandstorm maliciously, "If she were present right now, I'd sink my teeth into her jugular!"

It was clear that he still hadn't forgotten the incident where Belladonna had provoked Kushanku to a fight shortly after their first arrival in the base, and since then, Sandstorm had developed an extremely caustic rancour towards the Kitsune. Snowwing then shot the Cheetah cub a glare.

"She might be too wily, Sandstorm," said the Skvader kit, "Trying to take her on by yourself would be extremely unwise."

"I don't care!" snapped Sandstorm fierily while Kushanku said nothing. Then Nyarth stepped in.

"I think we should get down to training and take our minds off that Fox," said the older brother of Kushanku, "We could really do with some practice."

"Then let's get to it!" said Crystal before she spread her wings and took off in the direction of the archery zone.

"Where are you going?" asked Akira.

"To start in the field of using a bow and arrows," said the Parrot chick as she left. Snowwing and Dahlia followed her.

"We're coming with you too," said Dahlia and with that, she and Snowwing followed Crystal to the archery area. As they left, a young Faun girl walked in and gazed at the volcanic look still plastering Sandstorm's face.

"I take it you're still furious at Belladonna, am I right, Sandstorm?" said the Faun. The Cheetah cub and his four adopted Nekomata siblings turned to her.

"I am Guinan, yes," said Sandstorm.

"Ever since she almost got Kushanku into serious trouble," said Akira. The Faun girl, named Guinan, put on an agreeing frown as she joined the group. Nearby, there was movement. Troodon and the two escaped Rabbit kits were hiding amongst some bookshelf-like furniture, glaring at Kushanku and the others.

"To be honest with you, I've never like that Fox one bit since I saw her the first time," said Guinan. Sandstorm, at this turned to her, "You don't?"

Guinan didn't reply and pulled out a decorative slab from under her arm. It was a frame and in that frame was a picture of some Fauns and Talking Beasts.

"What's that?" asked Satoshi when he saw the picture frame. Guinan gazed sadly at the picture.

"It's a picture of me, my family and my friends," she replied in a sad voice before pointing from some Fauns and Animals to the next, "Those are my parents and my two younger brothers… that's my Uncle with his baby son and my cousin Tumnus… and those are our Talking Beast friends and other Fauns from my village," Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Nyarth and Akira gazed at the black and white picture of the Fauns and Talking Beasts as Guinan continued.

"This pic was taken a few days before our Faun village was thrown into utmost chaos," said the Faun girl in a breaking voice as though she were about to cry, "When that group of woodworkers who were processing our firewood became involved in a chaotic incident in which many of them ended up gruesomely killed along with our wise patriarch…"

At this, the four young Nekomata and the Cheetah shot Guinan, who was beginning to shed some tears, a horrified look.

"What happened?" asked Kushanku.

"How did those woodworkers end up in a gory incident?" put in Sandstorm.

"Did one of the Witch's cronies attack them to cause trouble or something?" asked Akira. At this, Nyarth and Sandstorm jumped to this possibility as Guinan tearfully looked up at the five Felines.

"I don't know but the only thing I can remember is hearing a series of MASSIVE bangs and crashes," she said, tears falling from her eyes as grief took hold, "and I remember seeing a log of wood fly from the woodworkers' area, crash through the roof of our patriarch's house and fatally land on the elder Faun, and the next thing I remember was seeing that horrible mess but my uncle shielded me, my siblings (we had also been young Fauns at the time) and baby Tumnus from that disaster zone for it was too disturbing for young eyes to see, and I remember our village being visited by a group of the Witch's cronies at the time the incident happened to collect our 90 percent food offerings…"

Guinan trailed off, sobs escaping from her throat. Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Nyarth looked on sympathetically as Guinan entered a sobbing episode before speaking again, "And… and… after we found that our patriarch had died, we were left in a state of severe loss and desperation… and we were forced to split and move into smaller homes…" more sobs escaped Guinan's throat and more tears launched from her eyes before she continued, "And that was the last time I saw of my Uncle and my cousin Tumnus. They left for somewhere else while we left to live in a ramshackle shack for the next few years before being called by a Thunderbird to join a group of migrating Narnians to this base, on which our parents sent me and my siblings while they stayed behind…" then tearfully, she gazed at her family-and-friend picture, "This is all I have left of my beloved family and friends. And I hope my baby cousin Tumnus and his father are managing fine in their new place of stay, wherever they are in this cursed… constant winter land…" then Guinan began to break down again. Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Nyarth offered their condolences. From amongst the bookshelf-like furniture which were used for storing the fake weapons, Troodon and the two Rabbit kits began to plot their first scheme in getting Kushanku and his siblings in trouble after watching the scene.

Then after taking some time to recollect herself, Guinan went and placed her frame on a nearby table and prepared for training.

"I don't think it's a good idea to place your family picture on that table by itself, Guinan," said Satoshi with uncertainty, "What if it gets stolen or destroyed?"

"Oh, it'll be safe there, Satoshi," said Guinan with confidence, wiping away the last of her tears and sniffling as she spoke, "and besides, that Merman over there is keeping watch."

At this, the five Cats turned and saw an aqua blue metallic haired figure keeping watch on the crowd and their training. He flashed the six a gaze before resuming it to the others. Nyarth then left for the swordfight zone.

"Well, I'm gonna practice sword-to-sword combat," said he, "I could do with learning how to use a sword to begin with."

"And we're gonna go to the weapon-less combat area," said Satoshi as he and Sandstorm eyed said area where some Dogs, among them Molayne, and some other creatures were training in using their paws, teeth and even their tails hind feet as weapons in elaborate ways (very like martial arts without weapons in our world), "I can see Molayne's having a great time rearing on his hind legs and using his front paws to deflect attacks from his partner."

Sandstorm smiled as he saw the grey Dog continue to stand on his hind legs like a Nekomata and swipe his front paws at the 'strikes' of his partner, a female Marsh-Wiggle. Then Sandstrom and Satoshi left for the area while Akira departed for the archery zone.

"And I'm gonna practice using the bow and arrows," said she as she left. Guinan followed while Kushanku left to choose which skill to train in first when he came across an unwell-looking Ahuizotl sitting out on a chair. At this, the Nekomata went over to him. However, as he left, Troodon and the two Rabbit kits made their move and crept over to the table where Guinan had left her family picture.

"Are you alright, um… Ahhuayo, isn't it?" Kushanku asked with concern.

"I'm fine, little Nekomata," said Ahhuayo but Kushanku wasn't fooled for he could see that the hand-tailed Dog-like creature's Reptile eyes were half-asleep and the rest of his body looked fidgety.

"Fine?" said Kushanku in disagreement, "You don't look fine to me at all. You look like you've stayed awake all night…"

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Kushanku, leave that Ahuizotl alone and get down to training!"

At this, Kushanku turned and faced the speaker, Shadewing the Bat, as he glared at him with a stern face as he saw off some of Faline's kits (not the five that had eaten Belladonna's chocolate cake, but including Fluffy-Cotton, who was still in a great deal of trouble for her part in the act), prompting Kushanku to leave Ahuuayo alone. Then Shadewing went over to Ahhuayo and helped him away. Kushanku looked on worriedly.

"He seemed fine when we first met him," he whispered under his breath. Suddenly, there was a shattering and tearing noise which yanked Kushanku's attention from Ahhuayo in the direction of the source. When he saw what was causing the noise, he rocketed over to the area, horror propelling him and as he arrived, he was met with an astounding sight. Standing before him and near the table where Guinan had placed her family picture were a familiar bipedal Reptile, a Theropod, and two Rabbit kits, and their eyes were saturated with scorn as they eyed Kushanku. Then Kushanku's eyes travelled to Guinan's family picture and to his utmost horror, the picture frame was in shreds and shattered glass shards. The frame of the image lay aside like a plate knocked aside but the glass front had been smashed and the picture itself was shredded. Kushanku then glared at Troodon and the two Rabbit kits.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? THAT was the most TREASURED POSSESSION of a DEVASTATED FAUN you've just destroyed!" cried the Nekomata in outrage to which Troodon spat a very caustic and profane word at him. Then when recognition took hold, Kushanku hardened his glare.

"Shouldn't YOU be detained in allowing Belladonna to escape against Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's orders?" asked he. Troodon and the other two kits did not reply, except that they smiled evilly when they saw someone rush over to Kushanku. Kushanku also heard the sounds of Goat hooves hitting the floor at a rapid pace and felt his skin prickle. Then an anguished voice exploded.

"NOOO, my FAMILY PHOTO!" and before Kushanku could turn round, a young female Goat-Humanoid rushed in and seized her destroyed picture, tears spraying from her eyes. Kushanku then eyed Troodon and the two Rabbit kits furiously as they smirked at Guinan as she desperately gathered her destroyed picture shreds and wept. Then before Kushanku could bolt after the trio, Guinan shot him an outraged glare.

"Did you do this, Kushanku?" demanded she, "DID YOU DO THIS!?"

Kushanku was about to reply when footsteps sounded. It was then that a metallic aqua blue haired man entered.

"What's going on?" asked the land-form Merman. Kushanku was about to answer but Troodon spitefully said, "Kushanku came and destroyed that Faun's picture."

The Merman glared at the Theropod and the two kits but the trio had already fled. Then the sea man returned his furious glare on Kushanku. Guinan also turned her outraged glare on the Nekomata kit especially as the Merman latched a firm grab onto Kushanku's arm.

"Right, young Nekomata, come with me please," said he.

"B-b-b-but I didn't do anything!" protested Kushanku but Guinan, who had managed to recover every last piece of her shredded photo (and cutting herself once or twice on the glass shards in the process), yelled at him.

"I want you to fix my picture RIGHT NOW, you spiteful FORK-TAILED FERRET!" she screamed, making Kushanku flinch. The commotion then attracted a small audience.

"What's happened?" asked Milky Way as she, a small rodent called a Jerboa, and Fluffy-Cotton and also Alexandrite and Padparadscha (or Paddy) came in.

"Kushanku?" squeaked Fluffy-Cotton but the Merman stepped forward and barked at them to get back to work. Then he returned to Kushanku and dragged him away.

"You're gonna fix Guinan's family picture and then get back to training, young kit," said he angrily as he dragged the Nekomata away by the arm with Guinan, her shredded family picture, following. In the shadows, Troodon and the two Rabbit kits gazed wickedly at Kushanku and gave each other a fist bump as a gesture of 'Good work!'

The Jerboa came forward, dumbfounded.

"Kushanku isn't really THAT spiteful enough to destroy a precious possession of someone is he, Milky Way?" he asked.

"Well, I've only known him for a short while, Big Ears," said Milky Way with uncertainty as she gazed after Kushanku as he left with Guinan and the Merman, "Let's just get back to training."

The Jerboa named Big Ears and Fluffy-Cotton sighed and followed the Winged Horse back to the weapon-less training zone. Alexandrite and Paddy, however, just remained there.

"I actually agree with Big Ears, Milky," said Alexandrite, stopping Milky Way, Big Ears and Fluffy-Cotton in their tracks and pulling the three's attention to her and her sister.

"What do you mean, Alexandrite?" asked Milky Way with a frown. Alexandrite turned to the Winged Horse and then left to follow the Merman, Kushanku and Guinan with Paddy following. Milky Way, Big Ears and Fluffy-Cotton just exchanged glances, shrugged and resumed their walk back to the training area.

In the archery area, Akira, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal were amongst a number of other creatures firing arrows at a row of target boards. Supervising the archery area were a lead Centaur and a Sasquatch (a bipedal Ape-like creature). Crystal was performing excellently and had learned to operate a bow with her talons while hovering and fire arrows from the air. Near her, Desdemona the Griffin was doing the same though her method was a little different for Griffins were winged quadrupeds and not winged bipeds unlike true Birds. Crystal's arrows were hitting the target most of the time, as were Dahlia's and Snowwing's but Akira was struggling and kept either missing the target with her arrows or she snapped the elastic string but the arrow remained in the bow. As she continued to struggle, one of the Centaur teachers came forward.

"Here, let me show you how it's properly done," he said and her beckoned Akira into handing the bow and arrow to her to demonstrate. As Akira then watched the Centaur as he talked her through using the bow and arrow properly, such as the arrow's placement, Snowwing and Dahlia gazed at Crystal as she fired another arrow at the target board from her bow in her talons while hovering. The arrow pierced the target's inner red ring one white ring away from the centre spot, known as a bullseye.

"She's very good at this," said Dahlia, "I cannot even hit the inner circles of the target board, much less near the bullseye."

"She's sure to make a formidable aerial archer," said Snowwing. Then the Skvader kit's gaze turned to the Sasquatch as he talked with a couple of Centaurs, pointing his finger at Crystal as she hovered in the air and fired another arrow from the bow in her talons at the target board and hitting it near the centre again.

"Looks like those grownups over there are planning on training Crystal further in the field of archery, Dahlia," said Snowwing.

"Same with Desdemona," said Dahlia as she turned to the young Griffin as she fired an arrow from her talons from the air and managed to strike near the target board's centre as well. Then the Jackalope and Skvader kits returned their attention to Akira as she fired an arrow at the target board with the Centaur watching. After managing to get the arrow into the target, the Centaur congratulated her. Snowwing and Dahlia gazed at each other and smiled. Then the sounds of wood striking wood reached their ears and the Jackalope and Skvader's attention were pulled to the nearby swordfight training area as a pair of creatures sparred using sword-sticks.

"Come on, Nyarth, concentrate," said one of them, Obsidian as she lunged at him with her stick, expecting him to defend himself with his stick. Obsidian was putting her skills to practice against a two-legged opponent and had chosen Nyarth to be one, and Nyarth was swishing his sword-stick to deflect Obsidian's mock attacks. Obsidian then 'forced' Nyarth back, throwing 'attacks' at him with her stick, with Nyarth deflecting each of the 'attacks' with his own stick and walking backwards. Nearby, there was a afield of wooden pillars, intended to resemble trees for wood-based combat practice and a few animals, among them Thundersparx, were practicing using the 'trees' as cover and firing small soft balls at each other as though they were fighting ion an actual wood.

"Try and attack me like how Umbra the Bakeneko tutor showed you," said Obsidian as she continued firing 'attacks' at Nyarth. Nearby, Obsidian's tutor, the male Wampus Cat and a black furred Bakeneko with silvery markings; Umbra came in to watch the mock spar between the Nekomata and the Wampus Cat. Nyarth then felt a surge of courage flare up within him and began to lunge at Obsidian and deliver a volley of 'attacks' at the Wampus Cat.

"That's it, kid," said Obsidian as she worked on deflecting his attacks. Nearby, Umbra smiled and gave a small nod. Dahlia and Snowwing watched as Nyarth then suddenly jumped back, did a backflip and then get so caught up in the excitement of the mock fight that he launched himself at a nearby 'tree' pillar and landed on it, much to Obsidian's confusion and to that of Dahlia, Snowwing, Umbra and the tutor Wampus Cat. Then Nyarth leapt from one 'tree' to another as stray soft balls flew at him to dodge them. Obsidian ran in to meet Nyarth as a Minotaur supervising the cluttered environment training area said, "Oi, don't get in the way of the sparrers in the 'wood', you two."

Nearby, Thundersparx happened to catch the action out the corner of his eye so he turned to watch Nyarth as he continued leaping between the tree pillars faster and faster, much to Obsidian's confusion. Then as soon as he saw that his 'opponent' was so dizzy and confused, Nyarth leapt at Obsidian, landed behind the Wampus Cat and raised his sword-stick. However, Obsidian whirled round and seized the stick with her middle right paw.

"WHOA, steady, Nyarth!" she cried in alarm, "Remember; this is a practice session, not a REAL fight."

Nyarth, at this, quelled his sheer excitement and calmed down and backed away as Obsidian released his sword-stick.

"Sorry, Obsidian," said the Nekomata apologetically, "I guess I got a bit carried away."

A smile, however, formed on Obsidian's mouth.

"You certainly were formidable in your jumping from one 'tree' to the next, I can tell you," she said as Umbra, the Minotaur and the Wampus Cat tutor came in and a few of the wooded environment trainees, among them Thundersparx, came round, "If this were a real situation you could have truly confounded me with your agility…"

"That young Nekomata is just like his mother," said Thundersparx as a few of his fellow participants armed with a bag of soft balls used as projectiles walked in, curious looks on their faces, "She had that ability to jump between trees with such adroit agility."

"Maybe he could use that to surprise an opponent battling one of his teammates or confuse a real opponent in a REAL situation if we're in a wooded area and we become under attack from an enemy group?" said one of the Kitsune (not Belladonna for this individual had orange and metallic orange fur and was young with a single tail). The other watchers smiled in agreement before resuming their training. As Obsidian and Nyarth exited the woodland training area, a fist bump shared between then as the Wampus Cat tutor, the Minotaur and Umbra the Bakeneko tutor congratulated them on their work, the sounds of accusations exploded from nearby.

"Oi, Horse, where's my necklace!?"

At this, Obsidian and company turned and to their surprise, they saw a female Kappa glare angrily at a Horse, Buck with the former hurling accusations at the latter.

"My necklace was an engagement present from my husband-to-be, Buck," continued the Humanoid Turtle-like Amphibious creature at Buck, who kept deflecting her accusations with denial, "Where is it!?"

"I haven't taken your necklace, Lwaxana," replied the Horse but the Kappa lunged at him.

"WHERE IS IT!?" she yelled in an angrier voice.

"Now what?" asked the Minotaur in slight frustration to which Umbra and the Wampus Cat tutor became wary of the conflict. Obsidian and Nyarth just gazed at each other and Dahlia and Snowwing as well and shrugged when suddenly, Nyarth spotted movement out the corner of his eye.

Nearby, Kushanku was gluing the pieces of Guinan's destroyed family picture back together on a tough wooden backing under the supervision of the Merman. Guinan had left to train in the woodland environment area so Kushanku, who was utterly disgruntled for he knew that he hadn't been the one to destroy the Faun's picture in the first place, was left alone under the Merman's angry supervision in fixing her precious picture. As he placed the next shred of the picture into its rightful place in the jigsaw-like reconstruction of the photo, he heard Lwaxana the Kappa's voice explosively fire another accusation over her necklace at a certain Horse. At this, the Nekomata looked up and saw the Kappa lunge at the Horse who he identified as Buck.

"GIVE IT TO ME this MINUTE, BUCK!" screamed the Kappa with a lunge and a hefty shove at the Horse much to his outrage.

"Oi, back to work, Kushanku," barked the Merman, jolting Kushanku's attention away from the arguing pair. Kushanku was about to resume the task when suddenly, his eyes detected movement in the upper field of vision as the argument between Lwaxana and Buck escalated to the level of an actual fight between the Kappa and the young Horse breaking out, prompting a Minotaur, two Sphinxes, a Centaur and a Phoenix (not Blaze) to rush in and apprehend the pair before they could ignite a brawl, the commotion attracting an audience of the other trainees including Nyarth, Obsidian, Snowwing and Dahlia. At this, Kushanku shot the movement a look and saw a Rabbit make off with something glittering and golden in its mouth. At first Kushanku thought it was one of the escaped Rabbit kits that had accompanied Troodon but based on its size, it appeared to be an older Rabbit, but he knew he had to act. Then against the Merman's orders to resume fixing Guinan's picture and placing a rock on the rest of the shredded pieces he still had to glue into the jigsaw to prevent them from flying away, Kushanku bolted and twisted his forked tail branches and launched into the air.

"Oi, Kushanku, GET BACK HERE!" shouted the Merman and with that, he bolted after the kit as he tailspin-flew at the Rabbit carrying the glittering item in its mouth just as Buck and Lwaxana were restrained by the Minotaur and a Phoenix and pulled apart, their mouths launching argumentative sentences at each other with the former's being accusing and the latter's, denying.

Kushanku brutally tacked into the Rabbit's side and bowled it over. The Rabbit was thrown into a tumble and in its shock and confusion, released the glittering item, an necklace, from its mouth. Kushanku did a side roll to his feet and seized it in his paws before shooting a furious glare at the Bunny but as his eyes met with the Lagomorph's the Nekomata kit froze in stun. Nyarth and Obsidian appeared and also froze stiff at the Rabbit's glare. Nearby, Buck and Lwaxana also saw the scene with their holders while the Merman and Guinan nearby, and a few others including Alexandrite, Milky Way, Padparadscha, Big Ears the Jerboa and Fluffy-Cotton also stopped and gazed at the scene as Kushanku locked eyes with the outraged Bunny but the Bunny's eyes were nothing like a Rabbit when it got angry. This Bunny's eyes were saturated with malice as pure as an extremely corrosive acid potent enough to dissolve bone, and its mouth was creased into a scowl that dripped saliva and showed teeth, something Kushanku had never seen on a Rabbit. Not even the two misbehaved Rabbit kits bore such a look. Behind Kushanku who held Lwaxana's necklace, Nyarth and Obsidian looked on in utter astonishment at how malicious the Rabbit's glare was, and Obsidian felt a hot prickle run through her skin. Her orange-red markings glowed and she shuddered slightly. Then the frightening scene was shattered when the Merman rushed in and barked at Kushanku to return to fixing Guinan's picture, prompting the Rabbit to bolt like a regular rabbit sensing a predator. Kushanku, with a sigh and an unsettled walk, then handed the Minotaur Lwaxana's necklace who then left to give it to Lwaxana and returned to the spot where he was fixing Guinan's picture to finish the task and subsequently enter the field to train.

As Kushanku left, Nyarth shot Obsidian an uneasy look.

"Did you see the look on that Rabbit's face, Obsidian," he said a low voice, "It reminded me of a Wendigo. I have NEVER seen a Rabbit bear such a demonic-looking expression in my entire life."

Obsidian just gazed at Kushanku's oldest brother and said nothing, the shock of seeing that Rabbit's look blocking her choice of words. Uneasily, the pair went back to training while Kushanku tried telling the Merman of the Rabbit's malicious glare only for the Merman to dismiss it and bark at him to get back to fixing Guinan's picture, which Kushanku did. As more of the trainees came around as compelled by curiosity to investigate the commotion and with the argument between Buck and Lwaxana quelled now that her necklace was returned, and with Lwaxana issuing the disgruntled Horse an apology, the Phoenix commanded everyone to return to training. Alexandrite, Milky Way, Padparadscha, Big Ears the Jerboa and Fluffy-Cotton went back to the weapon-less training area. A few of them had also seen the abnormally malicious look on the Rabbit's face when it locked eyes with Kushanku.

"That HORRID look is gonna give me nightmares tonight," murmured Fluffy-Cotton shakily, "If Mother (that is Faline) were to catch a Rabbit with a look like THAT, she'd immediately get us to safety fast."

"Well at least Kushanku had seized Lwaxana's engagement necklace from it, that's the big important thing," said Big Ears the Jerboa, "and strangely enough, he is able to fly by spinning his tails. I've never known a Nekomata do that."

"It's an extremely rare ability I've heard, Big Ears," said Paddy, "Even the ability of telekinesis is more common than that talent. Apparently, according to Milky Way here, his father was able to fly like that as well."

"Yes, that's true," said Milky Way before gazing back at the area were the standoff between Kushanku and the Rabbit occurred, "and as for that Bunny that had faced off against him earlier, I have a bad feeling about that Rabbit especially with its abnormally malicious glare."

"What do you mean?" asked Fluffy-Cotton. The Pegasus turned to the young Rabbit kit with a look of dread.

"Either that Rabbit has something wrong with it or it could be something else entirely… and far more _sinister_ ," she replied. Fluffy-Cotton, at this and with an even greater shudder, gazed at Milky Way and turned to return training with Milky Way following. Sometime later, Milky Way, along with Cyril the Hippogriff and Link the Peryton, were able to use their wings as an extra pair of limbs in weapon-less combat much to the impression of their tutors.

 **In the magic Narnia map room**

Gandalf was gazing at the 3D map of Narnia set out like a hologram on the floor, only this was a magical projection and if the viewer wanted to look at Narnia elsewhere, all he or she had to do was place a paw or wing on it and skim it, and the map would slide like the screen on an item we know as Ipads and Iphones in our world. As the ivory and metallic yellow furred Fox with his nine tails swishing behind him in a fan like a Peacock's tail, gazed at the map, placed a paw on it and swiped it such that the map scrolled to a certain area, Thundersparx and Trotterhoof came in. In one corner but hidden, another creature was gazing at the map of Narnia as well. A Cat (regular Cat and not a Bakeneko or Nekomata) was examining Gandalf and also Trotterhoof and Thundersparx as the pair began to enter into conversation with the fully matured Kitsune.

"Our training's going well," said Trotterhoof, "Crystal, Rubyfeather the Parrot's daughter, is proving to be an excellent aerial archer… Nyarth seems to have the ability to adroitly leap from tree to tree or similar…"

"That's excellent," said Gandalf, "That's just what we are aiming for, pinpointing the talents of each of the evacuees for the big Exodus south to Archenland in a few years' time…"

"What's that square thing?" asked Thundersparx when he saw what looked like a square slab of stone in the map. Gandalf and Trotterhoof gazed at the map and eyed the slab of stone as well.

"That's the Stone Table," said Gandalf in a slightly serious and dark voice. At this, Trotterhoof and Thundersparx gazed with concern at the way the Kitsune spoke. In its corner, the Cat continued to listen.

"Why so serious?" asked Trotterhoof.

"The Stone Table is a highly dreaded place," replied Gandalf, "It is where traitors are bound and killed in a sacrifice by the Witch," the nine-tailed Foxes gaze then returned to the holographic object bearing the name, "It is likely to become the final destination and resting place for those Massacre Event victors and their families and groups that had abandoned their friends and extended families eventually…"

"It's an altar used for killing traitors!?" blurted out Thundersparx, "That sounds scary!"

Trotterhoof then shuddered at the thoughts for Soran and his family who had been the family of the Pig and also Molayne, Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Cyril, Link and Desdemona, and also Lightningflash and the others who were now the former family of Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way and the likelihood of them being placed there for slaughtering.

"Has the Witch built that altar?" asked the Pig.

"No, it's been there even before Jadis usurped the throne," replied Gandalf, "In fact, it's a construction by the Emperor-Over-The-Sea, also known as Aslan's Father…"

"But how does that pertain to traitors getting sacrificed on the Stone Table by the Witch?" asked Thundersparx. Gandalf gazed at the Stone Table image in the map.

"I'm afraid that's confidential," he said, "But I will tell you this, that Altar of Stone will have an extremely and vitally important role in the future…"

"What do you mean?" asked Trotterhoof. Gandalf then closed his eyes. In its hiding place, the Cat continued to listen and watch.

"If an important Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve ends up falling for the Witch's charms like how those Massacre Event victors and the other Narnians who have joined the Witch's side had done," he said, "they will end up in a debt, a debt that will require their very life…" Thundersparx and Trotterhoof gazed at each other and then back at Gandalf, "but when that happens, a substitute will come and take his or her place in paying that debt…"

"And who will that be?" asked Trotterhoof. Gandalf opened his eyes and gazed at the Pig. "That's all I'm going to tell you. Like I've said before, it's confidential and top secret. All will be revealed in Aslan's timing."

Trotterhoof, at this, gave a slight disgruntled and disappointed sigh but Thundersparx assured him.

"Let's not worry about that now, my Pig friend, let's just get back to training," said the Raiju. In the corner, the Cat shook with anger as though it wanted to scream the question, "What is this Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve that will fall for the Witch's charms!?"

"Yes, please do, and also get ready for the lessons in medicine," said Gandalf, "I've gotta go to the Library."

Trotterhoof and Thundersparx nodded and left as Gandalf switched off the magic map of Narnia and departed for the library. The Cat then made its move and followed the nine-tailed Kitsune the moment the Pig and Raiju left the room to return to the training area.

 **In the Library**

Gandalf telekinetically took the Book of Prophecies and levitated it in front of himself before mentally opening it to read the part he had written about the Stone Table in order to remind himself of its role in the future. As he began to read the part on the Stone Table which had a picture of the Altar and the writing carved into its sides (the same ones Nyaonix saw as a kit), the Cat climbed up the shelves and began to gaze at the pages over Gandalf's shoulder in an attempt to read about the Stone Table as well. However, the writing appeared nothing more than sheer gobbledegook and series of confusing squiggles since Gandalf, his mate Kyukon and their older offspring, such as Alstroemeria, and helpers had written the information in their own made-up language called 'Kitsunese' for further confidentiality, so only _they_ could understand what was written. The Cat shuddered angrily at its frustration and its inability to read the series of confusing letters and symbols and began to try and get a closer look at the book to examine its pictures instead, being careful to avoid getting spotted by the nine-tailed Kitsune as he continued reading the section about the Stone Table.

However, as the Cat carefully moved, Gandalf suddenly felt uneasy and his skin crawl for some reason, so he stopped reading, a confused look on his face. It was the look of someone who was feeling he or she was being watched. Then Gandalf turned his head to look behind him, his face turning in the Cat's direction. However, as he gazed at the area where the Cat had been trying to hide, the Cat had managed to disappear. When he saw nothing there, Gandalf at first was about to brush it off but then the nine-tailed Kitsune suddenly felt a massive miasma wash over him and envelop him like a thick black mist. The nine-tailed Fox was so badly startled by this feeling that he released the book from his telekinetic grip and sent it crashing to the floor. With his tails swishing wildly behind him, his muscles feeling weak and jelly-like and his ivory and metallic yellow fur bristled; Gandalf seized the book telekinetically and hastily returned it to its place on the shelf. After this, he called for some of his helpers within earshot, which were some of the Centaurs, Basan and some of Bursyamo's subordinates, his second older son who was also a fully matured nine-tailed Kitsune (his older son had been killed by the Witch after foolishly engaging the super-powerful evil being in combat years and years before), Alstroemeria, and some of the other helpers, at the top of his voice. At this, the pattering of paws and hooves sounded as the group rushed in. Alstroemeria and her nine-tailed brother who also had ivory and metallic yellow fur like Gandalf and Kyukon, rushed in with some Centaurs, Basan, Sphinxes and Naga and when she saw how panicked Gandalf looked, Alstroemeria was saturated with alarm.

"Dad, are you alright?" said the eight-tailed Fox when she saw Gandalf tremble violently with his onyx eyes saturated with immense fright and stress, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Is there something wrong, Gandalf?" asked one of the Centaurs. Gandalf shot him, Alstroemeria and the other helpers gathered a shaky but severe glare.

"Yes there is!" he replied in an equally severe tone of voice, "I want you lot to protect this Library and those super-precious books and take them with you wherever you go when you have to do other things but under NO circumstance take ANY of them out of the base and to outside. They MUST remain in the confines of this base at ALL COSTS. There is something or rather someone who shouldn't be in HERE and I want that presence hunted down and dealt with RIGHT AWAY and AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

Alstroemeria, her brother and the other helpers present nodded and set to carrying out Gandalf's command while Gandalf himself went to seek the other helpers and tell them of his sensing of a presence that should NOT be in the base at all and to be on the lookout.

While Alstroemeria and the others with her set to guarding the super-important books in the Library, such as the Book of Prophets and Narnia's history, the Cat left the Library and disappeared to elsewhere.


	46. Chapter 45

**Chapter 45- the first lesson on medical plants**

 **The crops compartment**

The evacuees' next lesson was to be on medical plants and that was to take place in this compartment, the compartment of the crops. This compartment had been especially built to simulate the weather of Narnia's air during the spring and summer which had been pushed to extinction thanks to Jadis's winter curse which resulted in growing crops impossible due to the frigid conditions it brought. A wide variety of plants grew in the specially prepared ground and most of the plants were fruit trees, vegetables and other crops, and flowers for the variety of insects such as butterflies and bees which had been brought into Gandalf's base to save their species from going extinct by Jadis's winter spell. It was the closest thing you could get to spring in these times. High in the air above in this massive compartment was a large magic star orb which provided light and warmth for the plants to grow, and the humidity of the compartment's air was operated by special magic humidifiers that also formed the special conditions for clouds to form and sprinkle the plants with rain like how the outside weather in the actual spring and summer would with outside crops (but again such clouds had been pushed to extinction by Jadis's winter curse). The crops' manual care came from the farmers in Gandalf and his group's base, which were Dryads, Sylphs, Fairies, Elves, Gnomes and a few Dwarves, among a few others and these farmers helped to keep the crops free of weeds and helped the pollinators to fertilise some of the plants in order to produce seeds for future crops. Their job was also to harvest the fruit of the fruit trees and the vegetables for food. In the next compartment connected to this one via a short corridor was a dumb animal farm where a variety of dumb animals (chickens, pigs, bovines, sheep and more) are raised for their meat, and there was even a sea-based compartment where a fish farm was raised, and that was occupied by some of the Mermaids, Mermen, Ichthyo-Centaurs (Centaurs that lived in the sea and were essentially Centaurs with a fish's tail instead of the full Horse's body) some of the Talking Sea Creatures including a few Sea Goats that had managed to escape to Gandalf's base during Jadis's Narnia conquest, and they raised fish and other seafood for the sea and swamp-dwelling evacuees such as the Otters and Penguins.

Back in the crop compartment, there were also a few ponds built for the conservation of non-talking frogs, dragonflies, damselflies and a variety of other non-talking creatures that depended on spring and summer to survive. Gandalf's base was not only a refuge site for the evacuees from Jadis's winter curse and her corrupt ruling system until the time came for them to leave for Archenland, but it was also a sort of Ark for a variety of creatures that depended on the spring and summer seasons to survive and reproduce as well. In addition to these creatures' conservation, a certain species of Talking Bird, called the Alicanto, was also conserved here for in the crop compartment, metal trees were also grown here. Metallic things were the staple of an Alicanto Bird's diet and they fed only on anything that was metallic, such as metallic coins, nuggets of metal and metal fruit. Thus a variety of metal trees such as metal fruit, coin, gold-leaf and nugget had also been planted in the crop compartment to provide food for the Alicanto. The Alicanto's plumage was normally a gold colour but can also be silver, copper or even metallic icy blue (like osmium metal), and the intensity of those colours depended on how much metal they had consumed (a similar effect in our world brought to mind could be flamingos whose pink colour in their plumage is influenced by the amount of plankton, which contained the pigment, they eat, plus Talking Flamingos in Narnia had the same pigment sequestering in their feathers as well). The origin of the metallic coins, gold leaves and nuggets had been from Humans who had managed to find their way into Narnia but those Humans had been banished by Jadis from the country during her conquest. However, during this, Gandalf and his group had managed to salvage as much of these metallic human objects as possible during the construction of their base for they knew that the Alicanto Birds will need a food source during the long Eternal Winter for like organic trees, metal object trees could not survive in the frigid winter conditions. How is it that you can grow money trees that spawned coins like fruit, or gold-leaf trees that sprouted literal golden leaves in Narnia and not in our world? That is because the world of Narnia has some very mysterious properties that our world, Earth, does not have, and for some reason, metallic human things could grow into metal trees (and so can some other human things like fudge) in Narnia but they could NOT in our world. Hence the reasons why Alicanto Birds can thrive in Narnia and not in our world since they fed pretty much only metal things and those alone.

The metal trees and the food crops were not the only plants grown here. In one patch, a farm of medicinal plants and herbs were also grown and that was where the evacuees' next lesson was to take place. Close to the medical plant and herb farm, the crowd of evacuees had gathered and giving the lecture on them was another of Gandalf and Kyukon's older offspring, a seven-tailed Kitsune named Tuvok. His fur was brown and metallic brown and had some orange patches thrown over the pelt and he was over 700 Narnian years old and an expert on medicinal plants, how they are prepared, what they treated and what they needed to grow, as well as what care they should receive to keep them alive.

"This," said Tuvok with a paw gesture to the medical plant patch "is the medicinal plant farm. It is where we are growing the variety of medicinal plants for processing into medicinal potions and cordials for your journey."

The crowd of creatures, among them Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Nyarth, and Guinan the Faun girl (whose family picture had been fully fixed and put back together by Kushanku and was now in her close possession this time), Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal with Mensa and Shadewing; Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof and Molayne, Thundersparx, Obsidian, Milky Way and Ahhuayo, examined the collection of medicinal herbs and plants in awe. Some of these plants were extremely rare and a few of them could see a type of glowing fiery orange-red flower amongst the sea of various flower colours. Tuvok then walked over to the orange-red flower patch and introduced the plant to the crowd.

"This is the fire-flower," he said, a paw gesture to the plants each of which had five glowing orange-red petals and long brilliant fluorescent orange stigmas extending from their centres (like a hibiscus flower in our world), "they are from the Narnian sun, specifically its mountains, and are grown in sun soil," he pointed to the glowing yellow-orange soil from which the fire-flowers sprouted. Tuvok then formed a smile on his muzzle, "Can any of you tell me what fire-flowers are for and why they are so rare?"

At this, Molayne's paw shot up before anyone else had a chance to raise their paws, wings, hands or equivalent. Tuvok nodded to Molayne to answer the question so the Dog stepped forward.

"Fire-flowers are used in making the healing fire-flower juice cordial," he said, "However; they are _extremely_ rare and _extremely_ difficult to grow in Narnian soil for they require a special soil from the Narnian sun which is the ONLY soil suitable for them to grow in."

Tuvok, at this, smiled in impression at the Dog's knowledge about the fire-flower plant while some of the crowd members, among them Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way and also Kushanku and his siblings, looked on in admiration.

"When making the cordial from the plant," continued Molayne, "The flowers are harvested, crushed and ground down and then pressed so that the juice of the flowers can be fully extracted and collected into containers. The resulting cordial can be used to heal just about any wound or injury, even life-threatening wounds and it has also been known to help cure nausea and stomach upsets. However, it cannot bring back casualties that had already died; it can only bring back casualties on the BRINK of death."

"Excellently explained, little Molayne," said Tuvok, while the audience clapped and Trotterhoof gave Molayne a hoof-pat on the back, "You certainly have been studying well," the Kitsune then stepped aside and revealed the area where the medicinal herbs and plants were processed. A large circular hollow construction resembling a winepress was nearby, and Tuvok pointed to it.

"As you can see, we have a press for placing the fire-flower flower heads for crushing and pressing," he explained, "And once we have the fire-flower pulp, which is blood-red in colour, we then apply the lid…" he pointed to a wooden circular slab with a turning handle on it, "and screw it into the press to compress the pulp and extract the juice which runs from the cylinder into the collection duct…" he pointed to the bottom of the cylinder at some slits and a inclined duct, "where we hold a container to collect the red juice before we transfer it to special bottles for storage and ready for usage. However, we only use the fire-flower cordial sparingly."

The crowd except a few such as Dashiell and Amberpaw paid attention as Tuvok continued to explain.

"Like how Molayne explained, fire-flowers are extremely difficult to grow down here for they require special sun soil to grow but even under the right conditions, they have been known not to sprout at all," Tuvok then gestured to the fire-flowers, "these flowers are grown straight from seeds. During the construction of this base before the White Witch usurped the throne and took over Narnia with her winter curse, Mother and Father who you know as Kyukon and Gandalf respectively, had taken a trip to the Narnian sun to obtain the seeds of these flowers and some soil after receiving a pass from the Rainbow Serpent, the Narnian sun's guardian, and they had managed to plant them and get them to grow but it had not been an easy task. In fact it had taken us well over two years to get the seedling to sprout…"

At this, some of the audience members, among them Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, formed astonished faces and Akira mouthed "two years?" in utter awe.

"I bet it must have been frustrating to get those flowers to sprout am I right?" asked Tesseract the Unicorn from somewhere else in the crowd.

"It did take an AWFUL lot of patience, yes," said Tuvok in a serious voice, "and caring for them during their growth was just as difficult. I think we must have planted about three hundred or so seeds but only a tiny fraction had managed to sprout with even fewer reaching maturity," Tuvok then gestured to the fire-flowers, "and these flowers are that tiny percentage we have managed to raise to that maturity for cordial extraction hence why fire-flower cordial is such an extremely rare healing potion."

"Certainly not for novice gardeners to attempt to plant and raise," said Trotterhoof with a frown.

"They're CERTAINLY not for novice hands, paws, hooves or wings to raise indeed," said Tuvok in agreement, "Anyway, moving on…" the seven-tailed Kitsune then guided the crowd to another medical plant, another glow-in-the-dark flower. Only this time the flowers were a bright neon blue and were trumpet shaped, and like the fire-flowers, their central stigmas were long and protruded from the trumpet, their colour a very deep blue compared to the petals. Kushanku gazed in awe at these flowers as Tuvok began to introduce these flowers.

"And because the fire-flower is so very rare and VERY difficult to grow as I've mentioned," he said, "We have planted a variety of other medicinal plants and herbs that are more common and easier to grow. However, the range of ailments the products extracted from these plants deal with are more specialised and narrowed than the generalist but extremely rare fire-flower cordial. This plant is called the neon blue star trumpet and its juice only treats open wounds varying from small cuts to massive gashes. It does not treat ailments involving infections or bone fractures."

The crowd gazed at the neon blue star trumpets and admired the vivid neon blue glow emanating from these beautiful flowers. Then Tuvok moved over to the patch growing a strange herb. The flowers of this herb, unlike the fire-flower and the star trumpet, were drabber but then some of the audience members such as Obsidian noticed that the texture of them was jagged, hard and stony, and bone-white, like little pieces of spiky chalk chunks attached to the thin green tendrils of the stems. These flowers were also less attractive than the flowers of most of the other plants.

"What herb or flower is that?" asked Obsidian. Tuvok moved over the rather unattractive bone-white stone-like flowers.

"This is the osteum herb," said the seven-tailed Fox, "the product of this herb's flowers is the one that treats bone fractures. In fact it helps bones to grow and fix themselves faster. The product of this herb resembles a thick white liquid and it is called Fracture-Fix Potion. However…" Tuvok's face then formed a repulsive look, "the taste of the medicine is utterly _vile_. It does NOT taste one bit nice at all."

At this, wrinkled faces of disgust formed throughout the crowd.

"Furthermore," continued Tuvok, "the bone re-growing process can be very uncomfortable, even painful, and can take hours. I had to take some of this potion when I broke my right back leg in an accident involving a log and believe me, the moment that stuff entered my mouth the first time, I spat it out and reacted, but I knew I had to take the medicine in order to fix my leg, which was also extremely uncomfortable. But in the end it was worth it and my leg's bone was fixed…"

"Did you suffer that fracture during the base's construction?" asked Desdemona.

"I did yes," said Tuvok as he gazed at the unattractive osteum herb flowers, "quite a few of the other builders also suffered some injuries. We had to grow this variety of these medical plants during the building of the base in the event of any injuries happening, and this osteum herb was one of them since it has the property of mending broken bones. Anyway, moving on…"

Tuvok then led the crowd further down the medical plant patch. As they passed by the osteum herb, Akira gazed at it and its not-so-attractive flowers.

"I suppose the foul-tasting product of this plant will have to be taken on our trip when we eventually leave on this Exodus," she said.

"We will, yes," said Trotterhoof, "In fact the products of all these plants will be what will become our medical inventory."

Akira gazed at the Pig and then moved with the crowd further on. Tuvok then continued with the lecture by giving the crowd a talk about some more of the medical plants such as a vegetable-like plant resembling a mandrake, its product used for curing tummy upsets and indigestion; the various plants used in making antibiotic-like products to help deal with infections; and a mushroom-like plant that was used in making a potion for curing poisoning (like a sort of antidote). It truly was a fascinating sight and some of the members such as Akira and Molayne appeared to be enjoying it especially. Then after Tuvok had finished talking about the mushroom-like plants called poison-cure-shrooms based on their mushroom-like shapes and the antidote properties of their product, the Fox turned to the crowd with a smile.

"Right, any questions?" he asked. Sandstorm put a paw up.

"Off you go, young Cheetah cub," said Tuvok.

"Do you have any plants that can cure those turned to stone by the Witch's sceptre?" asked Sandstone, "My mother was one of those poor individuals who had faced that fate but she was broken into pieces to ensure her demise," the Cheetah cub then felt a wave of sadness come over him as he remembered his mother Honeycomb and her demise back in Green Leaf Village before Jadis left with Soran and his family including Trotterhoof and the others. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira also took a moment to grieve for Honeycomb while Dashiell and Amberpaw glared furiously at the five young Cats.

"I'm afraid there isn't a plant, not even a plant from the Narnian sun, that can reverse the effects of the Witch's petrification, or turning to stone, of her victims," said Tuvok sadly, "The Witch's stone-turning spell is WAY too powerful, meaning that its effects are irreversible."

Sandstorm, at this, felt disappointment wash over him and he sighed. Some of the nearby members comforted him as well as Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, over the loss of Honeycomb. Then Guinan raised her hand and with Tuvok's permission, asked her question.

"Has the Witch ever used any of these plants to make her own potions and the like?" she asked. At this, a dark look formed on Tuvok's face as he began to answer the question.

"Yes," said the Kitsune in an equally dark voice, "But not only has the Witch and her cronies used these plants to make the medical potions and cordials we make, but they had also processed those plants into products to have an opposite effect to the potions and cordials these plants produce. In other words, poisons that can inflict harm. However, the Witch uses her evil magic most of the time."

The audience exchanged horrified glances before gazing back to Tuvok as he continued; a dark look on his face.

"And to add vinegar to the sensitive wounds, some of the Narnians had been trying to grow indoor mini-crops of these medical plants and herbs to make their own medical products similar to how some of you will have grown indoor food crops and trees but as with food crops, the Witch and her cronies had also forced the growers into handing over those medicine products, resulting in barely any medical resources for those Narnioans to help treat common ailments like colds and bacterial infections."

Dahlia, when she heard this, blinked with sadness as she remembered herself, Hopper and Daisytail, her parents, growing fruit on an indoor fruit tree only to have so much of it taken away by the Hag, the Shadow and the four Wolves leaving very little of the crop grown and putting the Jackalopes' efforts in growing that fruit to waste.

"The Witch's cruelty certainly knows no bounds," said a Platypus (not Webby) with disgust.

"It absolutely does not," said Tuvok in agreement and with that, he continued the lecture on the medical plants.

 **Break time**

The evacuees had dispersed to explore the various crops up and down the crop compartment and also the diversity of the spring and summer insects flitting about in the flowering areas with some Sylphs giving them a tour of the species. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm had gone to watch a clan of Alicanto Birds as they helped the farmers care for the crops and lived off some strange looking trees whose 'fruit' were of strange, even unnatural, shapes. Satoshi approached one of the metal trees, a coin tree, and examined the 'fruit' which were actually nothing more than coins (that is the coins we use in money). The coin-fruit were just like the real coins and were made of the same material and the metal tree grew in a large batch of Narnian soil Gandalf and his group had salvaged during their base construction, along with countless other metal trees of various types, such as gold-leaf and metal nuggets.

"I've never known tree species that grew from unnatural objects such as money coins," said the Nekomata as he gazed at the coin-fruit sceptically, "What sort of coins are those? Archenland currency?"

"They're Earth coins actually," said a voice. At this, Satoshi, along with Kushanku, Sandstorm, Akira and Nyarth turned round and faced Tuvok as he came in.

"They're not from this world?" asked Sandstorm.

"No they're not from this world," said Tuvok, "They're from the world of Earth, brought here by some Humans who had managed to find a way to enter Narnia. I think they're shilling and farthing coins…"

He examined the coin-fruit on the money tree and checked the images imprinted (or inherited) on their sides. Then two Alicanto appeared, perched on one of the branches and began to eat some of the coin-fruit. Their plumage was a lovely metallic gold colour with hints of silver and copper thrown in, especially at the ends of the wing and tail flight feathers. Alicanto resembled a cross between a giant songbird and a corvid (crow or raven) with the males sporting magnificent tail plumes that glittered with metallic colour, mostly gold or copper. Akira gazed at the pair of Alicanto as they talked and fed on the coin-fruit.

"They're eating those coins from the tree," she said. At this, one of the Alicanto, a male, jumped down from the branch and perched before the Nekomata.

"Metal fruit forms a large part of our diet, didn't you know, fork-tailed Cat?" said the Bird in slight annoyance, "And because of that Snow dumb Animal's winter spell that had stopped spring and summer from coming round and smothered the entire land of Narnia in snow, we had been on the brink of population collapse from starvation because trees like these cannot grow in snow."

"Oh, this is Akira, Goldbert," said Tuvok, "And her brothers Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Nyarth, her brothers and adopted brother. They have only come here to check out the metal trees."

Then the other Alicanto, a female based on her lack of long tail feathers, fluttered down and landed next to Goldbert.

"I guess you want to hear about our species' history and how it had was forced to live in Gandalf's base, am I right?" she said. The four Nekomata siblings and their adopted Cheetah brother then gathered round, curiosity propelling them.

"We would love to," said Kushanku.

"We wanna know what Narnia was like before the Eternal Winter started," put in Satoshi. Then Goldbert nodded to the female, his mate and began while Tuvok left to check on some more Alicanto as Goldbert opened up the story.

"We used to be a thriving species of Narnian Bird alongside the other Talkjing Beasts and creatures like Centaurs and Fauns before that White Witch returned and turned Narnia into a frozen wasteland with no summer, spring, autumn or Christmas. Metallic trees were abundant, having been grown from a small variety of Human metal things brought by them into this world from Earth. Metal things included coins, metal nuggets, metal leaves and even nuts, bolts and keys made of metal. We began to harvest the fruit from those parental trees to grow our own food sources or we had assistance. Some of us moved to the underground region with the Gnomes for metal and gem trees were very common. Metal fruit, you see, is the staple of our diet and is what contributes to our plumage colours."

Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm exchanged glances and continued listening as Goldbert's story turned sad.

"But when that White Witch came to power and turned Narnia into this snowy wasteland and displacing summer, spring, autumn or Christmas into oblivion, we were plunged into peril for the metal trees, alongside the other, organic trees, could not grow in such conditions, and we were faced with decimation by starvation, along with the cold and the clutches of her HORRIBLE cronies. Furthermore, whatever metal tree we tried to grow indoors for our food were forcibly taken away from us by the Witch and her cronies so that they could use the metal fruit harvested from them for their own selfish needs such as the Witch's self-image and idols. That, combined with the inability of the metal trees to grow in the snowy land, led to many of us starving to death."

"But Mr Gandalf and his helpers had managed to salvage as many of those metal objects as they could to grow in here to provide you with a food source out of the Witch's clutches, am I right?" asked Nyarth. Goldbert nodded.

"That is true," said the Alicanto who was actually the clan patriarch, "and some of us had been rescued by his assistants and brought here so that our population could recover and survive through this horrible time until Aslan comes and brings in the Winter Revolution."

"Can't you eat any other food?" asked Sandstorm.

"We're metallivores (metal eaters)," replied Goldbert's mate, "We only eat metal fruit and pretty much nothing else. However, we can sometimes eat jewel fruits but those sorts of fruit are rare, few and far between. They're more common in the gnome underground city where our cousins live."

As the female Alicanto spoke, Satoshi gazed at the butterfly garden nearby. Goldbert followed his gaze.

"Those butterflies and other insects had also been threatened with extinction by the Eternal Winter brought on us by Jadis since they depend on flowers and other plants to survive," said the golden bird, "so they had been rescued and brought here for species conservation as well, and their descendants will be released into Narnia once the Winter Revolution comes…"

"Will you and your clan be staying here?" asked Satoshi.

"No," said Goldbert with a shake of his head, his mate doing the same, "We're gonna come with you lot on the Exodus to Archenland once you guys are ready."

"B-b-but how are you gonna survive without your precious source of metallic food?" asked Akira in shock.

"You'd face starvation again," put in Kushanku.

"We're gonna gather some of the metal food and take it with us," said Goldbert's mate, "and thankfully, Archenland has a thicket of metal trees for us to live until it is time to return to Narnia once the Winter Revolution comes. We're only staying here temporarily."

Kushanku exchanged glances with his three siblings and adopted Cheetah brother. Then the group spotted some bizarre creatures sleeping on some sort of glittering pink-white clouds. They resembled Elephants but with Tiger-like paws, tails like a Bovine, and their fur was a variety of vivid neon colours, similar to our world's highlighter pen colours, and many had highly contrasting black stripes strewn through their neon pelt. They appeared to be sitting or resting on puffs of mysterious sparkly pink, orange, gold and red fluffy cotton, which resembled the colour of clouds bathed in the rays of the setting sun at sunset, or the rising sun at sunrise.

"What are those creatures?" asked Kushanku.

"Those creatures are called Baku," replied Goldbert, "They are a type of Moon creature that feed mostly on Dream Clouds, clouds that float high in the sky above Narnia and close to the Star People's domain and are captured and processed by specialised creatures such as Sylphs called Dream Sylphs, and the Rabbit like-Moon Viscacha who live on the Narnian moon, and when a concoction of Dream Clouds is processed, the Dream Sylphs either feed them to the Baku or journey down to Narnia and the other countries and distribute them amongst sleepers by blowing them through special golden tubes into their homes. Baku, like Dream Sylphs and the Moon Viscacha, are from the Narnian moon."

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira gazed at the brightly coloured Elephant-faced Baku as they continued to sit on their clouds talking, some of them smiling and waving to the quintet when they saw them gazing at them.

"Oh, and what are those individuals doing down here and in Mr Gandalf's base?" asked Satoshi. A dark look formed on Goldbert's face.

"Baku sometimes come down from the moon to visit the land along with the Dream Sylphs and Moon Viscacha during their dream distribution trips," explained the Alicanto, "But shortly after the Witch usurped the throne and locked Narnia in the grip of this Eternal Winter, when one group of those moon inhabitants came down on one of their usual trips to distribute dreams, they ended up coming face to face with the wicked Snow Animal and many of them were captured. However, those Baku, Viscacha and Dream Sylphs had managed to escape that evil Witch's castle and grounds with the help of, according to one of the Viscacha, a young female Manticore and some friends of hers, and had sought refuge in Gandalf's base as you now see. The Baku are resting in here but the Sylphs and Viscacha are somewhere else throughout the base, helping with the chores and maintenance," the golden Bird's gaze then returned to the Baku on their glitter clouds, "and since we are unable to have any access to Dream Clouds without leaving our base without potentially exposing its location to any of Jadis's patrolling cronies, we have had to resort to feeding them organic fruit and vegetables which, thankfully, they are able to eat alongside any Dream Clouds the Dream Sylphs and Viscacha had managed to smuggle into the base in the form of diamond bottles. Once we leave to go to Archenland, those guys will be released back to the moon along with the Viscacha and the Dream Sylphs, where they will stay until the Winter Revolution."

Kushsanku and his siblings gazed once again at the Elephant-like creatures as they continued to sit on their clouds before moving on with Goldbert to talk about another topic.

 **Meanwhile**

Dashiell was taking a walk down the corridor leading to the crop compartment, a disgruntled and sour look still plastering his face. It was clear that he has not been enjoying the lessons in combat skills and the medical plants and was not one bit interested in any of it. During the first combat lessons, Dashiell had just stayed on the sidelines watching everyone else take their first combat and sparring lessons while Amberpaw who was also equally as disinterested had been loitering around much to the chagrin of the organisers of the lessons, and during the medical crop introductory lesson hosted by Tuvok, Dashiell and Amberpaw had not been listening to any of the seven-tailed Kitsune's talks about the medical plants so Dashiell and Amberpaw barely remembered the names of any of the plants much less what properties their products produced (though they did remember the fire-flower but they did not remember why it was so difficult to grow and how its flowers were made into the red healing cordial). Because of their behaviour, concern had taken root within some of Gandalf's helpers and two of the Fairies who were farmers and carers of the crops, had been worried about the two Cheetah's behaviour and lack of interest in the subjects. This was worrying for the lessons the evacuees had just had was to be the start of their preparatory road to the Exodus and if Dashiell and Amberpaw did not pay attention, they were going to be in trouble, for there were to be exams set up at the end of each time period to test the evacuees' knowledge and skills once enough lessons had been given, and Dashiell and Amberpaw would fail these miserably if they didn't pick up pace, but this was not the only problem.

While Dashiell continued to walk along the corridor, muttering disgruntledly to himself, his paw landed on something hard and smooth. At this, the Cheetah gazed downward and saw that he had stepped onto a book. Befuddled as to where it had come from, for the book seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, Dashiell picked it up and looked at its cover. The cover had 'The True History of Narnia: The Evolution of the World from a Molten Disc' written on it, to which a smile formed on Dashiell's face.

"This is more like it," he whispered triumphantly at finding something to his liking. Then, tucking the book under his forelimb, the Cheetah darted off back to the crop compartment to call the evacuees to establish a lesson in teaching the evolutionary view of Narnia's history from the book. However, as Dashiell left, a Cat peered out from behind a protrusion in the wall and smirked after Dashiell. It had been the one to place the book in front of Dashiell and now it was sniggering as it watched the Cheetah leave with it, its plan of getting some of the evacuees' doubt in the actual history of Narnia (the book had been purposely misnamed to mislead Dashiell into believing that the evolutionary view was the true history and not the story involving Aslan singing Narnia into existence) taking shape.

 **Sometime later**

Tuvok called together all the evacuees with a loud whistle and a Fairy using a bell to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, everyone, it's time for part two of our lesson on the medical plants," called Tuvok to which the evacuees responded and rushed to gather around him once again, "This time it's an introduction to how those medical plants are processed into their potions and other products, something you'll eventually learn to perform with us to build your medical kits for your Exodus…"

The pattering of hooves, feet, talons and paws thundered the air as the evacuees rushed over to Tuvok. Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira and Nyarth rushed in with Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Cyril, Paddy (Padparadscha), Link, Desdemona, Trotterhoof, Molayne, Thundersparex, Ahhuayo, Obsidian and Milky Way and also Shadewing, Rubyfeather and Quill the Hedgehog and Mensa, Snowwing's mother hurried along with the others but as they gathered around Tuvok as he and some Fairy assistants prepared to open up the intro of the equipment used in the transformation of the plants into the potions, Quill noticed someone missing.

"Hey, where are your biological father and your sister, Sandstorm?" asked the Hedgehog.

"And some of my kits," put in Faline as she, Fluffy-Cotton and the remaining kits looked around for the missing family members.

"Some of the other members are missing too," said Tesseract the Unicorn as he stood with Buck.

At this, Shadewing the Bat came in and examined the missing members as well.

"Well they should be here for part two of our medical plants lesson," he said. Then a Fairy flitted in.

"Problem, folks?" he said. Shadewing turned to the male mini-Humanoid with butterfly wings.

"There are some of us missing," he said worriedly. As he said this, a golden Alicanto appeared.

"Um, guys," said the gold feathered bird, "I think they're over there," and with that he pointed a talon in said direction. Shadewing, the Fairy and some of the others followed the Alicanto's point and saw a small gathering close to the entrance to the compartment of the dumb animal farm. Tuvok also came in and when his eyes found the small gathering, a frown formed above them, especially as Sandstorm recognised a certain form at the front talking to them.

"Dad?" said the Cheetah cub.

"What's Dashiell doing?" asked Trotterhoof while Tesseract trotted off to examine the group closer. Tuvok then shot the Pig a frown.

"Well, I hope that Cheetah's not causing a distraction, Trotterhoof," said the seven-tailed Fox, "since that lot over there need to know how to prepare the medical plants and make them into the medical potions and cordials."

As he spoke, Tesseract returned, a look of dread on his face.

"Tuvok," said the young Unicorn, "It's Mr Dashiell, and I believe he's teaching something about the creatures of Narnia evolving from some microbial ancestors millions of years ago…"

"What!?" snapped Tuvok and before anyone else could speak to him, the Fox was off in the direction of the little group being taught by the Cheetah which was indeed Dashiell, and he had a book with him. Kushanku walked up to Tesseract.

"The evolution of us from the microbes?" he said, "That's not what Mr Gandalf told us."

"Some of us, sadly, still believe that despite being told time and time again that that history is not true," said Tesseract with a frown, "And Mr Gandalf has even given us some copies of the Chronicles Book to carry with us to remind us of Narnia's true history."

As he spoke, one of Faline's kits reached into a little bag and pulled out one of the books which had the words 'Narnia and Its History and Prophecies' printed on it in solid gold letters. Before the combat and self-defence lesson, Gandalf had ordered that a number of copies of the book be distributed amongst the group to serve as reminders, as well as educational books, for the group of Narnia's true history in the event of doubt. The little group gathered around Dashiell also had some of these copies but they didn't seem interested in reading them for they were too snagged by Dashiell's talking about the false history of Narnia, the evolution story.

"The creatures of the Cat family such as Cheetahs like myself and Ambewrpaw; Regular Cats, Lions, Tigers, Nekomata and Bakeneko," continued Dashiell, drawing a bendy line on the wall from a small circle (representing a microbe) through a wavy line (representing the water of the seas of Narnia) to a simple picture of a Cat's face to represent all Cats, "have evolved from one type of microbe while the Dogs, such as Regular Dogs, Wolves, Coyotes, Foxes and Kitsune, have evolved from another type of microbe…" he pointed to another wavy line connecting another microbe circle to a simple drawing of a Dog to represent the Dog family. Many of the listeners, among them some of Faline's Rabbit kits, and Dashiell's own daughter Amberpaw, looked on with smiles of fascination while some noted down some notes in their writing pads they had also been given by Gandalf. As Dashiell continued to talk to the listeners, a firm "Heh-hem!" sounded nearby, bringing the attention of the listeners to the source. Dashiell also shot the source, who was Tuvok who had a stern look on his face as if to say, "What are you doing?", an annoyed glare.

"Excuse me, Fox," said Dashiell irritably, "I'm trying to give a lesson here."

"That lot should be with the others over there," said the Seven-tailed Kitsune with a paw point to the other evacuees, "ready to learn about how the medical plants are processed into the medical potions and cordials."

"But shouldn't the evacuees learn about Narnia's history as well?" asked Dashiell. At this, Tuvok glared at the Cheetah while the listeners exchanged glances, some of them confused.

"Excuse me, but we have already had a discussion on Narnia's history with Father (Gandalf) prior to your first combat and self-defence lessons," he said in a low voice, "And Narnia's history is to be tomorrow's lesson. Why are you teaching it now?"

As he spoke, Tuvok's eyes landed on a drawing on the wall consisting of wavy lines drawn from small circles through another wavy line drawn horizontally, to various drawings of a variety of creatures such as a Cat, a Dog, an Elemental Bird (to represent the Phoenixes, Ice Rocs and the like), and some more wavy line drawn from the microbe circles to the simple drawings of various sea creatures under the horizontal wavy line (intended to represent Narnia's ocean) such as a Mermaid, a Dolphin and an Ichthyo-Centaur. The moment the seven-tailed Fox's eyes registered what the diagram was supposed to represent, dread came over him and he walked over to it.

"Oh, no, no, no," he said with a headshake and as he passed by the listeners, he demanded a pencil from one of them and stormed over to the image on the wall. Then before Dashiell or anyone else could protest, the sound of pencil pressed very hard on rock erupted as Tuvok began to angrily score out the image by moving his paw with the pencil in it from side to side at a very fast rate such that his paw and the pencil merged into a blurry form. His teeth were gritted and his eyes were morphed into a furious look as he applied effort full-throttle, sending pencil chippings flying everywhere from his whizzing paw as he continued to score out the image. From the entrance to the dumb animal farm compartment, a couple of Elves peered round the corner, curious at the commotion.

"What are you DOING!?" shouted Dashiell with a lunge at Tuvok only to be swatted away gently by one of the Fox's seven tails, "I NEED THAT!"

The listeners also protested but Tuvok ignored them and continued scoring out the image until it was nothing more than a squiggly mess. Then turning to the two Elves watching, Tuvok ordered them, "Get some buckets of soapy water and cleaning tools such as scrubbing brushes and cloths for this little group of disobedient creatures so that they can scrub off this mess."

The two Elves, despite the confusion, nodded and left to fetch the requested equipment. Then Tuvok turned angrily to Dashiell.

"I will NOT have ANYONE attempting to teach ANYTHING that CONTRADICTS that is written in the 'Narnia and Its History and Prophecies' books distributed by Father to these creatures," shouted the seven-tailed Fox angrily, "otherwise, doubt could form from such _heresies_ …"

"What, you mean the history of Narnia in which some oversized Puddy Tat has caterwauled Narnia into existence!?" retorted Dashiell with mockery sprinkled in his tone of voice. Then Amberpaw came in.

"That flea-bitten Kitty-Cat with a bush around its head doesn't exist, anyway," she added. At this, Tuvok shot a paw point at the two Cheetahs and said in a dangerously low voice, "Don't you EVER… say those things about the Great Lion and mock him that way."

Dashiell and Amberpaw just gazed at each other and shrugged.

"And as for this Golden Time Prophecy or whatever it's called," continued Dashiell, "That doesn't exist either and it's never likely to happen."

Tuvok, at this, felt shock tear through him.

"Have you lost faith in Aslan, you two?" he asked. No reply from the father and daughter Cheetahs except a childish, disgruntled glare. Nearby, the two Elves had returned with the buckets of soapy water and the cleaning tools and had ordered Dashiell's class to start cleaning the drawing made by Dashiell but scribbled out by Tuvok, much to the displeasure of the individuals and they reluctantly set to the task. Tuvok continued questioning Dashiell and Amberpaw.

"Because if you have, you two," continued the seven-tailed Fox, "if you're trying to cause doubt in everyone else and drag them into your pit of unbelief, I will have you taken away to the detention room. Not to mention trying to sow seeds of doubt by promoting a heretical false teaching like you tried to do, something Aslan will NOT tolerate."

"False teaching?" repeated Dashiell confused.

"Any teaching that is NOT written in the 'Narnia and Its History and Prophecies' book Aslan had commanded be written or ANYTHING that contradicts Aslan's word is a heretical false teaching," replied Tuvok to which Dashiell and Amberpaw did not reply, "Which must be nipped in the bud before it causes damage and division… and what you were trying to teach seconds ago is one such heresy."

"It can't be a heresy," said Dashiell defiantly, "and besides that, there is evidence to prove that we all evolved from microbial ancestors and not created by some Cat with a messy hairdo…"

At this, Tuvok called for some more Elves and Dwarfs nearby and apprehend Dashiell and Amberpaw, Dashiell's defiance and mockery of Aslan having given him the last straw. The Elves and Dwarfs came in and seized the two Cheetahs much to their angry protests.

"Take those two to the detention room," commanded Tuvok to which the apprehenders of Dashiell and Amberpaw obeyed. As the two Cheetahs were dragged away, Dashiell began to screech at Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm.

"You five have REALLY crossed the line this time!" bellowed Dashiell as two Elves and a Dwarf ordered him along, "You should KNOW FULL WELL that this Aslan creature does NOT EXIST!"

Kushanku and his siblings, however, refused to listen to Dashiell and Amberpaw as the pair was frogmarched out of the crop compartment. At the spot where Dashiell had attempted to teach some of the creatures the false history of Narnia, those Animals were put to work in cleaning and scrubbing the mess of the wall under the commands of the two Elves. Tuvok returned to the others as a Fairy flew in.

"Well, that's the end of that little distraction," said she, "The last thing we want is any doubts spreading like a weed and dividing the evacuees during this harsh and dreadful time."

Tuvok nodded in agreement and resumed leading the lesson in how the medical plants were made into their respective cordials and potions used in medical kits.


	47. Chapter 46

**Chapter 46- a rumour takes root, over the next few weeks**

 **Night-time, and back at Jadis's castle**

Malefor stood with an ashamed Ape's face before the bone-white skinned Humanoid that was the Witch, her crown of icicles glinting in the light and her sinister onyx-like eyes glaring furiously at the Manticore as she continued to shout and yell at him, lambasting and criticising him over being a lousy father and allowing his daughter, Dionaea, to escape even though it was not Malefor's fault.

Around the confrontation scene, a number of the Witch's cronies had gathered as they watched Jadis continue to lambast and criticise Malefor over Dionaea's disappearance. When Malefor turned up without Dionaea by his side along with the Chupacabra and the Gorgon when the three had been ordered by Jadis to bring Dionaea before her for execution for allowing the Rainbow Serpent to escape along with the captured batch of sea creatures, among them some Merfolk from the Narnian Sea, Jadis had flown into an extremely volcanic rage, startling the Chupacabra and the Gorgon into fleeing and joining with their friends in the crony crowd.

While Malefor continued to be lambasted by Jadis, the Manticore constantly flinching and wincing at every stabbing remark from the wicked Witch, the Chupacabra and the Gorgon that had accompanied him to fetch Dionaea were still saturated with immense befuddlement at Malefor's daughter's disappearance.

"And that window to her room had been locked tight as well," said the Chupacabra in disbelief, "How could she escape?"

"I don't know but I don't like it one bit," said one of the other creatures, a Tanuki, a Raccoon-like creature that had the abilities of basic magic and telekinesis and, in the case of those who had joined Jadis's side, shapeshifting and illusion casting as well after training in those dark sorcery fields. The Gorgon then turned to Malefor as Jadis shouted to him, "You shall not die, but as punishment for allowing your daughter to escape, you are hereby stripped of your job as Head of the Manticore Police to the level of subordination; and that role shall be passed onto your younger brother, Scar…"

"Looks like Malefor's lost his leadership of the Manticores, folks," said she, "and it looks like Scar's going to take over as Head of the group."

As the Gorgon spoke, the Tanuki turned round and saw a group of Black Dwarves come by with a large bag, like a body bag, extremely sad and mournful looks on their faces. You need not guess what was in the body bag the Black Dwarves carried. Sadness and sympathy came over the Racoon Dog as he gazed sadly at the mourning Dwarves.

"And I also cannot believe that Gollum, the head of the Black Dwarves, has died as well," said the Raccoon-like creature.

"That Dionaea and her comrades are responsible for his death when they set the Rainbow Serpent free," said the Chupacabra with outrage, "Had I'd been there, I'd have had my teeth to her throat there and then but sadly I wasn't."

Just then, Malefor came by, a sad and furious look on his face while Jadis's voice barked, "NOW BACK TO WORK, ALL OF YOU!" prompting the gathered crowd to disperse like a crowd of people confronted by a giant monster threatening to stomp on them. Malefor, despite feeling utterly saddened over the loss of his role as Manticore leader, still felt glad that he was alive, and that he still had the job as part of Jadis's secret Manticore police.

"Well, I guess that's it for you as Manticore Head," said the Chupacabra as it walked alongside the crestfallen Manticore, "Looks like you're to work under your younger brother's leadership."

"I KNOW!" snapped Manticore fiercely, making the furless and utterly ugly Dog-like creature with fangs flinch. The Chupacabra stopped and shot the Gorgon and the Tanuki a stunned look at the Manticore's short fuse but the Raccoon Dog and Snake-haired Humanoid Woman only shrugged.

"Let's just return to work, shall we?" said the Gorgon, "I heard Jadis is planning on preparing the Stone Table for those traitorous victors Soran, Lightningflash and their families for sacrifice once the time comes for them to die for their actions…"

The Chupacabra, at this, formed a wicked smirk on its snout and left with the Gorgon, the Tanuki and the other cronies of the Witch.

 **The next day at Gandalf's base: morning**

The following morning at Gandalf's base, the evacuees were preparing for their next lesson, Narnia's history. TRUE history that is, beginning from Aslan's creation of Narnia and the planting of the Tree of Protection to the beginning of the Age of Winter, and Gandalf had also ordered that some of the prophecies, among them the Golden Age one, be taught as well, and quite a few of the evacuees had been looking forward to learning about the truth behind Jadis's tyrannical rule using the Age of Winter for a long time since all they had learned was the false view of Narnia's history of their origins from microbes in some primitive Narnian sea. Others, however, were saturated with confusion, especially after Gandalf had shown them and the other evacuees a presentation of the propaganda-promoting 'Fighting League' film and had always wondered how it was false, besides being false after witnessing the gory nature of the Massacre Event. Not to mention the heartbreak many had suffered over the loss of loved ones in that horrible Arena of Blood after being forced from them and thrown in there by the Witch and her cronies like wild, dumb animals. But aside from that, the real answers they were seeking to the slew of burning questions such as 'Was Jadis really born in Narnia?' had been bugging them greatly and were yearning for answers as much as a deer was yearning for water but could not find it in the frigid lands aboveground, but they need not search any longer for Gandalf and Kyukon had set up a history and Prophecies lesson to take place this morning but in the meantime, the evacuees were preparing.

While some of the young Talking Beasts, among them Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm and also Crystal the Parrot, Snowwing the Skvader and Dahlia the Jackalope, were exiting the sleeping compartment where they slept in the honeycomb-like holes, the higher ones accessed by magic levitating platforms or those able to fly, an Elephant came by. Like many of the other Beasts and creatures, she was bothered by the same questions regarding Narnia's true history.

"I've always wanted to know if that Witch was born in Narnia or not," said the Elephant, named Nessa, "Because I remembering Mother, before she was forcibly selected by that tyrant to participate in the Massacre Event ten years ago before the most recent one," she took a moment to mourn the loss of her mother to the bloodbath of an event before continuing, "saying that Jadis was in fact from somewhere else outside the disc of Narnia when I was a Calf, but I thought she was talking about her being some type of extra-Narnian creature (equivalent to calling aliens in our world not of this earth 'extra-terrestrials') or something."

"She actually came from a dying world called Charn," said Trotterhoof as he came by with Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Link, Molayne and Obsidian, "So yes she is, in essence, an extra-Narnian, or an alien to this world."

"But how?" asked Nessa, "How did she end up here in the first place?"

"We'll find out when we go to the history and Prophecies lesson, Nessa," said Kushanku as he walked alongside his siblings. Nessa then formed a hopeful smile under her trunk and continued following the crowd.

While the evacuees continued to exit the sleeping compartments, one of the young female Harpies (or Bird-Person) had wandered away from the group to a dark corner, having spotted movement in that area. Compelled by curiosity, she, after flashing a glance at her older sister who told her not to wander off, left her side to investigate and as soon as she was near the spot, she was greeted by a form, a Donkey. At this, the young Harpy girl assumed the big-eared Horse creature (Donkeys were a type of Horse and were distinguished by their smaller size and larger, longer ears) had wandered from the others.

"What are you doing hiding here?" asked the young Bird-Person girl, "Aren't you supposed to be with the others going to where we're gonna have our Narnia history and Prophecies lesson?"

The Donkey hesitated at first before finally speaking.

"I was yes," it said, before a serious expression formed on its face, "But I have just noticed something disturbing."

The young Harpy turned her Humanoid face to one side in curiosity and raised an eyebrow and twitched her feathered wings.

"Disturbing?" she repeated, "You mean the unease that seemingly plaguing Mr Gandalf's helpers?"

"Exactly," said the Donkey, "Apparently, there is something afoot in this base, something that should NOT be in here at all. Even Gandalf is seriously troubled by this matter."

"I know Mr Gandlaf and Mrs Kyukon are troubled by whatever is afoot in this base," replied the Harpy girl, "But we just don't know what it is yet. Mr Gandalf and the others are just hoping to catch it and apprehend it before it does any potential damage."

The Donkey then hardened its facial gaze.

"Well, I believe I know who that trouble is," said the small big-eared Horse, before lowering its head and then raised it back up with its mouth grasping a sheet of paper, "Have a look at this picture."

The Donkey then handed the sheet to the young Harpy who took it and gazed at it.

"That creature in that picture," said the Donkey in a serious voice, "Is the reason why Gandalf and the others are feeling completely unsettled. He is one of the Witch's spies who has somehow intruded into here, and he needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Make sure Gandalf gets that so that he can tell his mate and helpers to seize that creature and incarcerate him."

The Harpy continued to gaze at the creature in the picture. It showed a Cat-like creature and it was standing on its hind legs. Its tail was forked and its face was morphed into a devilish expression with its teeth showing. Furthermore, the creature had light grey fur on its head and upper body, a waterfall of white hair cascading down the sides and back of its head and the fur on its body was a very icy blue with a metallic sheen. The Harpy flinched when she identified the creature.

"So this Cat is one of the Witch's cronies?" she said to the Donkey. The Donkey nodded.

"Now you take that picture to Gandalf at once," it said, "and also let everyone else know. That creature must be seized and dealt with before he does any more damage. The last thing anyone needs, least of all Gandalf, is this base losing its secret and its location being revealed to the Witch."

The Harpy girl stood there for a minute, her face laced with confusion but after remembering how serious the subject on the intruder in the base was, she turned tail and scrabbled her Bird's talons on the rock floor, revving into a dash.

"I'll let Mr Gandalf and the others know RIGHT AWAY!" she squealed before dashing off after the other evacuees leaving their sleeping compartment, "Thank you so much!"

"Then make sure that Gandalf GETS THAT and that EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS AT ONCE!" shouted the Donkey but the Harpy girl was already out of earshot.

 **A while later**

And so the Narnia history and Prophecy lesson was underway. This lesson was just an introduction to Narnia's history beginning with its creation by Aslan and the entry of a few extra-Narnian creatures into the world during its creation, among them the infamous Jadis who the evacuees now knew was the tyrannical and false Queen of the country and the one who put a curse over it to lock it in the Eternal Winter, and the teacher in charge of this lesson was a Tanuki (one of the Raccoon-Dogs loyal to Aslan and not the Tanuki who has fallen for the Witch's side) and one of Gandalf's helpers, and a Red Dwarf was assisting him, and Kyukon was overlooking the lesson from one side of the stage platform on which the Tanuki and the Dwarf stood delivering the lesson. However, as the lesson continued with all eyes and ears cocked to receiving the information, the Harpy girl was passing a sheet of paper around to other young Talking Beasts and creatures and whispering to more of them. As the sheet of paper was passed between individuals, the grownups' eyes were too focused on the lesson to even notice, and the Harpy girl was whispering into the ears of some of the nearest creatures and young Talking Beasts told to her by the Donkey about a certain Nekomata. Many of the Talking Beasts flinched when they saw the piece of paper, which contained the description of that Nekomata and not the one with the picture of that Nekomata with a demonic look on its face the Harpy girl had received from the Donkey for she was planning on showing Kyukon and Gandalf later. While this happened, the Tanuki continued talking about the planting of the Tree of Protection by two Human kids (referred to as Sons of Adam for males, and Daughters of Eve for the females). Like most of everyone else, he and his Dwarf assistant were also unaware that the Harpy girl was spreading a rumour about a certain Nekomata in the crowd.

As the Harpy girl continued spreading a rumour about the Nekomata being one of Jadis's spies, Nessa the Elephant saw her, raised her trunk, took hold of the Bird-Person's left feathered wing and firmly tugged it to snap her out of chatting with the other youngsters and to pay attention to the lesson. However, Nessa tugged on her wing unintentionally harder than she intended which sent a dull pain coursing through the Bird-Person girl's wing and making her yelp and shoot the Elephant an outraged glare.

"NESSA!" bellowed the little Bird-Person, bringing the lesson to a halt as the Tanuki and Dwarf glared into the crowd.

"What's going on!?" demanded the Tanuki or Racoon-Dog annoyed. At this, Nessa stood up and apologised.

"Sorry, sir," said the Elephant, "but Breezefeather here was talking and interrupting the other Talking Beasts."

"Did NOT!" retorted the Harpy girl, Breezefeather angrily, prompting the sea of heads into turning their gazes at her such that she was the centre of attention. Somewhere in the crowd, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira gazed with curiosity at the interruption. Then a young Unicorn foal (not Tesseract), suddenly put the piece of paper under her to hide it from view, especially as an adult Harpy, a male and one of Gandalf's assistants, flew in, an angry look at Nessa and Breezefeather.

"Well, if we have any more interruptive talking or silliness amongst you kids," he said sternly, "such as distracting other kids from listening to _Jiguzaguma and his Dwarf assistant then we shall be VERY cross. Now sit back down and listen to the lesson."_

 _Obediently and with some of the adults, among them a few more Harpies and Elephants near them glaring at the two, Nessa and Breezefeather did so and resumed listening to Jiguzaguma as he continued the lesson, beginning with Jadis's conquest for the throne and the Golden Age Prophecy. However, the piece of paper the Unicorn had under him continued to be passed around the crowd and soon, Kushanku, Akira, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Nyarth noticed a few dirty and suspicious looks turned their way but when they looked up at the individuals bearing them, those individuals snapped their gazes back to Jiguzaguma and his Dwarf assistant. Seeing nothing serious about this act, the four kits and their adopted Cheetah brother resumed listening to the lesson as well._

 _ **After the lesson**_

As the large room was emptied as the evacuees left, Obsidian spotted Gandalf holding one of the important books telekinetically before his face (based on a neon blue aura surrounding the book and Gandalf's eyes lit up with the same blue light), gazing into a book at something. At this, the Wampus Cat left Thundersparx and Milky Way's side and walked over to the nine-tailed Fox.

"Hey, Gandalf, what are you reading about? The Stone Table?" asked she.

"Oh, no the prophecy for Narnia's end times, Obsidian," replied Gandalf as he continued to mentally hold the book before his face and turn a page. Obsidian gazed into the book and saw some mysterious and confusing squiggles written next to some pictures she could also not decipher.

"The writing's in a language I'm not familiar with," said the Wampus Cat as she was befuddled by the mysterious writing. Gandalf, at this, telekinetically closed the book and moved it to under his right front foreleg and turned to Obsidian.

"It's written in our own conceived language called 'Kitsunese' Obsidian," said the ivory and metallic yellow furred Fox, his nine tails sweeping like a massive fan behind him, "It's intended for further confidentiality for these ultra-important prophecies so that any intruders who attempted to read these books will instead be stuck with a massive language barrier," as he said this, unease crept over him but Obsidian did not notice it at first. Gandalf continued, "The chapter I was reading was what I have entitled, The Last Days of Narnia, and it's the last and final chapter of the main Chronicles book and believe me, the prophecies in that chapter I have written as inspired by Aslan are very dark and disturbing."

"Disturbing?" repeated Obsidian confused and slightly uneasily. Gandalf, at this, gazed at the book under his front leg.

"Yes, disturbing," said the nine-tailed Kitsune, "To give you an idea, there will be a Deceptive Leader who will claim to have been sent by Aslan and deceive many with his Accomplice…"

"A Deceptive Leader who will claim to have been sent by Aslan?" repeated Obsidian perplexed, "I'm confused. And who is this Deceptive Leader?"

Gandalf smiled. "It is confusing yes, and as for the identity of the Deceptive Leader, that is unknown but it will all become clear in Aslan's timing," he said, "But now is not the time to discuss it. Now is the time to focus on your training for your Exodus to Archenland from Jadis's tyrannical rule, so if you don't mind, can you leave with the others please?"

Obsidian nodded and did so. However, the Wampus Cat stopped and turned to Gandalf again.

"There is something I feel I should tell you, sir," she said, "It happened yesterday during our first training lesson."

"Yes," said Gandalf.

"When a little tiff broke out between Buck and a Kappa to the point of them almost brawling," said Obsidian, "Nyarth and I came across an abnormal-looking Rabbit that almost snatched the Kappa's necklace, apparently her engagement present only to be stopped in its tracks by Kushanku and believe me," the Wampus Cat shuddered, "Its facial look resembled the demonic glare of a Banshee, a Hag or a Wendigo. Now I have no idea what was wrong with that Rabbit but I just thought I wanted you to know."

"Right, thanks for telling me," said Gandalf sternly, "I'll send in my security helpers to question every Rabbit if they have seen anything abnormal amongst them."

Obsidian smiled and departed, leaving Gandalf to carry the book away and call together some of his security helpers.

 **Over the next few weeks**

As more days and weeks passed, the evacuees continued training in more combat lessons and learning more about medical plants and their potion products and how to make those potions, and the skills and talents of each of the evacuees was becoming obvious. Kushanku was now starting to hone in his ability to fly voluntarily while learning basic aerial combat moves; Nyarth was a skilled cluttered-environment jumper and fighter, Akira found herself being good at using the potions made from the medical plants including the fire-flower cordial which she first applied to a young Fairy boy who injured his wing during a combat training, though Tuvok and some others warned her that the cordial was to be used sparingly due to its extreme rarity and the difficulty in growing its plant the evacuees had learned during their first medical plant lesson; Satoshi was a skilled swordfighter and had developed limited telekinesis (Nekomata were also amongst the few species that had this ability), and Sandstorm had developed into a speedy fighter. Dahlia the young Jackalope also found that she had a talent in sword-fighting and using the medical potions, Snowwing the Skavader and his mother Mensa became quite skilled aerial fighters though Snowwing was better at the ability than his mother, and Crystal the Parrot and her mother Rubyfeather aerial archers, being able to use their talons adeptly in handling the bow and arrows similar to how a creature with hands, such as a Centaur or Human, would handle the weapon. Alexandrite and Padparadscha also found they had limited telekinesis as well as a talent in sword-fighting and soon, they had become able to move nearby small objects mentally and use them as an additional weapon during the sparring sessions (though they were careful not to hit their opponents with them and injure them; that skill will come when they come to fight REAL opponents); Molayne found his talent in land agility, being able to adroitly dodge his practice opponents' attempts to 'hit' him with their sticks as well as shoot from one spot to the next like a ninja, giving him the illusion that he teleported from place to place, and Satoshi also found himself being able to utilise this ability too; and Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Milky Way were able to use their own wings and talons or hooves as weapons both on land and in the air as well. Thundersparx had honed his ability in using his electricity as a weapon and Obsidian became a skilled four-pawed fighter, being able to rear up onto her hind legs and use her middle and front paws to hold four swords and wield them with such skill, even managing to outsmart Perseus the Centaur during a sparring session against him and 'subdue' him at one point, much to Perseus's astonishment and pride. And many of the other evacuees were also showing signs of developing in their key areas as well. Guinan and Shadewing the Bat had become skilled in using the potions and performing distraction techniques, Quill the Hedgehog had learned to use his own quills as weapons as well as curl up into a ball and roll to attack, and Ahhuayo had eventually learned how to use a sword in both his front hands and his tail-hand though he was still wracked with trouble with whatever was afoot in the base. In addition to all this, Nanu the Wolf continued to learn about the truth of Jadis and her minions and their cruel nature which continued to shake his belief in Jadis as being a flawless angel figure to the core, leading him to doubt his trust in the evil Witch. However, it will be some time before he eventually relents. Things certainly were going on despite the negative happening in the background such as Belladonna's disappearance and the appearance of various creatures with a bizarre demonic face not natural to those species in some parts of the base.

Speaking of this, every Rabbit including Fluffy-Cotton and her mother Faline had been questioned over seeing an unusual individual of their species having a demonic, Wendigo-like face as Nyarth put it, but Gandalf had also ordered that everyone else of the other species present keep an eye on their own species as well for any abnormal or suspicious behaviour. The search for the escaped Belladonna also continued with still no avail, proving this task to be incredibly tricky and frustrating especially since Gandalf and Kyukon want her found and caught as soon as possible for the safety of the base and everyone living within it, especially the evacuees. Furthermore, Troodon and the two Rabbit kits continued to wander about the base, Gandalf's helpers also hot on their tail. They kept whipping up trouble for Kushanku at every opportunity they had, and at one point they managed to land him in trouble with some Fairy and Bird-Harpy cooks at a mealtime by causing an 'accident' resulting in a foody mess with the poor Nekomata getting the blame, much to his confusion, and to add to that, Breezefeather continues spreading the rumour that he was one of the Witch's cronies spying on everyone and Kushanku soon found himself getting shunned by more and more creatures, though Gandalf and Kyukon did not seem convinced. But the rumour of Kushanku being one of the Witch's spies was not the only confusing thing that was running amok in the base. Some other strange things had also begun to happen.


	48. Chapter 47

**Chapter 47- mysterious things begin to happen**

After yet another training session it was time for break before the next lesson which was to be on Aslan the Great Lion. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm were taking a walk to the compartment that simulated countryside at night during the spring and summer in order to show the evacuees what Narnia looked like when these seasons used to exist as well as serve as a getaway from the pressures of everywhere else in the base. Called the night countryside compartment, this compartment had a wide field of grass, trees and a lake, and its ceiling was decorated with glowing dots intended to resemble stars. A silvery-white magic light orb was placed overhead intended to resemble the Narnian moon, the home place of the Dream Sylphs, the dream-eating Baku and the Rabbit-like Moon Viscacha, similar to how the majority of the other star orbs in the other outdoor scene-based compartments were intended to resemble the Narnian sun, the place of origin of the fire-flowers and another type of plant that grew on the glowing world's surface and used by the Star People as a form of life-extension medicine, the fire berry, and which was guarded by the Rainbow Serpent that glided majestically through the skies and only allowed a select few to visit the sun's surface.

As the quintet eventually entered the compartment and took in the amazing construction, Akira formed a wide smile of admiration.

"So this is what Narnia would have looked like at night before Jadis locked it in the constant winter?" she said.

"According to some of the grownups that had lived before Jadis came to power, such as some of the Fauns, the Centaurs and of course Mr Gandalf, Mrs Kyukon and their helpers who had lived back then when spring, summer and autumn were part of the annual seasons before the Eternal Winter we have now, I should assume so," said Nyarth as he admired the reconstructed night sky and also the reconstructed countryside consisting of real grass, trees, bushes and a lake. Sandstorm and Satoshi also admired the sky and also the moon-like orb hovering and glowing at the very top of the compartment. While his siblings and adopted Cheetah brother continued to admire the scene, Kushanku went forward and sat down on a rock near an artificially made mini-stream, a confused and saddened look on his face. As he did so, Akira walked over.

"Something troubling you, bro?" she asked. Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm also came over with the same concerned looks when they saw the poor youngest kit gaze sombrely into the reconstruction of the nighttime countryside.

"I don't know, you four," replied Kushanku sadly, "I've been receiving some very cold and suspicious looks from some of the other evacuees including Guinan the Faun lately, and also they've been avoiding me and I don't know why."

The other three Nekomata kits and Cheetah cub exchanged glances.

"Cold and suspicious looks?" repeated Sandstorm, "Why would anyone glare at you with such looks?"

"And why would they avoid you in addition?" asked Nyarth, "You've done nothing wrong for one, and you're not showing any sign of suspicious behaviour for another," the oldest brother of Kushanku hardened his glare, "Certainly not like that Rabbit when you managed to seize Lwaxana the Kappa's engagement necklace gift the other week during our first training session who glared at you with such a wicked, demonic look."

"Fluffy-Cotton actually told us that she couldn't sleep for a couple of nights after seeing that HORRIBLE Bunny," said Sandstorm, "She was very clearly terrified by that Rabbit's look," he then turned to Nyarth, "How did you describe that Rabbit's look again, Nyarth? Was it like a Shadow or a Hellhound?"

"A Wendigo," said Nyarth, "But Obsidian also described that look as being like a Hellhound or a Banshee as well, it was THAT evil. Based on this, all the Rabbits have been questioned about any suspicious behaviour amongst themselves such as any demonic glares such as the one borne by that particular Bunny that had glared at Kushanku, and Fluffy-Cotton had given a similar answer to Obsidian."

"There's _definitely_ an intruder afoot in this based, I can tell you," said Satoshi, "And based on Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's flustered behaviour, it seems utterly serious…"

As he spoke, Akira left to explore the nighttime countryside compartment further. As she left her brothers, Nyarth moved on to something else that seemed abnormal and kept occurring.

"And besides creatures with abnormally wicked glares, a few of the evacuees have been complaining of not sleeping much or having serious difficulty getting off to sleep over the past few nights as well," he said worriedly, "In fact, Ahhuayo looks particularly affected by the apparent insomnia, especially based on his irritability, bloodshot eyes and uneven walking."

"Some of Mr Gandalf's helpers have been examining the rooms in which the insomnia-affected creatures sleep in and have found nothing unusual," said Satoshi, "which is unnerving. In addition to the strange sleeplessness of some of the creatures, some of the others have also noticed things mysteriously vanishing as well. During one training session, Molayne had placed his practice bow and quill of arrows down to get a drink but when he returned, they had mysteriously vanished, much to his confusion."

"And Padparadscha kept mysteriously losing the baby toys made for her by one of Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's older sons, Hagrid, for Citron and Eureka, those two baby Otters she and her group had managed to rescue from the decimated Purple Flower Town along with Dad (Dashiell) and Amberpaw," said Sandstorm, "and during one night, the baby Otters were severely disturbed and frightened by something terrifying, resulting in their crying but no-one found anything unusual…"

Satoshi, Nyarth and Kushanku shuddered as they also remembered the distressed cries of the two baby Otters that night as well. The cries of Citron and Eureka had been utterly gut-wrenching and bone-chilling, indicating that they had had a severe fright by something indeed.

Not too far away, Akira continued taking a few more steps from her four brothers, a smile on her face as she continued to admire the 'stars', the moon orb, and the glistening stream as it reflected the makeshift night sky on its surface like little liquid crystals. However, as she continued to walk further from her brothers, the sound of leaves rustling stopped her in her tracks. Akira then traced the sound to its source, which was a bush; one of many grown here in this compartment, and turned in its direction but the leaves stopped shuddering when she turned her gaze at it. At first Akira assumed that someone else, perhaps another young creature, was in the nighttime compartment but then she remembered that she and her four brothers, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Sandstorm, were by themselves in here, so it sent shivers down her spine, especially when she found that there was no-one else around at all. Akira froze to the spot, her eyes wide on alert and her ears pricked. The only part of her that moved was her forked tail but it was shuddering somewhat, an action that occurred in the forked tail whenever a Nekomata was unnerved or frightened. Then another sound, this time the movement of something hard on an equally hard surface, reached Akira's ears. Akira whipped her head round and shot her alerted gaze in the sound's direction, a short, startled gasp entering her mouth, and spotted a rock clattering on another large rock before coming to rest at its foot in the artificially grown grass. Akira shuddered and swallowed a gulp.

"A-A-Alexandrite?" she murmured, "W-w-was that you?"

Akira had assumed that Alexandrite had also entered into here but then she remembered that she was back in another compartment with her sister Padparadscha "Paddy" and helping to look after Citron and Eureka who were still disturbed after the other night when something had terrified them greatly. And besides that, Alexandrite's telekinesis was not yet powerful enough to move rocks the size of the one that had tumbled from the top of the larger boulder, for she could only mentally move light things at first, such as pencils and cups, or heavier things, such as a stack of plates, a short distance before fatigue set in and she had to cancel her telekinesis to have a rest. This brought Akira to the conclusion that Alexandrite wasn't in here, but this conclusion had scared her greatly and she actually began to shudder. As she shuddered, her alert eyes caught movement just on the edge of their range. At this, Akira's timid gaze shot in the direction of the movement but when her eyes landed on that spot, there was nothing there. This added more fuel to her flames of fear and she felt the urge to return to her brothers who were still engrossed in their conversation to even notice that their sister had walked some distance from them and was unnerved by something, boiled within her as the feeling of unsafety also welled within the female Nekomata. However, Akira was compelled to investigate. Shooting a timid glance at her four brothers as they continued to talk, including Kushanku and then returning her gaze to where she had seen the movement out the corner of her eye, she began to carefully saunter towards that area. As Akira continued to slowly walk, a small breeze, generated by some magical wind generators built within the compartment, ruffled her fur and the leaves in the bushes while the water in the small stream continued to trickle gently down the trench that was built for it. The moon orb continued to glow overhead and bathe the scene in its silvery light and turn it into a nighttime paradise but Akira was too saturated with timidity and nervousness to be bathed by the comforting, peaceful scenery and she kept sauntering towards the spot where she had seen the movement. Then another WHOOSH sounded behind Akira, snapping her gaze in the direction of the noise, which had occurred between two of the trees but she found nothing there, sending another wave of fearfulness splashing over the Nekomata. Then Akira, despite her nerves shaking like an earthquake within her now, then tried to pluck up some boldness. Drawing in a deep breath and forming a scowl on her face, Akira growled, "Alright, whoever you are! If this is some sort of prank, I command you to stop it and show yourself this MINUTE!"

No answer, to Akira's ever growing and trembling timidity, and her forked tail began to shudder as though it was exposed to the frigid permanent snowy air aboveground now, indicating that she was truly frightened. Then what happened next sent the final arrow into the tree. As Akira turned to return to her brothers, something black and shadowy appeared out from one of the trees and scuttled over the grass, just as Akira was turning in its direction. The moment Akira's eyes landed on the form and a startled "Huh!?" escaped her mouth, the form, which appeared to be a black Cat with six legs, much like a Wampus Cat, stopped dead. For a moment Akira thought it was Obsidian but then she realised that the Wampus Cat did not have the characteristic glowing fiery red-orange marks Obsidian possessed in her pelt, but as Akira dispelled this mismatched identification of the Wampus Cat, the Wampus Cat snapped its gaze and looked square at the Nekomata, directly into her eyes, but its face was not at all nice. Its face was bone white like a Banshee's except that sheen was visible on its forehead and it had menacing, bloodshot eyes with frightening jet-black pupils placed centrally on the eyeballs. Streaking its face diagonally was a set of hideous looking scars, one of them being enormous, and its mouth was full of extremely terrifying teeth. The creature was SO frightening that the moment Akira's eyes made contact with the creature's black pupil-eyed, scar-faced and wickedly toothed glare, an ENORMOUS explosion of terror blasted through the Nekomata in an instant. Her eyes explosively inflated out of their sockets, her fur spiked out and her forked tail strained into a stiff stick…

Akira's brothers continued talking until Kushanku noticed that one of the members of the quintet was missing.

"Hey, where's Akira?" he asked. At this, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Nyarth began to shoot confused gazes this way and that and also found Akira missing.

"I don't know, she was here beside us few momenta ago," said Nyarth with a nod to Akira's last spot of presence which was now empty. Then Sandstorm's gaze turned in a certain direction but the moment the Cheetah cub's eyes landed on something, a short Cheetah squeak sounded from his open horrified mouth and he darted off.

"Sandstorm?" asked Nyarth and with that he, Kushanku and Satoshi followed him. Sandstorm screeched to a stop and gazed horrified into a small pond. Nyarth, Kushanku and Satoshi arrived and followed the Cheetah's gaze and when their eyes landed on a certain form the Cheetah's eyes had found in the small pond, immense horror tore through them.

"AKIRA!" cried Satoshi and with that he rushed off towards the pond with the other three following. Akira was floating face-down in the water, clearly not moving except for some bubbles popping on one side of her head as though she had drowned. However, there was no sign of injury on her body for she had clearly not been physically attacked. Kushanku and Satoshi jumped into the water, swam over to her, hooked their arms around their sister's armpits and hauled her back to shore where they turned her over and placed her on her back. The two then shook their own fur of the water and knelt down Akira as she jolted into consciousness. The She-Nekomata, her fur sodden with water, explosively ejected coughs from her mouth; water drops flying from her mouth and face fur. The moment she was awake, four pairs of arms wrapped around her and brought her into a hug.

"Oh, Akira," cried Kushanku with relief.

"You're alright!" yelled Satoshi tearfully.

"We thought you drowned," said Nyarth as the four males broke the hug with their sister.

"Did you trip and fall into that pond?" asked Sandstorm. However, the only response they got from Akira was a rigidly trembling facial expression. Her eyes were wide and her teeth were gritted, as though she had seen a ghost or something far more terrifying. The rest of her body was stiff and trembling slightly and her waterlogged fur was spiked out but then Sandstorm noticed her forked tail was trembling, indicating that the Nekomata was clearly petrified for he had learned what a Nekomata's shaking forked tail meant as he grew up with his four adopted siblings.

"We have to get her to the medical compartment right away," said the Cheetah to his adopted Nekomata brothers, "I've a feeling she may have been shocked or petrified by something."

Kushanku, Satoshi and Nyarth, who were equally concerned for their sister and her health, nodded and without hesitation, the four lifted the still-catatonic Akira and rushed out of the nighttime countryside compartment.

 **Somewhere else in the base sometime later**

In one of the study compartments of the base, a group of Harpies (Bird-People) were reading some of the books on Narnia's history and studying it. One of the young female Harpies named Lana who, along with her sister named Suiren, was fascinated with Narnia's sea life and aquatic creatures, gazed in fascination on the section about Merfolk.

"Wow, I never knew that," said the Harpy girl whose skin was a pretty pale orange colour, her wing, tail and leg feathers were a lovely shade of auburn and her hair ginger, "When Merfolk want to transition between their fishtailed aquatic form to their legged land form, they have to undergo an extremely painful transformation in which their fishtails must split to form legs when they become their land form; and to transform into their aquatic form, their legs must fuse to form the trunk of the fishtails. The transformation only occurs in seawater."

"Apparently, their skeleton also undergoes a reconfiguration when they transform," said Suiren, before wincing, "Incredibly _painful."_

Lana and the other young Harpies also flinched at the thought of having to go through such pain to form legs from fishtails and vice versa a Mermaid who was in her land form came by, an agreeing look on her face.

"Yes, it's not a smooth, painless transition between those two forms, you Bird folk," she said in understanding, "In fact it can be quite traumatising during the first time we Merfolk transform on land. I certainly was shaken when I transformed into my legged form, having to go through the agony of my fishtail splitting in two with the tail being shed and my fins retracting…"

"Can it be fatal, Tracy?" asked Lana curiously to which one of the other Harpies, a male, scolded her. The Mermaid, Tracy, formed a small smile and shook her head.

"No, not usually," she said, "But as I said before, it can be quite a traumatic experience to transform for the first time. That is why so many Merfolk are so reluctant to transform into their land Humanoid forms and also rarely leave the Narnian sea to visit land…"

As Tracy spoke, Lana took an elaborately made flower from her hair and placed it down on the desk. This flower was made from artificial material but it was incredibly colourful and sparkly. It resembled a hibiscus flower in our world and the material was iridescent, sparkling in the colours of the rainbow like the Rainbow Serpent's dorsal scales. This head flower decoration was a gift to Lana from her boyfriend, a male Harpy named Hala whom she was dating but was in the plant growing compartment learning about the medical plants and helping to make some of the potions so he was absent. Hala's gift to Lana was incredibly valuable and was his way of showing his affection and love for her so Suiren's sister valued it greatly so she had removed it from her hair to gaze at it lovingly but she was too busy talking with Tracy. After placing the flower down near her book on the table, Lana, along with Suiren, continued talking with Tracy.

"But if Merfolk are so reluctant in coming onto land because of the extremely painful transformation process they must go through to become their legged land form," said Suiren, "How is it that Mr Gandalf has a few dozen of Mermaid and Mermen such as yourself roaming his base?"

"Many of us were captured by that Snow Beast Jadis but were rescued by some of Gandalf and Kyukon's helpers, while a few of us had managed to escape and seek refuge in here," explained Tracy, "and since then we had become part of his band of helpers. We will be returning to the sea once you guys are off on your Exodus to Archenland in a few years' time…"

"Do you have to transform into your aquatic forms at regular intervals?" asked Lana.

"We do yes," said Tracy, "Though we are quite adaptable on land, we cannot stay in our land form for too long and must submerge ourselves regularly to become our aquatic forms despite the extreme pain of the transformation…"

"What could happen if you remain in your land form for too long?" asked another young male Harpy.

"We can become severely weakened, dehydrated and our skin can break out in unbearably itchy and irritably angry rashes," replied Tracy, "And the only cure to that is to dive into a tank of saltwater which Gandalf and Kyukon had ordered be built so that we can do just that…"

"Can the pain of the transformation be lessened in any way?" asked another Harpy, a female. Suiren and Lana still continued to gaze at Tracy with he the latter's eyes off her head flower gift.

"It can," said Tracy, "The Pain-Reduction potion made from a common medical plant called green daisies can help but it will never completely eliminate the pain of transforming into our aquatic forms…"

As she spoke, Lana her head flower made for her by Hala but when she turned in the direction of where she had placed it on the desk she realised that nothing was there. Confusion ripping through her, she snapped her gaze to the other Harpies.

"Guys, where's my head flower?" Lana said, "Did any of you take it?"

Headshakes rolled through the rest of the Harpy group with Suiren saying, "No we haven't, sis. Where did you put it down last?"

"Just right here," said Lana with a point of the exact spot of where she had placed her flower, "It was there and now it is gone."

The adolescent Harpy then began to tremble as panic took hold. Gripping her hair with her hands and falling onto her Bird-like legs, she cried out, "It had taken my boyfriend Hala DAYS to make that gift for me and it was SUPPOSED to be his anniversary gift to me after two years of dating…" tears of panic then began to well in the Harpy's Human-like eyes as panic reached boiling point, "Oh, WHAT AM I GONNA DO IF HE FINDS OUT I HAVE LOST IT!?"

At this, Tracy rushed over to comfort her along with Suiren and a few other Harpies.

"Okay, okay, don't panic, Lana," said the Mermaid with a hand, which would have been webbed if she were in her aquatic form, on the distressed Harpy girl's shoulder as she began to lose control of her breathing, "We'll find it. Don't worry."

While Lana tried to calm slow her descent into a breakdown, Suiren felt suspicion well within her as she glared at the spot where Lana's flower was last seen.

"Kushanku," she growled under her breath, "I bet he's the one who must have taken your head flower, sis."

"But how?" asked one of the male Harpies in confusion, "That Nekomata had gone to the nighttime countryside compartment with his siblings."

"Yes, that was the last time we had seen him," put in a female. Suiren glared at the group and also her older sister as she continued weeping over the loss of her flower, and also Tracy.

"That may be true but what if he's followed us to cause us trouble?" asked she, "After all, isn't he rumoured to be a troublemaker?"

At first, the others gazed back at her in confusion but then scowls formed on the faces of some of them.

"I should reckon so since he's such a sorry excuse for a kit," growled one of the males. Lana also formed a furious scowl on her face.

"I think we should track him down and confront him over the loss of MY gift from my boyfriend," she said in agreement.

"I think he's just jealous because him finding a girlfriend in the future are likely to be UTTERLY slim," said another female Harpy. At this, Tracy shot her an appalled look.

"I wouldn't say something like that, Morgana," she said, "That is utterly spiteful. Of course he finding a girlfriend isn't utterly slim…"

"He's a troublemaker, Tracy," replied the Harpy named Morgana, "Don't you see?"

"He destroyed Guinan's ultra-precious picture frame and almost stole Lwaxana the Kappa's engagement necklace gift the other day, remember?" said Lana.

"Um, that was a foul Rabbit that did the latter," said one of the male Harpies, "Not Kushanku."

However, Lana stood up, a horrible seed of revenge taking root.

"Well, I'm still gonna find that Nekomata and confront him over taking MY flower gift from my boyfriend nonetheless," she snarled, wiping tears from her eyes and before Tracy could object, the Harpy girl's wings had spread out and she lofted into flight in the direction of the exit. The other Harpies followed, leaving Tracy behind to gaze after them with worry.

Something or rather _someone_ must have sneaked up to Lana while she had been talking with the Mermaid and had taken her head flower made for her by her boyfriend Hala, right under the noses of the Harpies and the Mermaid while they had been utterly engrossed in the conversation to even notice. I wonder who…


	49. Chapter 48

**Chapter 48- the terrors continue to happen**

 **A while after Lana's head flower went missing**

The activities in Gandalf and Kyukon's base continued to flow by as usual, and it was time for the evacuees' next training lesson. While the evacuees prepared for it, in the compartment adjacent to the training one, two Centaurs and a Dragon were preparing to leave for the area to assist in the lesson. One of the two Centaurs, a male named Colress whose head hair was silvery and his chestnut brown Horse's body fur strewn with silver streaks, both indicative of his age, told the other Centaur, a female, and the Dragon as he packed a few stick-swords in a bag onto his back, "Right, I'm going to the training room to teach some of the evacuees some skills in swordfighting."

"Okay, good luck, Colress," said the female Centaur with a smile and with that, Colress turned and clip-clopped towards the corridor, while the Centaurette (female or She-Centaur) and the Dragon continued finishing their preparations and will be following Colress as soon as they were ready. As Colress continued walking along, his mind began to travel back to the problems over the past few days such as the sleepless nights and the apparent hallucinations troubling some of the evacuees and how some of them were sleepy and extremely tried as a result of sleep deprivation. Colress had hoped that the issues would be resolved since sleep was important in the wellbeing of the trainees, especially in risky activities like sword-fighting and cluttered environment training. 'Honestly, someone was going to get hurt at some point if they tried training while tired,' thought the Centaur. Pushing this thought aside, he continued in the direction of the training hall.

While Colress continued his walk to the training compartment, a Merman was on his way to the compartment holding a tank of seawater for he was going to transform into his aquatic form; his skin feeling incredibly dry and irritated, a sign that he was getting dehydrated from his prolonged stay on land without any exposure to seawater. Because of this, he had to return to water to rehydrate and so was on his way to the tanks filled with seawater built specifically for Merfolk in Gandalf's base to transform into their aquatic forms as well as house any Talking Sea Animals rescued from the Witch until the time came for them to be returned to the Narnian Sea. As the Merman passed by Colress, he gave the Centaur a nod and a smile before continuing. As Colress approached the entrance to the training compartment the sounds of effort, grunts and the clashing of wood against wood or metal against metal filled his ears, the lesson and practice sparring of the evacuees already in progress, much to his smile of satisfaction as he looked forward to teaching some of them some of his own skills and techniques, and being well on in his years (Centaurs could live for up to 200 years and sometimes more and Colress was in his mid-150s), Colress was very skilful and experienced in a variety of species-specific battling styles besides Centaur-based combat, so he had been chosen by Gandalf to serve as a teacher to the evacuees of different species and he was very good at it. for example, he was an expert in how the six-legged Wampus Cat fought using their fore and mid-paws and rearing up on their hind legs to utilise their front four feet, so he was sometimes Obsidian's mentor and had been teaching her these skills despite not having four arms. Other species styles of combat Colress was an expert in were Avians (Birds), Apes, Minotaurs, Fauns and also Griffins, Hippogriffs and also Nekomata and their single-tailed cousins the Bakeneko as well as other Cat species such as Cheetahs, and Tengu (a race of Harpy-like Avian-Humanoid creatures known for their long noses and feather-like hair and beards (males only). They resembled chubby Dwarves but often wielded leaf-fans, had limited telekinesis and basic magic skills, and were known for protecting forests. They were close friends wioth the Dryads and other nature spirits and were at times mischievous. The Tengu who fell for the Witch's side, however, were utterly cruel and were able to shapeshift into Birds to help spy on Narnia from the skies, along with the Bat-transforming Vampires), Kitsune and regular Fox, Fairy and Elf styles, so Colress had a diverse variety of students under his care. Only two or three other Centaur assistants of Gandalf and Kyukon were also skilled in a variety of battling styles of different Talking Beast and Magical Creature species but Colress was the most experienced of these Centaurs.

As Colress neared the entrance to the training compartment, an alarming sound flooded his ears, the sound of a fiery billow comparable to an erupting volcano in our world (Narnia, being a disc world, had few volcanoes but the Narnian country did not have these lava-spewing mountains. Certainly not with the Witch's Eternal Winter spell smothering it like choking smog). At this, the aging Centaur, startled, snapped a gaze behind him but the moment his eyes landed on the source of the sound, which was a fiery red and black fireball rushing towards him like a snowy avalanche (actually more like a volcanic pyroclastic flow in our world) which then began to morph into a hellish, demonic face resembling a Human skull with a pair of fiery eyes like a Hellhound as well as a pair of fiery nostril holes and gaping mouth, every hair on the Horse-Humanoid's body practically stood on end and he let loose a piercing scream. Terrified, Colress launched into a speedy gallop and charged towards the entrance to the training hall at full speed, a scream of terror erupting from his mouth at the top of his lungs, especially as the fiery skull neared him and threatened to incinerate his Horse's tail and hind legs. As the aging Centaur exploded screaming in extreme terror into the training compartment and screeched to a halt, before collapsing onto his four knees with his arms clasping protectively over his head as though he expected some monster (the fiery skull) to lash at him, dozens of trainees and teachers, among them Perseus who had been training with Molayne, Lwaxana the Kappa, a couple of Marsh-Wiggles, a Dwarf, an Ape, and four young Tengu immediately stopped training and rushed in alarm around the still-screaming Centaur as he lay knelt down with his arms still over his head until he noticed that his behaviour was attracting an audience. At this, Colress stopped screaming and looked up in confusion, gazing at the concerned faces of the crowd, his face's skin starting to flush a cerise colour in utter embarrassment.

"Are you alright, Colress?" asked Perseus just as the Centaurette and the Dragon emerged from the corridor after Colress, confused and alarmed looks on their faces as they saw him on his knees and trembling. They had also heard him screaming and had hurried their walk into the training hall to find the Centaur in that hysterical and cerise-faced state. Colress continued gazing at the crowd and then his two companions for a while longer until he finally shakily turned round and gazed at the corridor behind the Centaurette and the Dragon. When he saw that there was nothing emerging from the corridor's mouth, an even bigger wave of confusion washed over him. Finally, he found the ability to speak.

"I-I-I…" began the aging Centaur, "I… d-don't know…"

Amongst the crowd, Kushanku peered out from behind an Elf. He was keeping his distance from Suiren, Lana and their group of Harpy friends for they had been behaving hostilely towards him over the mysterious theft of Lana's head flower despite Kushanku having nothing to do with the incident, and Hala, Lana's boyfriend, was still furious with him. Perseus then walked over to Colress and helped him to his feet.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," said Molayne as he examined the Centaur's flustered face, trembling body and his bushed-out Horse and Humanoid hair.

"What's frightened you if I might ask?" asked the Dragon. Colress then shakily began to explain.

"I think I might have seen a fiery skull of some sort… and it… it was chasing after me through that corridor…" he said with a finger point to the corridor entrance. At this, the Dragon and the Centaurette gazed at the corridor entrance and returned their gazes to Colress.

"Well, there was nothing in there, Colress," said the Dragon, "So I don't see what all that screaming was about."

"Let's just take him aside for a rest," said Perseus. He then turned to the crowd with a stern gaze and commanded them to return to training, which they did. As they dispersed, Padparadscha "Paddy" flashed Colress a concerned look.

"It's not like him to come running into here terrified like a young Centaur frightened by some monster, folks," she said, "Normally, he's a very brave and bold Centaur who rarely, if EVER, gets scared, but certainly not THAT terrified."

"I don't know," said Molayne with a concerned gaze on Colress as he sat down with Perseus trying to calm his nerves, "His behaviour was very reminiscent of Citron and Eureka the baby Otters the other night when something apparently terrified them, resulting in them screaming wildly."

"Furthermore, Mr Colress is not easily deterred by even the scariest Banshee, Bogeyman, Shadow, Vampire or other crony of you-name-it of the Witch during combat," added an adolescent Tengu, named Nala based on a lack of a feathery beard but had a feathery ponytail instead, "He told me how fearless he had been when he and some of the other scouts sent by Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon to rescue those kidnapped sea creatures when he came face to face with that variety of terrifying creatures…"

"I certainly would NOT wanna take on a Banshee or a Bogeyman, and certainly not a Hellhound, a Wendigo, or a Bat-Winged Harpy for that matter," said Lana nearby as she walked with her sister Suiren, and boyfriend Hala. This was met with a stern eye from Nala.

"Well if we have to face off with those ugly monsters, my Bird-Woman friend," said the teenaged Tengu girl sternly, "You will HAVE to face those ugly screamer-hags, monster-men, Deer-like skeleton beasts, black Fire-Dogs and those beastly phony-Harpies at some point, especially if they threaten, say, your sister and your boyfriend for instance."

Lana flashed a gaze at Suiren and Hala and they nodded in agreement. Breathing a sigh, the young Bird-Harpy left to train more in archery. Kushanku then happened to come by but as he walked past Suiren, Lana and Hala, the middle one, a furious and spiteful look on her face, lurched at the young Nekomata and jabbed him in the shoulder as hard as she could with her own shoulder and knocked him down to the floor, before proceeding to literally walk over him as though he was some sort of non-living doormat. Kushanku then shot the Harpy an outraged and disbelieving look after they deliberately trod over his head, messing his white mop-like hair and squishing the rest of his head into the ground.

"What did you do THAT for!?" he shouted. Lana, Suiren and Hala then shot the Nekomata an acidic look.

"Why do you think, thief?" retorted Lana and with that, she hurled a glob of saliva at Kushanku and walked away with Hala and Suiren who also gave Kushanku each an extremely threatening look. Kushanku, his upper body lifted off the floor with his paws and his white hair messed up, gazed in confusion and hurt after the couple as they walked away as Nyarth, Sandstorm and Satoshi came round. Then Sandstorm dashed off after Lana, Suiren and Hala and began to rebuke them.

"You three, go and apologise to Kushanku this MINUTE!" he barked but the couple continued walking away.

"You oughta get your claws prepared for that thief is a sly one," said Hala, much to Sandstorm's blink of perplex.

"What!?" he retorted but the only reply he got from the three Harpies was silence and a chilly walkaway as the trio of Bird-People left. By this time, Kushanku's hurt had boiled to the point of tears oozing from his eyes to Nyarth and Satoshi's chagrin, especially at Lana, Suiren and company's unfair treatment of him.

 **Meanwhile**

The Merman had entered the tank compartment and was prepared to plunge into the seawater filling the largest tank to transform into his fishtailed aquatic form. There were five large tanks in this compartment and in those tanks were a few Dolphins, Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Seals, Penguins and Ichtyo-Centaurs who were essentially Centaurs with a fish's tail instead of a full Horse's body. Fish stocks were also bred here and the aquatic Talking Beasts and the Merfolk raised them to provide a source of fish and other seafood for the inhabitants of the base. As the Merman ascended the steps to the opening at the top, one of the Ichthyosaurs, a female, swam in to greet him.

"Hi, Wallace," said the fish-like Reptile, "I assume you've come to rehydrate after spending so long in your land form, correct?"

"That's right, Coralfin," replied the Merman named Wallace, "Now if you don't mind, can you and the other aquatic Talking Beasts move aside and make space for me please? I'm gonna need that space when I go through the painful metamorphosis. And also prepare for some screaming from me."

Coralfin nodded and ordered the other aquatic Talking Beasts back from the spot Wallace was to take the plunge. Then after the little community of Talking Sea Creatures had backed away, Coralfin gave the 'okay' and with that, Wallace leaped into the water in a froth of bubbles. Then a few seconds after submerging himself, the Merman felt a wave of EXTREME pain envelop him like boiling water and he began to writhe and scream in agony as the transformation process began. Coralfin and the others looked on as Wallace continued squirming like a fish in agony as his skin texture began to change. His hands formed the webs between the fingers and a dorsal fin erupted from his back but the most obvious transformation was his legs into a fishtail. His legs were suddenly and painfully drawn together into a single trunk where they fused. The fluke-like end also formed and a few fins rose down the sides and back of his fishtail, which was metallic green, one of the most common colours in Merfolk fishtails. Then after the agony began to subside now that his transformation was complete, Wallace, in his aquatic form and glad to be back in this state after spending so long on land, then gazed at his Aquatic Animal friends and flashed them a thumbs up to indicate to them that he was okay, prompting them to swim over to him and gather around him.

"So how are the evacuees doing in their training session?" asked Coralfin eagerly, "which I believe is in progress by now?"

Wallace was about to answer when suddenly, his eyes caught-sighted movement on the tank floor. It was hissing and emerging from behind one of the large rocks. The Talking Sea Animals looked on in confusion.

"Wallace?" asked one of the Penguins.

"Are you okay?" asked a Plesiosaur. Wallace didn't answer when suddenly, the hissing object suddenly reared up from behind the rock, revealing itself to be a three-headed serpent. All six of its eyes were blazing a fiery red and each of the creature's three mouths, all of which were lined with razor-sharp teeth with a pair of long needles hanging down from the top jaw, began shooting out a forked tongue each. When they saw Wallace gaze in utter fear at something, the Sea Animals followed his gaze to the rock but to their confusion, they saw nothing. Then the three-headed serpent lunged at Wallace, its fanged mouths wide open. This sent terror erupting through the Merman and he bolted like a startled fish towards the surface where he shot out of the tank like a startled Dolphin and landed right on the foot platform where he had stood in his legged land form moments before plunging, much to the confusion of the Sea Animals. Then Wallace, his body trembling and his hair dripping and still in his aquatic form with his fish's tail slapping against the surface of the platform, the water trickling off the tail fins and forming puddles around them, shot a terrified gaze back into the tank but to his surprise, he saw nothing. The Aquatic Animals gazed through the glass at the terrified and confused Merman. From the other tanks, the other Aquatic Animals also looked on.

"Are you alright, Wallace?" asked Coralfin. Wallace, at this, did not reply. He was so confused about the image of the three-headed snake which turned out to be a hallucination that his tongue was stuck in his mouth. Whatever it was, it was not normal at all. It was then that Coralfin spotted movement out the corner of her eye through the tank glass. At this, the Ichthyosaur turned to the movement but the moment her gaze landed on it, there was nothing there. Coralfin shook her head and blinked. 'Don't tell me I'M the one hallucinating now,' the fish-like Sea Reptile thought. Then a wave of unease coursed through her and she shuddered.

 **Sometime later, in another part of the base: the forest compartment**

A female Tanuki was examining a swarm of bees as they busily collected pollen from the indoor grown flowers cultivated by Gandalf's helpers, along with the other plants including the medical plants in the farm compartment, and then returning to their hives. Because she was examining the bees, the Tanuki, named Truffula, was wearing a bee suit to prevent the insects from stinging her should the swarm be provoked. Several of the compartments had been dedicated to preserving the plant and insect species during the Eternal Winter and this compartment, the forest compartment, was another of these nature-based regions and like the other nature-based compartments, the forest compartment had a magic star-orb glowing above it to provide the trees with light. Gandalf's base was not only a refuge for the evacuees from the Eternal Winter curse of the Witch and its effects above ground, but it was also a sort of an ark for the variety of insects, flowers and plants that relied heavily on spring and summer to survive. With it being winter above ground constantly, these organisms could not survive the frigid conditions and would die in seconds if they were exposed to the freezing air. Bees, butterflies and other insects and creepy-crawlies required the warmth of the spring and summer sun in order to survive, and many of them hibernated during the winter but because it was constantly winter aboveground, even hibernation would not allow them to survive the Eternal Winter since it had been going on for more than thirty Narnian years now. However, when the Winter Revolution comes round, the insects will be released into the aboveground environment to repopulate the land. For now, they were safe down here and away from the Eternal Winter.

Truffula then walked back to the hives, a few of them manually built so that honey could be harvested from some of the swarms to provide the base with it, and began to examine the health of each hive. She noted down the number of each hive and its bee colony's health on a clipboard, paper and pen.

"Okay, Hive One is doing okay," said the Racoon Dog as she ticked off after examining one of the hives labelled '01' before moving onto the next hive labelled '02'. As she did that, a Swan and a Curupira (a type of Nature Elf who had vivid red or orange hair and leg anatomy like a Faun but with the feet resembling human feet pointed backwards; the males had the vivid red hair while the females had ginger or orange hair) came by.

"So far so good with the butterfly population, Truffula," said the Curupira, a female based on her orange hair, "The caterpillars are pupating well."

"I'll be glad to see them off into the environment aboveground once the Eternal Winter starts thawing with the Winter Revolution, Mallow and Truffula," said the Swan, one of Cygnus's friends named Winona, "I wouldn't be surprised if those evacuees that had lived through Jadis's usurping of the throne and locking Narnia into the constant winter missed those fluttery, brightly coloured insects as well as those bees that are vital for the production of honey…"

"Huh, I remember having to gather some bees and butterflies to bring to the base before the Eternal Winter's start you two," said Truffula as she ticked off Hive Two's status as being healthy, "When I had to help in catching some bees, I got stung several times…"

"But at least they are safe from the Witch's tyrannical weather system," said the Curupira named Mallow, "I also remember the beekeepers facing loss of their honey business because of that Snow Beast of a Queen."

"She's not a queen, Mallow; she's a Feral Dumb Animal," said Truffula maliciously as the hatred against Jadis flared up within her briefly before calming herself to move on to the next hive, Hive Number Three, "In every sense of the term in fact."

"Especially in her organisation of that brutal, bloodbath Massacre Event to occur once every ten years since she usurped the throne?" said Mallow in agreement, "Oh, yeah."

"We'll leave you to check on the other hives," said Winona and with that, she and the Curupira turned and left to check on the population of moths in another part of the indoor-grown forest. Truffula was left alone as she examined the third hive, the yellow and black dots of the bees zipping about it and ticked off its health. However, as she did that, she heard the sound of rustling leaves. At this, the Tanuki turned round and shot her gaze on the source of the sound which appeared to be some rustling leaves. To her surprise, the leaves in the nearby trees were still. Seeing nothing there, Truffula resumed examining the hives but as she moved onto the next hive, Hive Four, the bees buzzing around it, the rustling of leaves alerted her again, pulling her gaze in its direction but again she saw nothing there. Brushing it off as the wind generated by magic wind generators caressing the leaves of the trees and land flowers, Truffula resumed examining Hive Four. However, as she turned her attention to Hive Four, she saw that the amber-coloured basket-like construct possessed extremely terrifying eyes. These eyes were massive, were blood red and bore an extremely frightening leer that made every hair on the Tanuki's body stand on end, and her tail bush out like a frightened Cat's. Terrified, Truffula snapped a gaze in the direction of one of the trees and saw that it had extremely frightening eyes as well. Those leering eyes were repeated on the trunks of the other trees and even the flowers, the hives and the bees bore those terrifying, overinflated eyes, all glaring in the most horrifying way at Truffula and adding fuel to the fire of terror within her. the petrified Tanuki, her hair all bushed out as though she were electrically charged, continued shooting terrified gazes this way and that at the evil eyes as they continued drilling into her, and she dropped her clipboard in a panic, but before she could allow her fear to consume her like a flammable gas, the Tanuki closed her eyes and calmly said, "Get… outa… here!"

She kept her eyes closed for a few more seconds and then slowly opened them, expecting those terrifying eyes to still be there but to her surprise, all the trees, the hives, bees and flowers were their usual selves with no eyes whatsoever on them. However, it sent shivers down her spine and she began to tremble violently. Just then, the sounds of talking reached her ears, so she turned and spotted another Curupira, a male based on his vivid red hair, lead a large group of creatures through the forest and talking to them about the butterflies and bees. Among the crowd was a shining white Winged Horse, Milky Way who was fascinated with the insects. Timidly, and with the rustling of leaves sounding above her in the trees (a real rustle caused by a gust of a light breeze), Truffula seized her clipboard and darted off in the direction of the crowd of creatures.

"As you can see, we have managed to gather together a variety of butterflies, moths, bees, ants and other creepy-crawlies to preserve in this base, along with the variety of trees and flowers unable to survive in prolonged frigid conditions," explained the male Curupira with a gesture to the forest, the crowd of evacuees, among them Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira (who had recovered from the sheer shock from the incident in the nighttime countryside compartment a while ago) listening intently, "therefore saving them from certain extinction, especially the species of those living things entirely exclusive to the country of Narnia."

The crowd gazed in awe at the forest and the butterflies flitting about. Milky Way gazed at one of them, a neon yellow butterfly named the Yellow Neonwing which was one of the butterflies only found in Narnia (the term for a species found in one region and nowhere else in the world is called 'endemic' an example in our world being the platypus in Australia), as it flitted onto a flower and then danced off like a pair of fluorescent yellow petals. Suddenly, the butterfly was startled into a sharp turn by a bundle of reddish, brown and orange fur as it appeared into view of the evacuees and the teaching Curupira. Her bushed out fur and terrified look on her face sent a wave of surprise coursing through the crowd. When the teaching Curupira saw the terrified and trembling Tanuki, he said, "Truffula, are you alright?"

Truffula continued to shudder, the terror of seeing those horrifying eyes that appeared to be nothing more than a hallucination still boiling within her and rendering her unable to form words. Then Milky Way came forward.

"You look like you've seen a terrifying phantom," said the Winged Horse as murmurs were exchanged throughout the others in the crowd.

"Truffula," said the teaching Curupira again, "Are you alright?"

Truffula remained silent for a while until she finally found words to say.

"I-I-I'm fine," she said, "J-j-just had… a bit of a… scare… with some big eyes on… those trees… and the hives…"

Confusion rolled through the crowd.

"Eyes, on tree trunks and hives?" repeated Obsidian in confusion.

"Unless a Dryad dwells in some of those trees," said Trotterhoof the Pig as he stood with Alexandrite, Molayne and Padparadscha "Paddy", "I've never heard of trees and hives possessing large eyes."

"But when I closed my eyes and then opened them again," said Truffula, still shuddering and her fur still puffed out, "I realised that the hives and the trees were normal, arriving to the conclusion that those eyes were some type of illusion…"

"Illusion?" repeated the teaching Curupira. At this moment, Mallow and Winona returned, concern lacing their faces when they saw a trembling Truffula stand before the teaching Curupira and his students. Then some of the other forest carers arrived, curiosity over Truffula's scared behaviour also welling within them.

"What do you mean illusion?" asked Winona confused.

"I don't know," replied the shaken Tanuki, "It… it was though I was seeing something that is not actually there. Do you suppose I should go to the medical compartment? I think something's wrong with me."

Akira gazed at the Raccoon-Dog, remembering the black shadowy form with an extremely frightening face that scared her into a catatonic state back in the nighttime countryside compartment, as well as remembering how a number of other patients in the medical compartment were complaining of seeing things that were not really there or seeing features on objects that they didn't have, such as an Elf complaining of imagining floating books with sharp teeth in the library while he was on duty and a petrified Sphinx mentioning that she had seen a Shadow-like creature slowly slinking the floor in the unoccupied training room while she was cleaning and sweeping there. Because of this, a number of the creatures had been too frightened to enter any of the compartments alone. While Akira thought about this, Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl, who was also in the crowd, suddenly picked up a flash of movement in the corner of his Reptile-like eyes shake some grass. At this, the hand-tailed Dog-like creature turned his gaze in the direction of the grass and the movement but to his unease, he saw nothing, but the grass blades gently wavering back to the usual positions. Then the Ahuizotl began to feel nauseated and shaky again.

 **Later**

Emberflame was gliding down a corridor, her flames from her fiery Woman form flickering out behind her. She was talking with a Lightning Pyro which was a subtype of Fire Sprite made of sparking electricity instead of fire. The Lightning Pyro was a male and he was named Plasmabolt. The pair had concern bubbling within them about the individuals who have been seeing things that were not really there and had been to the medical compartment complaining that they were going crazy. One had been Wallace the Merman who had gone to the tanks to rehydrate by transforming into his aquatic form and his sighting of a three-headed serpent while another had been Colress who had been complaining of seeing a fiery Human skull not once, but twice; first in the corridor leading to the training room and then in the farm compartment while he was preparing some metallic fruit for the Alicanto clan. A Baku had also been present in the medical compartment complaining of imagining a corridor collapsing on him while a Dryad had been complaining of seeing demonic eyes on neighbouring trees that appeared so frightening that she actually bolted out of her own tree. Furthermore, complaints of sleeplessness, strange stomach problems (after eating something) and things mysteriously moving or going missing had also been reported.

"All these mysterious happenings sure are concerning, Plasmabolt," said Emberflame as she glided alongside the sparking Lighting Pyro in his Humanoid Man form, "They seemed to have been occurring ever since Troodon and the others with him foolishly set Belladonna free from the dungeon."

"It seems that all these terrifying images, hallucinations, bizarre stomach problems and things mysteriously moving and going missing are interconnected, Emberflame," replied Plasmabolt with suspicion, "Furthermore, these happenings seem to be confined to a narrow area of compartments of the base. I mean the creatures in compartments distant from where the hallucinations and the like had taken place don't seem affected…"

"What makes you think that?" asked Emberflame. A dark look then formed on the sparking face of the Lightning Pyro.

"I, as well as Gandalf and Kyukon and some others as well, believe there could be something or rather _someone,"_ said he in a low voice, "who shouldn't be here and should be found and apprehended as soon as possible before they do potential damage to the base. Furthermore, based on what we know about Jadis's training of some of the Narnians who had fallen to her side in the forbidden dark magic…"

Emberflame gazed at her Lightning Pyro friend with a worried look.

"So you assume that the possible intruder could be…" she began to which Plasmabolt nodded. The pair then came to a fork in the corridor, one of them leading to the dining area.

"We'll discuss this later, Emberflame," said Plasmabolt as he also spotted a grandfather pendulum clock showing the time, "I can see it's nearly dinnertime, and I'm tasked with helping in preparing the metal fruit and coins for the Alicanto and also the double-main-course meals for the Centaurs," the Lightning Pyro breathed a sigh, "You know how serious it can be when preparing food for a Centaur? Since they have two stomachs, one like that of a Human and another similar to that of Horse and because of that, they require not one, but TWO main courses, preparing meals for them can be very effort-demanding."

"Tell me about it," said Emberflame who understood the demands of preparing a meal for a Centaur, "Anyway, I'm gonna go back to the library and meet Gandalf and check on how the search for Belladonna is going."

Plasmaboplt smiled, nodded and then turned to glide into the canine, sparks jumping off his body of pure lightning, while Emberflame left down the other corridor and following the arrows nailed to the wall to indicate the direction of a destination compartment. Obviously in an extremely complex construct like the underground base, directions on where to go were an ABSOLUTE must.

As Emberflame glided like a floating fire phantom down the corridor, her fire-eyes caught-sighted a form. At this, she looked up and spotted a familiar form, prompting her to stop into a hover.

"Kushanku?" said the Pyro when she gazed at the figure which was a metallic powder-blue, light grey and white bipedal cat with a forked tail, "What are you doing down here? I-I-I thought you were in the study area doing your homework on Narnia's history."

The Nekomata, which indeed resembled Kushanku, just stood there staring back at Emberflame with a deadpan look on its face. Then the Nekomata turned round and began to run down the corridor without saying anything. Emberflame, confused, then began to follow the Nekomata.

"Wait, where are you going?" cried the Pyro as she glided after the creature, "You know you should be doing your homework, not wandering aimlessly about the base."

No reply, except the back still turned on the Pyro as the Nekomata continued running down the corridor. Emberflame, irritated, then began to pick up gliding pace and chase down the Nekomata, shouting Kushanku's name. The chase continued for a few more minutes with Kushanku not answering Emberflame's calls and questions each time she fired them at him. Then the Nekomata turned a corner and disappeared down a flight of stairs. Emberflame followed and slowed to a hover when she gazed down the stairs, noticing that the stairs led to one of the basement compartments where tools and other items apart from books were stored, and it was as dark as a cloudy, moonless night. However, being a being of fire that emanated her own light, Emberflame did not need to turn on the magic star-orb that illuminated the basement compartment, but she had to descend down there and confront Kushanku. A firm scowl on her fire face, the Pyro began to make her way downstairs into the cellar.

"Look, Kushanku, if this is some type of joke, I am NOT gonna be pleased," growled she as she continued gliding down the stairs. She reached the foot of the stairs and then glided further into the cellar. Various tools such as spades, garden forks, garden claws and hoes were propped against the wall or hung from hooks drilled into the wall. Emberflame, her fire lighting up the cellar, then began to glide through the isle of gardening tools and scour the environment for any flash of metallic powder blue, grey and white.

"I know you're in here, Kushanku," she said sternly, "Now come out and come to me this minute!"

No reply, to the Pyro's ever growing irritation so she continued to scour the gardening tools, intent on finding the Nekomata, disciplining him and dragging him out of the cellar. However, as the Fire Woman continued to scour the series of gardening tools, the air suddenly felt chillier than it really was. The sudden change in air temperature startled Emberflame into stopping and shuddering slightly for Pyros, being beings of fire, felt cold like how most flesh-and-blood creatures did.

"That's strange," said the Pyro in confusion as she shuddered at the drop in temperature, "The basement compartment for the gardening tools doesn't usually get cold THIS quickly."

Then another startling thing happened. As Emberflame reached for a magic switch to turn on the mini star orb to provide more light for the room, she noticed that the switch didn't work. Confused at the switch's inability to function after a few more fruitless attempts in turning on the star-orb with it; Emberflame gazed into the dark cellar of gardening tools ahead of her, her fiery body shuddering from the chilly air. She then abandoned the switch and continued gliding further into the cellar, intent on finding Kushanku before anything happened. However, this, as well as the feeling that he could be in danger when the base was, in fact, supposed to be safe, was completely abnormal.

"Gandalf and Kyukon aren't gonna like this," murmured the Pyro worriedly as she glided further into the cellar, heading towards the end of the cuboidal compartment, "Something's _definitely_ not right is afoot."

She continued searching for Kushanku, part of her remembering last seeing him in the study compartment doing his homework with Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Nyarth and also Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Obsidian and some young Tengu, which was why she was racked with confusion on seeing him down here, and that added to her already-bubbling unease. However, she wanted to search for Kushanku to make sure that he wasn't messing about down here and the determination to find the Nekomata propelled her into continuing her search for him. As Emberflame continued to slowly and cautiously glide through the cellar, her fire eyes scouring every square-inch of the wall, tool and the nooks and crannies they created and all the while shuddering from the chilly air, she was made aware of a startling sound. At this, the Pyro snapped her fire gaze ahead of her but found nothing except a pack of various gardening tools propped against or hooked up onto the far wall. Having reached the end of the cellar and having no success in finding Kushanku, Emberflame decided to call off the search and return to the corridor but as the Pyro turned round for her return journey, she was immediately met by an extremely TERRIFYING figure.

Standing before her was a massive, hunched, Wendigo-like form with a pair of Goat's horns spouting from its head and curving backwards. Most of the body was covered in a reddish garment resembling Father Christmas's red and white fluffy garment he sometimes wore during his Christmas visits before the Eternal Winter, and the feet of the creature resembled a Goat's. The creature had lanky, bony hands with fingers ending in long, sharp, clawed talons like that of an Eagle and in the hood of the garment it wore was a pair of glowing red eyes. Around the creature were a few forms resembling teddy bears, gingerbread men, dolls and a variety of other toys but all of them possessed extremely demonic glares with glowing blood-red eyes like their master, and all of them were drilling menacingly into Emberflame with those demonic eyes, intent on scaring the Pyro. That was when the fear within the Pyro REALLY took hold. However, she stifled the urge to scream and flee, raised a fire arm and without hesitation, Emberflame blasted the monsters with a stream of fire, setting them alight and making them scream in agony. However, to her surprise, there was only one scream rather than many. Then as soon as the creature was subdued and had disappeared, Emberflame bolted like a petrified antelope sensing a predator or a hunter and glided like a fiery comet for the stairs and the entrance, desperate to escape the terrifying beast. However, as the Pyro exploded from the entrance to the basement compartment, she collided with an electrified being in an explosion of flame and sparks.

"Whoa, EMBERFLAME!" shouted the electric being as the fire being smashed into him. As the Pyro and the Lightning Pyro, who was Plasmabolt, crashed to the floor in a splash of flame and sparks, three Centaurs, Bursyamo the head Basan and four of his underlings, and Hocico the Capelobo rushed in and calmed the literal scene of flames and sparks down as Emberflame backed away from Plasmabolt.

"Good grief, Emberflame," said Plasmabolt in shock, "What are you trying to do? Take us both through one of the walls?"

Emberflame did not reply at first and continued to sort herself out and regain her composure. After this, she turned to the gathered flesh-and-blood creatures, especially as Bursyamo proposed the question.

"Have you seen anything frightening down there?" the Fire Chicken demanded.

"Yes, I did," said Emberflame, still badly shaken from the ordeal, "It resembled that Father Christmas impersonator beast Krampus accompanied by some of his demonic toy minions. They're right down there, in the garden-tool-storing basement."

Without wasting a second, Bursyamo squawked to his underlings and like a pack of troops, descended down the stairs and into the cellar to confront the thing that had scared Emberflame, tough ropes and a cage in their clutches.

"Are you alright, Emberflame?" asked Hocico as Emberflame tried to regain the rest of her composure.

"What happened after I left?" asked Plasmabolt. Emberflame took some more time to recollect herself before finally speaking.

"I-I-I was gonna go and meet with Gandalf in the library to provide him with updates on our search for Belladonna," said the Pyro, "But I saw what appeared to be Kushanku in this corridor who then rushed off down into that cellar. At first, I thought it was Kushanku but then I remembered that he was back in the study compartment… anyway, as I was searching for him, the air suddenly turned chilly and the switch for the star-orb did not work and when I turned round to head back to the entrance, I was confronted by this Krampus creature and some of his toy minions but I blasted them down with a flame attack and made my escape. I was too terrified to return which I'm sorry…"

As she spoke, Bursyamo returned to the entrance of the basement compartment's stairs.

"Guys, there's nothing down here and the air's perfectly fine," said the Basan, "and the star-orb's switch is working fine but we did find something suspicious…"

At this, one of the Centaurs, a female, did a four-footed Horse jump to him.

"Take us there at once, Bursyamo," she ordered. Bursyamo nodded and did so.

Down in the cellar with the garden tools, the group gazed in utter shock at the spot where Emberflame blasted the Krampus creature with her flame, indicated by a singed, black patch on the floor and a few charred garden tools that were caught in the blast, but this area was not the group's main concern.

"Looks like we've _definitely_ got an intruder in the base," said Hocico darkly as he, Bursyamo and his four underlings with their cage and rope, the three Centaurs, Emberflame and Plasmabolt gazed at the far wall of the garden tool basement. At the foot of the wall was a rectangular hole which was part of the air vent system built into the base in order to circulate the air up and down the underground construct, and cast aside of the hole was the steel set of bars bound together which served as a barrier grate to that hole.

And the way that grate had been cast aside indicated that whatever, or _whoever,_ Emberflame had attacked out of self-defence had made its escape, and that vent hole was too small for a big, hulking figure like Krampus to fit through.


	50. Chapter 49

**Chapter 49- shattered and torn hearts**

 **Later, outside the detention room**

"Seriously, Thundersparx, I don't know how they are gonna react when he sees us," said Kushanku as he stood with Sandstorm, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi, Thundersparx the Raiju accompanying them. Shortly after the lesson on Fluffball trees (trees that grew very soft and brightly coloured hair-like tufts below their leaves that were harvested for making the materials to produce garments, similar to cotton plants) in the forest compartment again and their use in making garments as well as their care and raising from seed to fully grown tree, Thundersparx had made the decision in taking Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth to see Dashiell and Amberpaw in the hope that the Cheetah father and sister would bond with them for Dashiell had been pestering the detention room wardens to see the five youngsters for quite some time now, leading the two Centaurs to seek Gandalf's permission in allowing this, which the Kitsune, also hoping that the two Cheetahs will have melted away their bratty attitude, had granted.

"Well, you five have been separate from Dashiell and Amberpaw for quite some time now," said Thundersparx, "So we believe that it is important that you spend some father or adopted father-offspring time with him as well as family time with Amberpaw."

"Dad and sis are, after all, the last surviving members of my biological family after our brother Gingerfur was mercilessly left for dead in that frozen lake in the Massacre Event arena by Soran and Mum was turned to stone and subsequently shattered into pieces by the Witch and her cronies," said Sandstorm, before he shot a glare at Kushanku before he could weep over the loss of Gingerfur and Honeycomb, "of which either is your fault, Kushanku, before you start blaming yourself."

Kushanku slowly nodded and managed to hold back the tears threatening to overflow from his eyes caused by sadness and guilt. Then one of the Centaur wardens came in.

"Dashiell and Amberpaw are ready, you six," said the Horse-Humanoid. With that, Thundersparx led the five into the room and towards the cell holding Dashiell and Amberpaw. Kushanku felt his heart in his throat as nerves took hold, as though he expected the worst thing to happen. As soon as the five were before the entrance to Dashiell and Amberpaw's cell and Thundersparx stood back to allow them space, the Centaur called to the two Cheetahs.

"Dashiell," he said, "Your four foster kits and son and Amberpaw's foster siblings and brother are here to see you."

As he spoke, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm gazed into the cell and spotted two familiar orange, slender Cats with long tails, black spots covering their pelts and long legs as they stood up and walked over to the gate shutting them in their cell. Unlike the dungeon compartment which had magic force field crystals to shut in prisoners, the detention room had actual steel slotted doors, like gates, to shut in the detained. In the cell next door, some of Troodon's friends, among them Webby the Platypus and Cloudhorn the Alicorn, lay there, UTTERLY ashamed and still saturated with chocolate cake craving which often made them restless and drove them crazy, especially at night, requiring special care from the Centaur wardens as the cravings continued to stormily wreak havoc within their minds. But as soon as Dashiell's eyes found Sandstorm and the four young Nekomata, a scowl came upon his face. It was a scowl of scorn and dislike as though the five smelt disgusting. Behind Dashiell, Amberpaw glared bitterly at the quintet as well. Then after another minute of silence, Dashiell broke it, his bitter glare on Kushanku and his four siblings in including Sandstorm.

"Give me one good reason to even speak to you, you five," growled the adult Cheetah in a dangerously low voice. A wave of timidity coursed through the quintet.

"We… um…" began Sandstorm, "I'm your son and these four are your adopted sons and daughter."

Dashiell just raked his glare over the timid and tearful Kushanku and his siblings before returning it to Sandstorm.

"Sit down before me, all of you," he commanded. Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira and Sandstorm exchanged glances and did so while behind them, Thundersparx frowned at the two Centaur wardens; dislike and distaste at the interaction entering his gaze with the two Centaurs forming agreeing looks on their faces. Then as soon as the five were sat down, Dashiell glared at the quintet but most especially Kushanku, directly in the eye but what he said would slash open a deep emotional wound into the five of them, especially Kushanku.

"You five are NO SONS or DAUGHTER of mine," snalred Dashiell furiously, "In fact, I don't even have a son called Sandstorm OR four adopted Nekomata kits anymore…"

"WHAT!?" snapped Satoshi incredulously while Kushanku's eyes began to ooze tears, sobs threatening to escape his throat.

"You heard me, you are NOT my SONS or DAUGHTER!" snapped Dashiell, "YOU five have caused us nothing but TROUBLE ever SINCE you have brought up that stupid OVERSIZED MANED CAT subject back in Green Leaf Village. If it weren't for YOU FIVE, especially YOU, Kushanku, WE would have stayed behind in our village, things would have been AS THEY WERE and WE wouldn't have been forced to enter this stupid, underground, miserable set of dungeons MILES AWAY from our homes in the first place!"

Thundersparx, at this, felt a wave of outrage flash through him and manifest in his fur in the form of sparks, especially as he heard Kushanku begin to break down, see Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth back away dumbfounded and Sandstorm retort at his father.

"Oh YEAH, well HAD WE HAVE STAYED," bellowed the young Cheetah, "WE would have been SLAUGHTERED by that SNOW QUEEN MAGGOT of the DUMB ANIMAL DUNG HEAP whether we stayed in Green Leaf Village OR Purple Flower Town…"

"You're NO SON OF MINE, SANDSTORM!" retorted Dashiell in much louder voice, sending a stabbing emotional pain coursing through Sandstorm and making him flinch as he took the full brunt of his own biological father's rejection, "It is clear that YOU are no different from those FOUR NEKOMATA there," he shot a hateful glare at Kushanku an d his siblings as they also broke down and wept, "THEY are the ones who have caused us NO END OF TROUBLE and if you ask me, I WISH WE HAD JUST LEFT THEM OUTSIDE OUR HOME in their little BASKET as BABY KITS and NEVER TAKEN THEM IN, IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Thundersparx tried to intervene but Dashiell barked at him to stay out of it before returning his fury to the five as they backed away and wept. He was really pushing it now.

"In other words, WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT THOSE FOUR KITS OUTSIDE to FREEZE TO DEATH IN THE SNOW!" the adult Cheetah spat. That did it. The dam holding the emotions within the four Nekomata finally burst in a volcanic eruption. Tears flying from their eyes and sobs and wails erupting through their mouths, the four Nekomata whirled round and shot as fast as they could out of the detention room with Sandstorm, his eyes also spewing tears, not too far behind. As they left, Amberpaw came in and spat after them.

"You should have been slaughtered in the Arena of Death, you five," she hissed. Suddenly, a pair of electrified, bright yellow paws shot in through the gate bars and seized both Dashiell and Amberpaw by the backs of their necks. The two Cheetahs then yelped in pain as they were yanked close to a Wolf-Cat face saturated with unspeakable wrath, jolts of electricity jumping from his fur.

"How DARE YOU WISH KUSHANKU AND HIS SIBLINGS WERE DEAD, you VILE-MOUTHED, HORRIBLE CATS!" yelled Thundersparx at the top of his voice, his paws grasping the two Cheetahs so hard that it sent pain through their necks, "How DARE YOU SAY SUCH THINGS TO THOSE FIVE YOUNGSTERS, especially YOUR OWN BIOLOGICAL SON!"

The two Centaurs tried to rush in to calm the fire of fury but Thundersparx flashed a jolt of electricity at them to tell them to stay out of it for he was too angry to allow them to intervene. Dashiell and Amberpaw then began to shudder and whimper in terror.

"L-l-l-l-look, I-I-I just wanna…" began Dashiell but Tbhundersparx cut him off.

"Wanna WHAT?" he retorted, "Lacerate the emotions of those five kits, especially the four Nekomata who you have taken in when they were babies after their mother had saved them from the Witch's cronies all those years ago? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea." His voice was laced with sheer sarcasm as he said this, then Thundersparx thrusted his paws and flung Dashiell and Amberpaw back into cell. The two Cheetahs twisted their faces and grabbed the backs of their necks where they had been seized. But before Thundersparx could spit another set of stabbing words at the two Cheetahs, one of the Centaurs came in.

"Alright, that's enough, the three of you," he said.

"Especially you, Dashiell and Amberpaw," said the other Centaur to which the two Cheetahs replied with a pair of bratty glares like a child that could not get its own way. The first Centaur then began to order Thundersparx out of the room.

"I think those five could do with your company, Thundersparx," said he as he guided the still-incensed and sparking Raiju to the door. But before he could leave, Thundersparx flashed one last glare at the two Cheetahs in their cell.

"You're HONESTLY no better than that Jadis, you two," he bellowed in a more controlled angry voice to which Dashiell and Amberpaw flinched, "Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth very nearly died TWICE as kits…" his voice then began to break as distress at Dashiell and Amberpaw's venomous choice of words they had fired at Kushanku and his four siblings threatened to rear its head, "First when they were still in their mother Ferntail's womb when she was almost selected to be thrown into the Massacre Event's Arena of Blood… and then when MY FATHER betrayed her and her mate Frosty and the other Aslan believers' location to the Witch after he had won that same event leading to the SLAUGHTER of those poor creatures with Ferntail barely getting those four kits to safety…" the Centaur then barked at Thundersparx to leave the room which he eventually complied but not before issuing Dashiell and Amberpaw one final angry piece of rebuke, "And if YOU left those FOUR KITS OUTSIDE TO FREEZE TO DEATH, not only would YOU BE ANY BETTER THAN THE WITCH but YOU WOULD HAVE ALSO WASTED Ferntail and Frosty's sacrifices to save their lives! IN OTHER WORDS, THEIR SACRIFICES would have BEEN WASTED!"

And with that, he stormed out of the door. Dashiell and Amberpaw glared at the door as the two Centaurs then began to start up a serious talk with them and began to sway. What did they just do? What did they just say to those five youngsters? Well, I can tell you it was EXTREMELY insensitive, cruel and certainly very damaging, don't you agree?

 **Days go by**

As a number of days passed since Dashiell's hurtful words towards Kushanku, Akira, Nyarth, Satoshi and even his own biological son Sandstorm stabbed the four Nekomata kits and their adopted Cheetah brother like malicious poison-laced darts, the effects of the poison were still showing themselves in the five poor youngsters, and they were still severely offended. Emberflame and some of the others were working day and night just to treat the damage Dashiell's stabbing words of rejection had caused to the emotions of the five Nekomata and Cheetah cub. While this happened, Dashiell and Amberpaw remained incarcerated in the detention room with the threat of being transferred to the dreaded dungeon compartment if they did not change their attitude towards Kushanku and the other four and everyone else, and at one point they had even insulted Gandalf and Kyukon behind their backs as well as the very name of Aslan himself, to the utmost outrage of their wardens and one of Gandalf and Kyukon's older sons named Hagrid who had issued them an ultimatum to change their attitude or face a transfer straight to the dungeon where they will be kept for a while, much to Dashiell and Amberpaw's fright. However, the two Cheetahs remained as stubborn and as bitter as ever.

Troodon and one of the Rabbits' antics were not helping either as they continued to cause Kushanku no end of trouble. Still under the effects of the chocolate cake given to them by Belladonna as well as saturated with the obsessive desire for more of that treat, the Theropod and the little Bunny continued to bully Kushanku and sow seeds of gossip amongst some of the other younger evacuees and have them spread them like toxic weeds throughout the rest of the group, though some had been restrained by some of Gandalf and Kyukon's helpers and of course the elder Kitsune couple themselves, and one of the Bunnies had been caught and thrown into the detention room with Webby the Platypus, Cloudhorn the Alicorn and three of his siblings when he was caught by Plasmabolt, the Lightning Pyro who was involved in the Krampus incident down in one of the garden tool storing basement compartments the other day, putting some foul-tasting powder into the lunch of one of the Tengu with the intent of getting Kushanku into trouble with these sometimes-mischievous forest creatures, and Tengu were not only known for their occasional mischievous behaviour, but some also sported ferocious tempers at times. After the Rabbit had been caught, Troodon and the last Rabbit remained and they continued to carry out Belladonna's requests in causing Kushanku as much trouble as possible and it seemed like they were succeeding as more and more evacuees were beginning to hate Kushanku and shun him. To add, more abnormal happenings continued such as scary hallucinations, things mysteriously disappearing or moving by themselves, and sightings of 'Kushanku' running about in places where he shouldn't be, such as the dungeon compartment, the compartment where the caterpillars and chrysalises of various endemic Narnian butterfly and moth species were kept and raised, and the kitchen of the dining compartment due to the obvious hazards of massive ovens and sharp knives, despite Kushanku denying himself to have visited those out-of-bounds places. Not to mention more creatures coming down with mysterious stomach upsets as a result of eating meals the cooks insisted were prepared well with the safety procedures in cooking the foods followed to the closest letter (such as meat being cooked the right way to avoid the growth of harmful bacteria during the process of preparation) but when the foods were examined, mysterious contaminants had been found with the cooks insisting that they had not put those contaminants into the food, and more creatures were suffering more nights of mysterious insomnia as well, waking up groggy and utterly irritable in the morning and saturated with tiredness during the lessons, some even falling asleep on the spot. Things certainly were in a bit of a chaos in the base at the moment and Gandalf and Kyukon were getting more and more agitated and desperate in finding the cause of these mysterious happenings and dealt with as soon as possible before things could get worse.

 **In the nighttime countryside compartment**

Kushanku sat in the nighttime countryside compartment, the moon-like light orb blazing its silvery light into the makeshift scenery of the Narnian countryside as it would have appeared aboveground during the now-extinct spring, summer or autumn at night. Its light turned the lakes and flowing artificial streams into liquid silver and the grass and leaves on the indoor-grown trees wavered slightly in the breezes generated by the magic wind makers. Around the moon orb, a smatter of speckles of light decorated the blue-black canvas similar to how the Stars which were actual sentient beings in Narnia and not fiery plasma balls in our world would decorate the night Narnian sky, often forming a variety of patterns the Centaurs would examine and make predictions, such as prophecies for they were often a prophetic species, based on their patterns. He sat with his arms folded and his body hunched over in sadness on a log near the spot where his sister Akira was found in a catatonic state floating facedown in the water and where he and his brothers including Sandstorm had dragged her out to examine her condition. Kushanku was still timid and wary of entering the compartment after what Akira had told him, Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm of what had frightened her in here in the medical compartment as soon as she was out of her state of shock enough to speak, which some of Gandalf's helpers had comparted to be no different from the other mysterious happenings such as Colress the elderly Centaur's hallucination of the fiery Human skull chasing him down the corridor to the training compartment; Wallace the Merman's hallucination of a three headed serpent lashing at him in the aquarium compartment shortly after his transformation into his aquatic form to rehydrate himself, and Truffula the Tanuki's vision of huge, demonic eyes glaring at her from the hives, the trees and even the bees and flowers during her examination of the hives' health in the forest compartment. However, this incident and those other incidents were not the only things troubling Kushanku and they were the least of his worries anyway.

What was really troubling Kushanku was what Dashiell had said to him and his siblings a number of days ago and the rejection by so many other evacuees including Guinan the Faun who kept spitting foul names at the Nekomata each time they passed, the Harpies Suiren, Lana and Hala's attitude towards him and even a few of the individuals close to him, such as Trotterhoof, Desdemona, Cyril, Link and Molayne, becoming wary of him. All these things were practically weighing down on the Nekomata kit and he was struggling to stay afloat in the stormy sea of chaos and confusion, and the only place he often sought solace from that storm was in here. While Kushanku continued to sit on the log and gaze into the makeshift scenery, a voice called out to him.

"Hey," it, belonging to a female Nekomata his age with the fur colour similar to the range of colours taken on by a certain gemstone in various light types in our world as she entered the room and walked over to the distraught Kushanku. In her paws was a plate full of fruit and nuts. "I brought you your meal since you left it in the dining area during dinner."

Alexandrite then placed the plate with the meal down beside Kushanku's feet but the Nekomata showed no sliver of interest in eating any of it. Then Alexandrite sat down on the log beside Kushanku and gazed at the starry artificial sky.

"I would love to observe the real scene of the sky aboveground in an actual countryside this compartment was built to resemble, without all the snow and ice and the frigid air," she sighed longingly, "but with the Witch's Eternal Winter curse gripping the air aboveground, until the Winter Revolution comes, that dream's out of the question."

"We've always known Narnia to be a snowy wasteland since we were born, haven't we?" said Kushanku sadly, "Us two and the other creatures born after that White Witch locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter. Not to mention the severe hardships we've had to face…"

"Oh, don't ever mention those hardships Jadis had bestowed upon us besides the snow and ice," said Alexandrite as this brought back memories of when Trotterhoof's group had left Green Leaf Town with Soran and the others to their so-called new 'homes' on Jadis's grounds with all the luxuries every creature afflicted in Narnia by the winter curse of the Witch had been missing, "It just brings back memories of that HORRIBLE Massacre Event and Soran and the others' change of attitude as the result of their betrayal to the rest of you for a better life and I want to move on from it."

Kushanku breathed a sigh and looked away, guilt welling within him since he remembered how sensitive that topic was with Alexandrite and the other escapees from Jadis's castle and the victors of the Massacre Event, especially Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way who had been wandering about the grounds for ten years since Lightningflash and the others including the trio had moved into their 'new home' after the second Massacre Event Kushanku remembered was deceptively named the 'Fighting League' to disguise its over-the-top gruesome nature and its other unmentionable traits. Moving on, Kushanku then brought up something else that was genuinely troubling him.

"I don't know why everyone is so suspicious of me and keep shunning me," he lamented, "even some of your adopted siblings Desdemona the Griffin, Link the Peryton, Cyril the Hippogriff and Mr Trotterhoof are becoming wary of me…"

"I don't know either," said Alexandrite, "I don't see any reason why you should be treated that way. I even overheard some adolescent Tengu talk badly of you and saying how you should be avoided and all that while I was writing some theory on combat techniques, and believe me, I was absolutely confused…"

As she spoke, Kushanku stood up and trudged towards one of the rushing streams.

"Hug, everything's so confusing for me and my siblings these days," he muttered. "First, I start to get shunned or treated badly, even bullied and gossiped about, more and more for no reason whatsoever, then Dashiell rejects us and even Sandstorm, his own biological son as his kids…"

"I heard from Thundersparx what he had said to you, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Kushanku," said Alexandrite, a hint of disgust in her voice, "And I just cannot believe that he would say something like that. He's honestly NO different from Soran and the others when they turned their backs on you to settle in the so-called new life given to them by the Witch after Soran won that Bloodbath 'game'…" she then bowed her head as Kushanku turned to gaze at her, "Then I guess we have something in common, especially after learning of you and your three biological siblings' backstory of how you became Dashiell and Honeycomb's adopted kits. Padparadchsa and I also lost our parents at a young age as well but it was _after_ we were born."

Kushanku flashed Alexandrite a surprised look. "You lost your family too?"

Alexandrite slowly raised her head to gaze at Kushanku with tears welling in her eyes.

"When Paddy and I, along with a little brother who was born with us… us two had a triplet brother… we used to live in a very ramshackle wooden shed-like building," Alexandrite began. Kushanku returned to the log, sat down and began to listen as Alexandrite continued.

"It was a worn-out, shabby little shack and we were struggling to get by on what meagre amounts of food we had managed to gather and the only thing we had for beds were rotting wooden crates and mattresses. We had no protection from the freezing weather whatsoever and our mother was struggling to make ends meet."

"Where was your father?" asked Kushanku. Alexandrite lowered her ears and head as her right eye dropped a tear.

"He left us for another She-Nekomata when we were about one year old," she said, "He had been having an affair behind our mother's back while she was struggling to raise us three…"

Kushanku felt a wave of revulsion flash within him.

"That's _horrible_ and utterly _selfish!"_ he spat in disgust, "If I ever plan on finding a mate and having kits of my own, I would be a faithful spouse for one and be there for my mate and my kits for another, especially during difficult times like these, not abandon them for some other She-Nekomata… and besides that, Aslan had decreed that marriage amongst us Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures like the Centaurs and Merfolk are supposed to be between one male and one female, within the kind or species, for life. For example, a male Nekomata can, and should, only marry a female of his kind, be it a female Nekomata or Bakeneko for the two subspecies of magical Cats are similar and are of the same kind, and the two should stay together for life for better or worse and whatnot. Likewise, a male Beaver should only marry a female of his species, a She-Beaver, and stay with her for life. A Nekomata or Bakeneko cannot, and should not, marry a Beaver and vice versa; the marriage MUST be between two individuals of the SAME species or kind. Mr Hagrid, one of Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's older sons and who is an expert in Talking Beast and Magical Creature matrimony and Aslan's ordinance of it, told me that," Kushanku breathed a sigh as Alexandrite nodded in agreement.

"But if you're planning on finding a mate of your own and having kits when you grow up, Kushanku, save that until we leave this winter-stricken country," said she, "Mr Gandalf has advised those pledged to get married to save their union and family plans until after the exodus to Archenland, for obvious reasons."

Kushanku nodded in agreement before saying, "Anyway, go on with your story. What happened next?"

"Well, after Father left Mother to fend for herself and care for us three alone," said Alexandrite, resuming her and Paddy's backstory, "Mother began to really struggle, especially with the cold and the food shortage in which the Witch's 90 percent offering law was a major contributing factor. She just could not care for the three of us at all. Then one day, when we were two years old, our brother caught a severe cold and died. We didn't have any form of proper shelter from the freezing cold in our shack and barely a proper bed to sleep in. Then our Mother fell ill and became unable to care for us two remaining kits…" a tear and a sob escaped from Alexandrite's eye and mouth respectively but she gathered the strength to continue, "and when the worst came to the worst, she gave me and Paddy up for adoption by placing us in a metal basket and giving us to a passing hunting group, among them Mr Growler and Mrs Silver-Ears, Soran and his siblings'; parents and Molayne's aunt and uncle, and they gladly took us away. That was the last time we saw Mother's face. It is likely she had died shortly after our giving to that hunting group and Mr Growler adopted us into his Dog family along with several other young Talking Beasts, among them Desdemona, Cyril and Link."

Alexandrite then sat down in the grass and began to take a moment to let loose some sobs. Kushanku came over to her to comfort her by putting a paw on her shoulder. After managing to console herself, Alexandrite turned and gazed at Kushanku, "So based on you and your three siblings' backstory and mine and my sisters, including the loss of our biological parents and rejection by our adopted ones, we seem to have quite a few things in common," her tearful gaze then morphed into a frown, "But as it is with Soran and company and their problem in rejecting the rest of us and abandoning us to settle into that so-called better life given to them by the White Witch, Mr Dashiell's rejection of you and your siblings is his problem, not yours. Please remember that."

Kushanku breathed a sad sigh "At least it's good to know that we are not the only orphans of the evacuees. I bet there must be so many other youngsters who had lost parents as well, either to the conditions in general or to the Massacre Event," he gazed into the artificial night sky and let loose a sigh but then he began to weep when the scathing words Dashiell had spewed at him, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm resurfaced and reared their ugly head within his mind. It was going to take a while for him, Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira to get over the hurtful and scathing remarks fired at them from Dashiell and the mental wounds were still fresh. Sadly, Kushanku sat down near Alexandrite and shared a hug with her with Alexandrite returning the hug.

 **Somewhere else in the base**

In the library, some of the evacuees were carrying out their own studies on Narnia's history and creation. Obsidian was focussed on the actual creation account and the first extra-Narnian arrivals during its happening wen Aslan was singing the land, the stars, and the creatures into being. However, as she studied, something churned within her and it was threatening to erupt. Normally Obsidian was a very tough and steadfast Wampus Cat but on the inside, she was very troubled and she had kept it within herself for so long since she was a cub when her parents and sibling were mercilessly killed by Krampus during a hunting trip, and within that boiling concoction was guilt and shame over her family's death at the claws of that ugly Father Christmas impersonating Goat demon.

It had happened during a hunting trip when Obsidian was only a young cub and she had been the one to suggest going out hunting for game to her parents and older brother to help find more food for themselves and their starving neighbours, and the family of Wampus Cats went out on that trip. However, during the trip, the light was suddenly enveloped in abnormal darkness as though the sun had been eclipsed by the moon, a blizzard was whipped up and the temperature had plummeted, similar to how the temperature dropped during Obsidian and her group's search for survivors in Green Leaf Village and its neighbouring town, Purple Flower, during their search for Kushanku and the others after they had escaped Jadis's castle. Then shortly after the abnormal blizzard was whipped up, the Wampus Cat family was set upon by Krampus and his toy and treat-based minions. Obsidian had managed to escape and take cover in a nearby fallen log thanks to her brother's intervention when some of the demonic gingerbread men tried to stab her with their candy cane-like spears, and the cub was forced to watch in horror and distress as her parents and brother were mercilessly killed by the wicked Goat demon and his minions. Obsidian's mother had been eaten alive by the Basilisk-like jack-in-the-box while her father and brother were gruesomely killed by the other toy minions and gingerbread men. Then after the chaos had subsided once they were finished in slaughtering Obsidian's family and finding no-one else, Krampus and his minions had returned to their sleigh and rushed off, taking the terrifying blizzard and darkness with them. As the daylight returned once the eclipse of Krampus's darkness had left with the demonic Goat figure resembling and dressed like Father Christmas which he used as a sort of trickery to lure in his victims, Obsidian was left shuddering and stricken with trauma and horror in her hiding place and that trauma was to stay with her for the rest of her life, alongside the sheer shame and guilt of suggesting to her family that they go out on a hunting trip for themselves and their neighbours leading to her parents and brother's fate that the Wampus Cat had kept bottled up within her for so long. Now that pressure was about to erupt and Obsidian knew she had to leave to a secluded place.

Then as soon as the pressure of the volcano of shame and guilt over her family's demise reached critical, Obsidian put down her book, pen and notepad and darted off for the library exit. Tesseract the Unicorn who had been studying nearby spotted the obsidian-black six-legged Mountain Lioness with neon orange-red markings rush out as though she was desperate for something.

"Obsidian?" asked the Unicorn with concern. However, Obsidian was out of earshot and was already in the corridor. As soon as she was in the corridor, tears welled within her eyes and she began to lose control of her breathing, before finally breaking down into a severe sobbing fit with her head and front paw on the wall.

"You're distraught over the loss of your parents and brother, aren't you?" said a voice. At this, Obsidian, her eyes swamped with salty tears, looked up and found herself confronted by a Basan Hen who stood a few feet from her with a stern look on her face. After regaining control of her sobbing and weeping heavily, Obsidian began to let loose her guilt.

"I-I-I feel like it's all MY FAULT that my parents and brother had died at Krampus's clutches," she wailed loudly, "If only I had not suggested to them that we go out hunting for game for ourselves and our neighbours…"

She then entered another tearful breakdown. The Basan hen, sympathy consuming her, then walked over to put a comforting wing on the Wampus Cat's shoulder. Not too far away, Tesseract watched the scene and when the Unicorn with the strange hypercube projection-like markings on his side saw the Basan hen, he at first assumed it was one of Bursyamo's female underlings.

"Oh, we all have feelings of guilt over the loss of loved ones from time to time," said the hen as she patted the sobbing Obsidian's shoulder, "particularly if it is of our own families…"

Obsidian continued to sob into her front arms, her middle paws clasped onto her head. Then the Basan hen's attitude began to change and she retracted her wing from the weeping Wampus Cat's shoulder.

"I-I-I only wanted to help them and my neighbours to f-f-find food… due to the severe famine threatening s-s-so many of us … that was all," she said in a strangled, teary voice, "I-I-I didn't mean for my brother and parents to face s-s-such a gruesome demise a-a-at the clutches of that h-h-h-horrible F-F-Father Christmas impersonator…"

"Of course you never meant to cause their deaths," said the Basan hen in a sympathetic voice before her accusing voice returned, "But… but your family has passed away…" her face them morphed into a look of accusation, "if it weren't for you… and your stupid idea in suggesting to them to go out to hunt for food, they'd still be here…"

At this, Obsidian shot the Basan a teary look, her eyes tearstained with tears still falling like waterfalls, as the firebird hardened her gaze. "In other words, you've murdered your OWN family."

Nearby, Tesseract flinched in utter revulsion and rage. How can anyone throw SUCH an INSENSITIVE accusation at such an exposed wound like that!? And as far as Tesseract knew of Bursyamo and his underlings, all of them had been sympathetic towards those that had lost loved ones before the evacuation to Gandalf's base, not accusative.

"What will Gandalf and Kyukon think of you for the murder of your own parents and brother?" asked the hen. Obsidian then shot the Basan a horrified look as the hen continued, "Do you think they'd let a murderer stay in their base?"

"What should I do?" asked the weeping Wampus Cat.

"Well, I don't know?" said the hen with a shoulder shrug and an indifferent look on her face, "Maybe get out of here?" her face then morphed into a deadly look, "Or how about, you know, doing away with it all via another way you should know full well? After all, you don't wanna face those two nine-tailed Kitsune's wrath, do you? They might banish you from their base or worse…"

Obsidian shuddered, especially at the thought of facing Gandalf and Kyukon's anger. Then the Wampus Cat turned tail and disappeared down the corridor, the Basan hen looking on; a small smirk slightly widening her beak and narrowing her eyes. Then outrage exploded within Tesseract and he stormed over to the Fire Fowl and his eyes blazed with crystalline fury.

"How DARE you accuse her of killing her own FAMILY when it wasn't her FAULT, especially WHEN SHE IS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF THEM!" bellowed the Unicorn and with that, he lost all thought and charged like an infuriated Rhino towards the Fire Fowl with his single horn lowered, a massive neigh of wrath exploding from his mouth. However, before he could skewer the bird with his magnificent spike, which glistened like a beautiful icicle and was the signature feature of all Unicorns, the alarmed Basan spread her wings and darted off, sending Tesseract's horn jamming into the wall where it stuck and sent some small rocks and dust exploding from the impact. Tesseract then let loose a furious neigh as he struggled to dislodge his horn from the wall and glared at the Basan hen as it escaped. The Unicorns furious neighs then alerted some nearby Animals and a Rhino and they came in to investigate what all the fuss was about.

Obsidian rushed down the corridor like a mad Dog with tears flying from her eyes and heavy sobs escaping from her mouth. She did not care who was in her way and continued charging in the direction of the sleeping compartments. She then passed by the tank compartment and gazed into the water tanks where the rescued Sea Creatures resided. Changing her mind about rushing to the sleeping compartment, the Wampus Cat entered the room, the Basan hen's words to 'do away with it all via another way you should know full well', and ascended the platform the Merfolk climbed up to prepare to plunge into the water to return to their aquatic forms like how Wallace had done earlier, and perched herself with her front paws on the edge of the platform before a drop into the water of the tank. However, the Wampus Cat, her emotions boiling out of control and her eyes streaming with MASSIVE tears, had another thing in mind, and the Sea Animals consisting mostly of Dolphins, Penguins, Seals, Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs, watched on, surprised to see a non-aquatic Talking Beast in their compartment. Then they examined her behaviour and when they deduced what she was planning to do, a Plesiosaur barked at one of the strange water Centaurs, called an Ichthy-Centaur who resembled a land Centaur but had a fishtail replacing the Horse's hind legs, to leave the tank and call for help. However, Obsidian did not care about the commotion she was unintentionally stirring in the aquatic room and prepared to carry out her plan.

"I-I-I'm so… sorry, Mother, Father and… Granite…" whispered the Wampus Cat, her eyes still oozing tears and prepared herself to leap from the platform. However, before she could do that, a familiar voice exploded from the entrance to the aquatic room.

"Obsidian, NO!" it yelled, stopping Obsidian's troubled and tumultuous mind in its tracks.

"GET DOWN FROM THE PLATFORM to the TANK PLEASE! DON'T JUMP INTO THE WATER!" shouted another voice in a pleading tone. Thundersparx and Trotterhoof's voices and their owners had come to plead for Obsidian not to plunge into the water. The Raiju and the Pig, their eyes looking on desperately at their friend as she stood before the drop into the tank water, her eyes closed and continuously oozing more and more tears and her six legs trembling, then began to shudder.

"Yes, Wampus Cat, get down from the platform, said one of the Ichthyosaurs, Coralfin as she gazed at the troubled six-legged Cat on the platform, "Those platforms are for aquatic creatures only, NOT for land creatures such as yourself, especially if you cannot swim."

The other Sea Animals also shouted the same thing as Obsidian continued to weep and stand on the platform, ready to throw herself into the water.

"Obsidian, please, come down from there," said Trotterhoof. Obsidian then snapped a tearful gaze to the Pig just as Bursyamo and a few of his underlings entered the room having been called by Milky Way who had been with Trotterhoof and Thundersparx when they had seen Obsidian swerve into the aquatic compartment in that state.

"It's ALL MY FAULT THAT MY PARENTS AND BROTHER HAD DIED at the CLAWS OF KRAMPUS," wailed the Wampus Cat in a heartbroken voice, "IF I HADN'T HAVE SUGGESTED THE IDEA that WE go out HUNTING FOR GAME FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN STILL ALIVE!"

Bursyamo blinked in confusion as did his underlings while Thundersparx, who understood Obsidian's traumatic and tragic past, extended a paw.

"Who told you that?" asked the lead Basan.

"One of your underling hens did," wailed Obsidian and with that, she returned to preparing to throw herself into the water. However, a Plesiosaur had swam to the platform and was prepared to take action should the Wampus Cat make the jump. Then one of the hens named Achamo shot Bursyamo a perplexed look.

"One of our members told that Wampus Cat that it was her fault that her family had died at Krampus's clutches?" she said. Bursyamo raised a wing to tell her to save that subject until after Obsidian was persuaded down from the platform, before turning to three Cockerels to leave and fetch Gandalf and Kyukon, which they did. Thundersparx then advanced towards Obsidian.

"That's NOT true, Obsidian," he said, "Whoever said that was an ABSOLUTE feral BEAST! YOU only wanted to help your family and your neighbours BECAUSE OF THAT FOOD SHORTAGE and because they were STARVING! You NEVER had in mind to have your parents and your brother Granite killed by that Father Christmas fraud IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"Yes, so many other evacuees have unfortunately lost loved ones to that Goat Demon as well," said Bursyamo in agreement, "Now please, Obsidian, step away from the platform."

Obsidian continued shuddering and weeping as she perched on the end of the platform before the crystalline waters swishing before her in the tank, the Plesiosaur and some other Sea Creatures with him including Coralfin ready to rescue her in case she did make the decision to jump, torn as to whether to comply to Bursyamo's order and Trotterhoof and Thundersparx's pleas to back away from the platform or to jump into the water.

"B-b-but Gandalf and Kyukon will be ANGRY WITH ME!" cried Obsidian.

"No, they won't," said Thundersparx, "Listen; Gandalf and Kyukon are over _900 years old_ and have been around since shortly after Narnia's beginnings at the mouth of Aslan, so they have HUNDREDS of YEARS of knowledge, wisdom, experience and understanding, and they CLEARLY understand that COUNTLESS other evacuees including Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira, and also Alexandrite, Padparadscha, and Milky Way and many others had either lost their families through the Eternal Winter's conditions or its consequences like food shortage, lack of protection and shelter from the frigid air, or even at the clutches of that Snow Beast's beyond-corrupt judicial system, or had been given to other families and groups because their parents could not look after them as is the case of Alexandrite and Paddy. Not to mention direct rejection from their own families," Thundersparx felt his heart lurch with severe ache at Dashiell's upfront rejection of Sandstorm and also Kushanku and his siblings earlier but he pushed that aside to focus on persuading Obsidian out of taking her own life, "Listen, Obsidian, you're STRONGER THAN THIS! You made the RIGHT DECISION to want to help your family and neighbours in providing more food for them by hunting for game but it was just UNFORTUNATE that you ended up losing your family to that HIDEOUS Krampus beast resulting in ending up as an orphan. So please, come down from the platform and don't jump into the water."

"Yes, drowning yourself in that tank won't solve anything," put in Bursyamo.

Obsidian then shot the pleaders an extremely tearful gaze. Her eyes were red from weeping so many tears and her facial fur was wet from the tear rivers.

"And another thing, Aslan would NOT WANT you to commit suicide over something you didn't do such as the deaths of your family," added Trotterhoof, "The White Witch is to blame for that incident, not yourself."

"Yes, absolutely," said one of the Seals as he floated near the Plesiosaur who wore an agreeing look. That look was mirrored on the other Aquatic Animals in the other tanks as well. Obsidian gazed from Thundersparx and the others with him to the Aquatic Animals and then to the water. Then after a few more tense moments, the Wampus Cat relented and backed away from the platform's edge and climbed down the steps to Trotterhoof and the others. As soon as she was on the ground, Thundersparx rushed over and pulled the Wampus Cat into a tight hug, his eyes welling with tears as Obsidian began to really cry for Narnia into his shoulder. Trotterhoof and the Basan looked on at the tearful scene with sympathetic gazes. Just then the three Cockerels whom Bursyamo had sent returned and behind them a few more Animals, amongst them a pair of nine-tailed Kitsune with their ivory fur smattered with glistening metallic yellow patches.

"It's okay," said Bursyamo, "We've managed to persuade the Wampus Cat down from the platform."

However, the next big thing entered the lead Basan's mind and he shuddered with fury. The Basan hen that had pushed Obsidian over the edge like that was NOT going to get away with this and he was determined in hunting down that hen and bringing her to justice for he did not want anything like this to happen to the other evacuees with traumatised pasts again. However, that will have to wait a bit for they had Obsidian to get to safety first. Then Gandalf stepped forward and gently took Obsidian who was still sobbing hard, from Thundersparx and led her to the medical room, issuing her calming and soothing words to settle the turmoil of emotions erupting from within her. As the male nine-tailed Kitsune led Obsidian away, Trotterhoof looked on.

"I just cannot believe that someone would be so _insensitive_ in saying that it was ALL her fault for her family dying at the clutches of that Father Christmas impersonating Goat demon," he grunted, "I don't think any of your underlings would say such a thing, am I might, Bursyamo?"

"Absolutely not," replied Bursyamo in outrage, "In fact all my underlings respect the evacuees, especially those that had been thro0ugh traumatic losses either to the winter or the Witch herself with that Massacre Event being one sickening factor… anyway, if you don't mind, I've got an important job to do."

And with that, he left after Gandalf and Kyukon. Trotterhoof and Thundersparx exchanged worried glances. They knew that if one of Bursyamo's underlings ever upset any of the evacuees to the point of driving them to possibly taking their own lives, which was an EXTREMELY serious matter, Bursyamo will NOT hesitate to have that underling captured, fired from his or her position and incarcerated into the dungeon. Worried, they left with the others and flashed a thankful nod to the Sea Animals that helped in saving Obsidian's life, the Animals returning it with a nod of approval.


	51. Chapter 50

**Chapter 50- Satoshi gets dragged in**

 **Over the next few days since Obsidian's ordeal**

More trouble continued to occur throughout the base. More and more evacuees were not sleeping and were getting irritable and a number of other evacuees kept reporting frightening hallucinations, things seemingly moving by themselves despite the absence of a telekinetic species such as a Sphinx, things mysteriously going missing and sightings of creatures with suspicious behaviour up and down the base, though one thing was clear: the happenings were often concentrated in one part of the base which made Gandalf, Kyukon and their helpers arrive at the conclusion that an intruder was DEFINITELY afoot in here. Furthermore, there was still no sign of Belladonna since her escape from the dungeon compartment thanks to the foolish and naïve actions of Troodon and the other perpetrators, and those perpetrators apart from Fluffy-Cotton were still saturated with the desire for more chocolate cake, so much so that it entirely consumed their minds and eclipsed the importance of everything else. And what's worse, Kushanku was becoming more and more of a target for rejection, bullying and shunning. He had been in trouble time and time again for various things he did not do and the things he knew he never did. One of these things was attacking some of Gandalf's helpers and once he ended up in the detention room for a couple of days (where Amberpaw belittled him and called him foul names); another time was when the batch of precious fire flowers was destroyed or stolen (with a few of them only being salvaged and made into cordial by the gardeners led by Tuvok), as well as the theft of some potions and some of the garments built from the colourful tufts of the Fluffball trees (a special type of tree that grew brightly coloured fluffy tops and were endemic to Narnia, and they were often used in making garments. Because of their endemic status, a small forest of them was grown in the forest compartment and cared for by Truffula and the other tree gardeners); a third thing was the spreading of derogatory remarks about various evacuees (such as insensitive jokes about the traumatised past of some of them, such as Guinan and the devastation of her clan as a result of the leader's death), as well as Gandalf's helpers and even Gandalf and Kyukon themselves, and Aslan as well. Furthermore, Kushanku was accused of wandering into places where he and the other evacuees shouldn't be such as Gandalf and Kyukon's office (the nine-tailed Kitsune couple's most private spot) due to sightings of 'him' wandering into those places, similar to the incident where 'he' lured Emberflame into a terrifying situation down in one of the tool storage compartments days earlier. Things certainly were going downhill for Kushanku such that even those close to him were beginning to shun him and doubt him, and Troodon and the remaining Rabbit kit's antics weren't helping either.

 **In the dining compartment**

Satoshi was sitting with Padparadchsa "Paddy", Cyril the Hippogriff chick, Desdemona the Griffin chick and Molayne the Dog. The five were having a discussion over the recent happenings and Gandalf and Kyukon's constant stress over the escalating situation of the intruder wandering about the base, the most recent one being the baby Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, such as Eureka and Citron the Otter pups and a young Fairy boy, being utterly frightened by an EXTREMELY FRIGHTENING illusion to the point of the incident slashing open a traumatic scar in the young minds of those poor creatures.

"I cannot believe all this is happening, you four," said Satoshi worriedly, "This base is supposed to be a safe place and yet, we're getting terrorised by these mysterious happenings."

"Especially the young kids and babies," said Paddy in despair, "According to the babysitters, the room suddenly became shrouded in darkness and the next thing they and the kids knew, they were faced with a HUGE crowd of utterly demonic toy-like figures. As a result, those kids won't play with their toys now. Citron and Eureka wouldn't even touch their Aslan tags fashioned for them by one of the Moon Viscacha."

"Whoever is behind those devilish illusions and deceptions, alongside other things such as things going missing or those fire flowers getting damaged or stolen," said Desdemona, "is certainly sick in the head, I can tell you."

"I reckon it's Kushanku," said Molayne suddenly, pulling the attention of the other four to the Dog.

"What?" snapped Satoshi incredulously.

"How can it be Satoshi's brother?" asked Paddy, "Especially since he cannot project illusions like the one that traumatised the kids"

"Yeah, but he has been in places where he shouldn't have been, you two," said Desdemona. As she spoke, Satoshi caught-sighted a form out the corner of his eye at the entrance. At this, the Nekomata kit turned his attention to the doorway and to his surprise, he saw Kushanku stand there, his eyes staring like a laser at him in a deadpan expression. Curiosity welling within him especially since he remembered Kushanku being in the sleeping quarters the last time he saw him, Satoshi stood up and left to investigate. The other four continued talking.

"Look, there's a problem with the conclusion that Kushanku had been in areas where he knew he shouldn't be," said Paddy, unaware that Satoshi had left, "first off, have you guys remembered seeing him, for example, in the study compartment when you left to go to the forest compartment only to see 'him' messing about with the Fluffball trees and damaging them, before throwing accusations at him of those actions only for him to deny it and say he hadn't been there? Kushanku cannot be in two places at the same time."

"Well, we shouldn't trust him, Paddy," said Cyril adamantly, "we don't know what he could be capable of."

"I agree," put in Molayne, an agreeing look at the Hippogriff, "especially after he stuck up those notes with those HORRIBLE joke remarks about the traumatic past of some of the other evacuees, such as Guinan the Faun, written on them on the wall. What he wrote about Guinan's patriarch dying and the incident with the woodworking groups was TOTALLY insensitive."

"And to be honest with you, even some of Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's helpers are starting to have doubts about him," added Desdemona, "even after his detainment in the detention room for one or two days, it's clear that he hasn't learned his lesson."

Paddy was about to reply when suddenly, an almighty CRASH and SPLASH erupted within the kitchen, followed by the angry shouts of cooks as something was spilled, in addition to MASSIVE trumpeting and screams of pure agony. At this, Paddy, Desdemona, Molayne and Cyril all jumped from their seats, knocking them backwards and leaped a few metres into the air as the colossal noise startled them, the Griffin and Hippogriff flapping their wings in the process. When they landed on the ground, they rushed off for the kitchen, too saturated by shock to pick up their chairs to place back on their four feet under the table. Furthermore, they had noticed that Satoshi was absent.

As the quartet rushed out of the compartment's door and towards the entrance to the kitchen, Paddy feared the worst.

"I hope Satoshi HADN'T…" she began but the moment the quartet screeched to a halt at the entrance to the kitchen, they were met with a horrific scene.

A giant pan made of heatproof and heat-conductive rock lay in smithereens on the floor and its contents, which appeared to be some type of soup, were splattered _absolutely_ everywhere. Steam rose from the massive lumpy lake of soup and pan shards for it was still extremely hot, and the cooks, which were a few Centaurs, Fairies, Elves, two Elephants, a Rhino and a Bear, were keeping their distance well away from the scalding hot lake, and two of the Elves and one of the Elephant had unfortunately been burned by the scalding hot liquid when it went everywhere and were having their burns treated by a Fairy with cold water. Meanwhile, the faces of the other cooks saturated with volcanic outrage, and when Molayne, Desdemona, Paddy and Cyril examined where their wrathful faces were turned, they saw that they were all converging a certain fork-tailed Cat as he sat atop a cooking worktop, a terrified look on his face, his tabby cat coloured fur strewn with metallic grey patches puffed out and his entire body shaking violently like jelly, as he gazed at the steaming soup lake diverged in the floor beneath him and the worktop. In the background, Kushanku looked on but when Cyril noticed the Nekomata's face, he saw that the face was saturated not with utmost guilt and remorse at the scene, but with _extreme_ smug and wickedness, and he was actually laughing at the scene, especially at the two Elves and the Elephants who had unfortunately ended up caught in the shower of scalding hot soup when it splashed everywhere and were whimpering in agony as a Fairy desperately applied cold water to tend to their burns. Paddy also saw Kushanku's face and blinked. This was clearly NOT Kushanku would show, much less cause a massive vat of cooking soup to spill everywhere. Then one of the Fairies, who had been one of the lead cooks, began to yell at Satoshi and Kushanku with his unusually guiltless and devilishly smirking face.

"You STUPID PAIR OF FORK-TAILED FELINE HOOLIGANS!" screamed the little Humanoid with butterfly-like wings as she hovered in the air, her wrath-saturated glare on the two Nekomata, "YOU'VE just SPILLED THE SOUP THAT WAS TO BE THE EVACUEES' DINNER! NOW THEY WILL HAVE TO GO WITHOUT IT and what's WORSE, YOU'VE INJURED THREE OF OUR COOKS!"

Satoshi, shock still gripping him hard like a clamshell on a fish, timidly and shakily turned and gazed at the two Elves and Elephant as they continued to have their burns, the Elves on their arms and the Elephant on its face and trunk where the scalding hot soup at splashed onto them, treated by the Fairy with cold water. Then Kushanku bolted. He darted over the worktop, knocking Satoshi off the surface and bolted like a startled deer for the door where Cyril, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne were stood, some of the Fairies rushing after him. Satoshi flailed his arms and slipped off the surface but before he could land into the lake of still-boiling soup, three Humanoids with butterfly-like wings shot in and seized his tails and ears, before hastily carrying him to safety to save him from becoming a fourth casualty with burns.

As Kushanku exited the door, he barged past Paddy, Desdemona, Cyril and Molayne, and as that happened, commotion erupted amongst the four. Cyril was thrown hard into the wall as he was tackled so violently but as he smashed into the wall; his right wing got caught between his body and the solid surface in an awkward position, resulting in a sickening crack. The Hippogriff then subsequently slid to the floor in a heap, his face twisted in agony. Molayne was brutally trodden on while Desdemona was also shoved back with a paw to the face but Padparadchsa, who ended up getting caught in the front of the fleeing Nekomata and was very quick-thinking, immediately raised a paw, flared its claws and slashed them right over Kushanku's face before the fleeing Nekomata had chance to mow her down. Though she did deeply regret doing this for she would never do ANYTHING to Kushanku, since this Nekomata had an abnormally sadistic and demonic glare plastered all over his face, she had felt utterly threatened. Kushanku then wailed and howled in extreme agony as blood began to weep from his face where Paddy had struck him. However, as he screamed, Paddy heard that the scream sounded different from Kushanku's. Terrified and in agony, the Nekomata fled just before the Fairy cooks arrived. After the commotion had settled down, the lead Fairy cook flew in and hovered beside Paddy as she shakily looked on after the fleeing Nekomata.

"Kushanku's REALLY IN DEEP WATER now," snarled the butterfly-winged Humanoid. Paddy was about to protest to her when suddenly, an Eagle-like cry of agony erupted from nearby. At this, Paddy snapped round to the direction of the scream's source and to her horror, she saw Cyril grasp his right wing with a talon, which was the front feet of a Griffin or Hippogriff, his Eagle's face twisted into agony. Desdemona and Molayne, the latter who had managed to recover from being mowed down by Kushanku, had gathered around the Hippogriff as he continued to grasp his wing. The Fairy lead cook also saw the scene.

"Get that young Hippogriff to the medical centre, NOW," she barked. At this, three Elves and a Centaur appeared from the kitchen door and commanded Desdemona and Molayne to take Cyril to said destination, Paddy looking on. She then turned round to see Satoshi who was very badly shaken from the whole incident, especially as glares from some of the other cooks, including the Bear continued to pierce into him like hot lasers. Paddy shuddered as she felt the heat of the wrath of the cooks at Satoshi and his intrusion into the kitchen, a place not meant for young kits or other Talking Beast and Magical Creature kids, and Satoshi was clearly ashamed for he knew he had no excuse.

 **Later, in the medical compartment**

Cyril lay on a bed with his talon grasping his broken right wing which was placed in a sling. Nearby, the lead medical doctor, a Mermaid in legged land form named Belle, was preparing the Fracture-Fix Potion, the thick white liquid made from the osteum herb as described by Tuvok to the evacuees during their first medical plant lesson. She uncapped the bottle, which was made from a rich blue glass (like our world's cobalt blue glass, though this type of glass was made of a substance entirely exclusive to the Narnian world) and resembled our world's chemistry lab flasks, and poured the treacle-like liquid into a measuring cup. This done and as soon as the measured amount was reached, she commanded a Fairy medical assistant to fetch a drinking cup, which he did. Then after receiving the cup from the Fairy assistant and pouring the measured Potion amount into it, and then recapping the bottle of Fracture-Fix Potion and placing it back into a special potion cupboard with a variety of other potions made from some of the other medical plants, Belle turned to Cyril just as Trotterhoof, Paddy, Desdemona and Molayne entered the scene. Nearby, the two Elves and the Elephant that had been burned were having their burns treated with an anti-burn potion called Frost Potion, another medical potion extracted from one of the medical plants, the frost herb whose medical properties were useful for treating burns; not only by cooling the agonising angry pain of the burns but also promoting healing of the damaged area as well. Satoshi, meanwhile, had been detained in the detention room for a few days as punishment for entering the kitchen without permission.

Then after Belle carried out one final check on the mount of the Fracture-Fix Potion in the drinking cup, she handed it to Cyril. Paddy looked on, knowing what was going to happen, especially based on Tuvok's account on it tasting absolutely VILE but she knew that it was the only medical treatment that could effectively treat broken bones.

"Here, drink this," said Belle as she placed the cup into Cyril's talon-hands. Cyril took the cup and reluctantly did so but the moment the first drop of the white treacly liquid touched his tongue, the Hippogriff bolted and spat out the drop before erupting into more spitting, some saliva drips also flying from his beak. Paddy and the others with her flinched as Cyril then twisted his face into a repulsed look.

"Look, I know it tastes disgusting but you MUST get that down you if you want your broken wing fixed," commanded Belle with understanding but with sternness. Cyril breathed a sigh and reluctantly relented. He guzzled down the Potion as quickly as he could but as it went down his throat, his tongue received more torture from the foul taste of the liquid, and his throat felt like it was contracting as the VILE taste carried over it. After downing the last drop of Fracture-Fix Potion from the cup, Cyril, his face totally and absolutely twisted and contorted in revulsion, then handed the cup back to Belle.

"You've got a good 12 hours to a day of serious discomfort to endure, Cyril," said Belle sadly as she took the cup from the dismaying Hippogriff's talon-hand, "but in the end, you'll be able to fly again once your wing is fixed. Now you get some rest."

Cyril breathed a sigh and settled into his bed in preps for that time. After Cyril's difficult and unpleasant experience with the Fracture-Fix Potion, Kushanku happened to come by. When he saw the young Hippogriff lay on a medical bed with his wing in a cast, he, concern flashing within him, walked in. However, the moment he took his first step into the medical room, he was met with a number of piercing glares saturated with fierce accusation, including from a familiar Pig.

"Kushanku, did you persuade your brother into entering that kitchen and cause that soupy mess resulting in three of the cooks getting splashed with the scalding liquid?" asked Trotterhoof harshly. Kushanku, at this, flinched in confusion.

"What? N-n-no! I-I-I was in the sleeping quarters. I would NEVER, EVER intrude into the kitchen without permission, and you know it. What has happened exactly?" he asked timidly. As the crowd closed in on the confused Nekomata, Paddy gazed at Kushanku's face and saw that it wasn't scratched with blood trickling down his face. As she compared Kushanku's face to the Nekomata she had brutally clawed out of self-defence, she realised that the 'Kushanku' that flung Cyril into the wall resulting in his fractured wing and Molayne and Desdemona getting trampled by 'him' turned out to be a doppelganger, a duplicate. As this realisation hit Alexandrite's younger sister like a stone to the head, she began to protest but she was ordered back by two of the Fairies and told to leave the medical room.

"That Nekomata that lured Satoshi into the kitchen was NOT Kushanku!" cried Paddy as a male Fairy medical assistant ordered her to leave while Kushanku was constantly pressed by Trotterhoof's group and some of the other medical assistants and also Belle, their leader for an explanation to which he vehemently denied. Paddy kept protesting.

"I believe that Nekomata that we encountered was an imposter of him!" continued Paddy desperately as she was ordered out of the medical compartment, "I don't believe…"

However, her protests fell on deaf ears as the Fairy assistant barked at her to leave. Paddy, frustration boiling within her then backed away from the medical room entrance and could only watch helplessly as Trotterhoof and Belle had Kushanku who was still protesting and denying his involvement in the kitchen incident, seized by four Elves and dragged out of the room while the Fairy assistant hovered before Paddy to prevent any of her attempted interference.

"Maybe another good WEEK of incarceration in the detention room will teach you a blinkin' good lesson, Nekomata kit!" snarled the Pig as Kushanku was dragged off, weeping profusely, "but if there is NO change in your destructive behaviour even after that, you WILL be thrown into the dungeon compartment. But I tell ya what let's GIVE the FORMER OPTION A TRY!"

"And BECAUSE OF YOU and your brother SATOSHI AS WELL," yelled Belle, "WE ARE NOT gonna be able to have ANY DINNER TONIGHT!"

Then Desdemona and Molayne appeared and hurled globs of saliva at Kushanku to show their utmost contempt of the Nekomata and their agreement to Belle's statement as he was dragged off by the elves, especially at what he had (apparently) done to Cyril during 'his attempted escape' from the kitchen after spilling the soup which resulted in three of the cooks, those two Elves and the Elephant getting splashed with the scalding liquid and burnt. Padparadchsa continued watching the commotion until she finally snapped, especially after hearing Molayne hurl one final mark at Kushanku which slashed open a mental wound he had recently received.

"No wonder Mr Dashiell DOESN'T WANT YOU, you SADISTIC TWO-TAILED RAT!" howled the Dog at which Kushanku burst into tears, "You're HONESTLY AS BAD AS BELLADONNA BEFORE SHE WAS INCARCERATED!"

Then with an enraged screech as her fury erupted through her attempts to confine it, Paddy fought past the Fairy and three Elves who restrained her, bolted over to Molayne like an enraged tigress and without hesitation or thinking, raised a paw and inflicted the Dog puppy with a devastating and HARD blow across the face to the horror of the onlookers, especially Trotterhoof and Desdemona.

"PADPARADCHSA!" wailed Trotterhoof and some of the other Animals and other creatures accompanying him as Molayne was sent flying into the wall from the force of the impact. Then the Dog's paw went to the area of his face where Paddy's paw had hit, his right cheek and he began to shed some tears.

"THAT HURT!" cried Molayne as sobs threatened to break up his voice.

"Good, it was MEANT to!" retorted Paddy without a sliver of remorse, "How DARE you say that to Kushanku after Dashiell's harsh rejection of him!"

And before anyone could enter into a furious rage at the Nekomata, she had already turned tail and stormed off. Belle then calmed the inferno down and ordered everyone to disperse while she sought to the sobbing and weeping Molayne as he continued holding his cheek, the one where Paddy had slapped him so hard. It was likely that a nasty bruise was going to form on the Dog's face in time since Paddy's paw slap had been so hard. Then as Molayne was led into the medical room, Trotterhoof flashed Paddy a furious glare as she left after Kushanku as he was dragged away and returned into the medical room to check on Cyril.

"I'm gonna DISCIPLINE her after hitting Molayne like that," growled the Pig to himself as he left.

Kushanku continued to be dragged along by the Elves in the direction of the detention room, sobbing wails and tears erupting from his eyes and mouth. As he passed a junction in the corridor, a group of Harpies happened to come by, amongst them two more Nekomata, Alexandrite and Akira. When they saw Kushanku get dragged along by the elves, his teary glance on them as he left, Alexandrite and Akira shuddered but the Harpies, among them Lana and Hala, had completely different facial expressions as their Humanoid eyes glared at the distraught Nekomata as he disappeared down the corridor in the direction of the detention room. Saturating their faces was triumphant smugness and Lana even formed a massive grimace across her face. When Akira saw this, she tugged Lana by the feathered wing and attracted her attention.

"Why are YOU still being so NASTY to my brother when he has DONE NOTHING WRONG!?" she demanded, Alexandrite standing by akimbo (paws on her hips) with an equally outraged face.

"He was the one who took my boyfriend's gift from me," Lana snapped.

"He also called Lana a (bleep) and spread disgusting drawings of her up and down the walls of one corridor earlier," put in Hala. The other Bird-Harpies, among them Lana's sister Suiren, and Morgana, also shouted in agreement as Lana then took the hatred she and her group harboured for Kushanku a step further.

"And if you ask me I think he should have been slaughtered by some wild beast or something during his group's evacuation to here," she snarled. That struck a nerve. Without thinking, Akira tackled HARD into the Harpy, knocking her into Hala to the shock of the other Harpies and Alexandrite. Outraged and furious, Lana retaliated with a violent tackle of her own into Akira, followed by a kick to the stomach with one of her Bird-feet. As Akira was knocked back into the wall, the bubble of volcanic rage within her violently exploded. With an EXTREMELY enraged cat screech, the Nekomata sprang to her feet and leapt at Lana. The other Harpies and Alexandrite shouted in horror as the Harpy and the Nekomata rolled in a blur across the floor, punching and slapping each other like a pair of brawling cubs. Some of the Harpies, including Hala, Suiren and Morgana then began to egg Lana on as she had Akira by the throat, the Nekomata trying to lash her paws at the Harpy while Alexandrite shot desperate glances this way and that to search for any nearby helper of Gandalf and Kyukon. If the brawl between Lana and Akira escalated, which was likely to happen, the opening of wounds and blood would soon follow, especially as Akira, her throat in Lana's vice-grip of her Human-like hand, flared her claws and swiped them at Lana in an attempt to slash her face only for the Harpy to tighten her grip on the Nekomata's throat to the point of cutting off her breathing but before Lana could choke Akira into unconsciousness, a Satyr (a bipedal Goat-like creature like a Faun but without the Humanoid features) helper of Gandalf appeared and broke up the fight between Lana and Akira, freeing Akira's throat of Lana's chokehold and allowing her to draw in much needed breath and cough and gasp.

"Alright, break it up, all of you," shouted the Satyr as he restrained Lana as she screeched vitriolic threats at Akira. Akira just said nothing. She just turned tail and darted off in floods of tears, Alexandrite following, an acidic glare on Lana and her group as she left.

 **Meanwhile**

Back aboveground, in the castle grounds of Jadis and her followers, a flock of Bats were flying back to the icy castle. However, these weren't regular Bats, but Vampires transformed into Bat form which they used as their mode of transportation over long distance since they could fly in this form. In their usual form, Vampires resembled Humanoids with deadly bone-white skin, vicious fangs, and Wendigo-like gaunt bodies with lanky fingers ending in long claws. In the castle, Jadis was sitting on her throne, her equally bone-white skinned face saturated with sheer impatience and a hair-trigger temper. Then a Bogeyman (green slimy Humanoids) appeared and offered Jadis a well-done tender piece of meat, taken from a Talking Beast slaughtered at the slaughterhouse, on a platter, which the Witch simply took and ate. The Bogeyman then nervously slinked away, not wanting to tread on Jadis's volatile temper. As the Witch ate the piece of meat, the sounds of membranous wing flaps reached her ears and within moments, a flock of small black Bats entered the room and transformed into their Humanoid forms. Jadis noticed them and shot a finger point at one of them, the leader, as he approached the throne, prostrating himself on the go.

"Report on your Vampire scouts' aerial search for Gandalf and Kyukon's base, Bat-Tooth, and the making of my images," she demanded. Then the Vampire leader, Bat-Tooth, prostrated himself before Jadis once again before rising to face the Witch's demanding glare with a disappointed look on his own face.

"Your Majesty," said the Vampire, "We've been searching high and low for the base of the two Kitsune but we still have no luck."

Then a female Vampire came in, an equally frustrated look on her face.

"We've even searched EVERY square-metre of every… SINGLE… forest and wood, including Shuddering Woods, for any sign of the base but to no avail," she said, but then her face morphed into a perkier one, "On the upside, the progress of your idols' production is in full swing in the labour zones with a good few dozen having been built. Soon we will have more Narnian towns and villages, or the last of them, having your image erected in their centres so that ALL Narnians can bow down and worship you as the Goddess over ALL of Narnia."

"That's good news, but the news on your search for Gandalf and Kyukon's base is STILL NOT good enough," snapped Jadis sourly, at which Bat-Tooth and his Vampire troupe flinched, "Now get out of my sight and continue your search for that base. I want that base found, destroyed and those two nine-tailed Kitsune captured and added to my collection of my statues. Is that clear!?"

"Yes Your Majesty, perfectly," said Bat-Tooth and with that, he and his troupe hastily left, transformed into their Bat forms and fluttered off, leaving Jadis to return to the throne and finish eating her meat portion. As the Vampires left, another group of hideous creatures, two Drop Bears (whose species resemble our world's Koala except for their shaggy, ugly and even demonic fur, blazing red eyes whenever they got angry and long, Wolpertinger-like fangs (which were highly venomous like a Cobra's) and claws, and were known for hiding in the treetops keeping a birds' eye view of the activities below, besides surprising their victims by dropping onto them and sinking their fangs into their flesh and injecting them with their venom and then sadistically watching them scream in agony as the venom took hold, so Drop Bears were an EXTREMELY sadistic species and fierce followers of the White Witch), a Garkain (a type of Goblin or Horror that had spines on its back and vicious carnivorous, dagger-like teeth), and a female Bogeyman walked in, talking. They were discussing about someone they had not seen for some time now.

"I sure hope she is doing okay," said one of the Drop Bears, a male named Palpatine, his vicious fangs protruding from his mouth like a Sabre-Toothed Cat's or Vampire's, "Mind you she certainly was a fun individual to be around."

"Yeah, especially when she talks about the Fighting League and watching those poor, poor Narnians kill each other and…" said the other Drop Bear, a female and Palpatine's mate, with sickening delight as she entered into an extremely graphic description of what had happened in the Arena of Death in which the enormous bloodbath had occurred. Drop Bears were not only vicious in ambushing their victims by dropping from the tops but they also absolutely loved… and I mean LOVED… chatting about Narnians gorily killing each other as though the dreadful thing was some sort of comedy, as it indeed was for the majority of these HORRIBLE Bear-like creatures.

"Not to mention her excellent progress in Her Majesty's magic lessons," said the Garkain, "I mean she's top of the class and has mastered illusion casting, glamouring and shapeshifting extraordinarily well."

"I bet she's no ordinary Kitsune," said the female Bogeyman, "I think she should be Her Majesty's second-in-command or leader of the Kitsune who respect our mighty Queen and Goddess of Narnia."

"Well, that is up to Her Majesty to decide, isn't it," said Palpatine with a toothy smile, his hideous fangs on show, "But it would be great if that happens."

The Drop Bear then changed the subject. "But speaking of Kitsune, we're gonna have to figure out how to catch those two nine-tailed Foxes, Gandalf and Kyukon, once their base is uncovered, its occupants either captured or slaughtered and those two Foxes themselves are exposed."

"Well, from our previous experiences in combating Kitsune that are centuries old," said the Garkain, before its hideous face turned serious, "there is one thing we have learnt about those Foxes, particularly fully matured individuals like Gandalf and his mate."

"And what's that?" inquired the She-Bogeyman. Palpatine's mate walked in, a serious look on her face.

"Foxfire," she said, "All Kitsune have the ability of foxfire which is like a cross between fire and lightning. Our allied Kitsune have this ability as well and it is entirely exclusive to those magical Foxes. Ordinary Foxes and other Canids like Wolves, Dogs, Werewolves and Coyotes cannot cast that fire-lightning at all. Foxfire has been known to do some serious damage and it is particularly powerful in Kitsune that are centuries old," the Drop Bear then hardened her glare, "but most especially… ESPECIALLY… in fully matured Kitsune like Gandalf and Kyukon. Our two sons and daughter had learned that too late when they tried attacking Gandalf by us Drop Bears' usual ambush technique in hiding in the treetops and dropping onto the victim that passes underneath."

"He fought them off and literally blasted them, all THREE of them actually, to blackened corpses," said Palpatine, "A Mothman had managed to get a glimpse of our three adolescent cubs' attempts to catch the Kitsune while he was apparently on an outing and according to that Mothman, Gandalf had shaken them off, his front left paw became enflamed in orange-yellow fire, his eyes turned a fiery gold colour and before our three cubs could act, they were struck by a blast of fire-lightning thrown at them by that Kitsune. That blast killed them instantly and turned them into blackened carcasses."

"It seems that foxfire seems to vary in power depending on the Kitsune's age," said the She-Bogeyman, "If a Kitsune is under a hundred years old, it is only able to deal minimal damage with foxfire but in older, more powerful individuals with more tails, that power seems to deal greater damage, even fatal damage as in the case of fully matured Kitsune with a full set of nine tails."

This sent shivers down the spines of the other three and Palpatine and his mate were most affected, especially due to the fate their three cubs had faced at the paws of Gandalf. However, the Garkain's face formed an evilly hopeful smile as he turned his gaze to the Witch as she sat on her throne still eating her meat portion.

"But there is an upside," he said, his smiling mouth baring his razor sharp teeth as he gazed at the Witch, "The only being that is capable of withstanding a blast of foxfire even from a nine-tailed Kitsune is our Mighty Queen and Goddess over all of Narnia. I've heard that the only damage she receives from a nine-tailed Kitsune is being knocked off her feet. When that Gandalf Fox and his mate's son, another nine-tailed Fox and apparently one of their oldest cubs, tried to attack Her Majesty with foxfire, she was only knocked out of her sleigh but she managed to retaliate by turning him into a statue with her wand and smash him to pieces…"

"She's gonna have to deal with those two Kitsune then," said Palpatine as he also gazed at the Witch on her throne, "I don't wanna meet the same fiery fate as me and my mate's daughter and sons at the paws of that highly dangerous Kitsune, so…"

"Your three cubs aren't the only fatalities to have suffered death at the paws of Gandalf or Kyukon and their foxfire, Palpatine," said the Garkain, "Don't you Drop Bears remember one incident when a group of rescuers apparently sent by those two Kitsune came and seized many of our captured Merfolk and other Sea Animals we intended to butcher for their meat? Kyukon was amongst them and she had managed to smoulder a Minotaur, a couple of Banshees and even a Giant into blackened carcasses when we tried to attack them which was how they got away," the ugly Horror then placed an ugly clawed hand on his chin and made a sceptical face, "which was quite unusual considering the fact that she could have used her foxfire to fatally torch countless other creatures as well…"

"It seems that utilising foxfire can take a LOT of energy out of a Kitsune, even a fully matured individual," said Palpatine, "so it seems that they only use it as a last resort. A Rodan who suffered a broken wing from a vicious attack by a Sphinx who had used her telekinetic abilities to strike him with a large rock in the air had managed to see Kyukon in a severely weakened state after using so much foxfire and had to be carried off as that group escaped with a lot of our captured Sea Creatures."

"That's the only weakness those powerful nine-tailed Foxes seem to have, which wouldn't be surprising if they show reluctance in using it," said Palpatine's mate. Palpatine, the Garkain and the She-Bogeyman all nodded in agreement. However, this was not the only reason Gandalf and Kyukon would be so reluctant in using foxfire. Because of the potency of this ability due to their age, they very, VERY rarely use it and ONLY do so in life-threatening situations such as when Gandalf was ambushed by the three young Drop Bears (who had been the cubs of Palpatine and his mate) when he walked under their tree and Kyukon's usage of it during the escape from Jadis's castle once she and some of the others with her had rescued as many Merfolk and other Sea Creatures as possible to drive the other chasers, the Witch's cronies, back, and they did not want to endanger innocent lives at all. Furthermore, killing opponents, even with foxfire was NOT in their nature and was ONLY utilised as a very last resort.


	52. Chapter 51

**Chapter 51- a shocking defection**

 **Meanwhile, back at Gandalf and Kyukon's base**

Kushanku was flung into the same cell as Satoshi who sat on a sea at the far end of the cell in the detention room. As the metallic clanging erupted at the entrance as the Elves slammed the gate shut and locked it, Satoshi went over to Kushanku as he continued to sob loudly and weep uncontrollably, loud sobs escaping his mouth and tears flying in a fountain from his eyes that were covered by his paws. However, the brother was absolutely shocked by Kushanku's presence and was confused over his incarceration. Then he remembered what happened in the kitchen with that vat of boiling soup intended for the evacuees' dinner in the kitchen of the dining compartment but then he began to review the whole incident carefully. After Satoshi had followed 'Kushanku' in to the kitchen, he had protested to 'him' that the two weren't supposed to be in here, the Kushanku-like Nekomata shot him an evil glare and had forced him behind the vat of boiling soup while the cooks' backs were turned. After this, and with Satoshi still protesting, the Nekomata had begun to push against the vat, forcing Satoshi into 'helping' 'him', at which Satoshi felt a very strong external force forcing him into pushing against the vat until gravity took hold of it and forced it off the stove, sending the rocky vat smashing into the ground and generating a massive tsunami of scalding hot soup that swept through the kitchen floor. Some of the splashes had landed on the Elephant and the two Elves and had badly scalded them and Satoshi, confusion and utter discombobulation over the chaos, had dived onto a nearby worktop where he froze in utter horror while 'Kushanku' had jumped further away from him, 'his' evil glare on the chaos moments before Paddy, Desdemona, Molayne and Cyril appeared at the entrance in time to see the lake of boiling soup and rocky vat shards swamping the floor and one of the Fairy cooks yelling at Satoshi and 'Kushanku' at the top of her voice before 'Kushanku' bolted for the door, knocking Satoshi off the worktop and almost into the EXTREMELY hot lake of soup only to be caught in time by three more Fairy cooks and hoisted to safety, and subsequently charged towards Cyril and the other four at the door resulting in the ensuing commotion culminating in Cyril breaking his wing, Molayne and Desdemona getting trampled on and Paddy slashing the Nekomata across the face with her claws in self-defence. As he replied these events, Satoshi began to piece together the possibility of the Nekomata NOT being Kushanku.

First off, the external force that forced Satoshi into pushing against the vat of soup. This implied telekinesis for Satoshi had felt the invisible force enclose him like an invisible hand and force him into the vat to push it over. Some individuals of both the Nekomata and Bakeneko subspecies had the ability of telekinesis with Paddy having developed a limited amount of it during her training but this telekinetic force had been much more powerful than Paddy's. And Kushanku, as far as Satoshi knew, had never used any form of telekinetic ability his whole life. Telekinesis was an inherited trait in Nekomata and Bakeneko, but it was expressed in some individuals and not in others, unlike in the Sphinx or the Kitsune, where telekinesis was FAR more common. There was an age factor as well. For a Nekomata or a Bakeneko to use telekinesis as powerful as the occurrence during the incident in the kitchen, that bipedal Cat must be well-matured, again similar to Sphinxes and Kitsune whose telekinetic abilities were weaker in younger individuals. Kushanku, along with Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, were only 10 Narnian years old and were too young to utilise telekinesis this powerful, if any of them could utilise it at all, and the Nekomata's telekinesis in the kitchen had been as powerful as a more mature Nekomata, so that anomaly ruled out the possibility of the Nekomata being Kushanku.

Another factor that ruled out the Nekomata's identity of being Kushanku was its face and its behaviour. When the Elephant and the two Elves had been burned after being splashed by the scalding hot soup as it splashed everywhere, the Nekomata had an EXTREMELY demonic looking face laced with pure sadism, its mouth grinning from cheek to cheek as it relished the agony the three cooks had suffered from their burns. Satoshi had NEVER seen a look like that on Kushanku and he knew that Kushanku would NEVER EVER laugh at anyone else in agony, much less inflict them with it for the fun of it. Furthermore, the way 'Kushanku' knocked Satoshi himself off the worktop and almost into the lake of scalding hot soup when 'he' bolted implied that the Nekomata was also not Kushanku, and Satoshi had deduced it to have been very deliberate even though he had not been looking at the demonic-faced Nekomata as it dashed for the entrance.

"When that Nekomata knocked me off the worktop in an attempt to send me careening into that lake of hot soup on the floor," said Satoshi to himself as he comforted the still-sobbing Kushanku, "I don't think it was an accident."

As these factors clicked together: the telekinetic force on Satoshi being too powerful for a young Nekomata; the sadistic look on the Nekomata's face as the Elephant and the two Elves were crying in pain from their burns, and the attempted dunking of Satoshi himself into the hot soup which would have landed him in the medical compartment with serious burns had it not been for the quick action of the three Fairies, and also the fiasco at the kitchen entrance resulting in Cyril getting his wing fractured, Satoshi managed to draw out one conclusion: that Nekomata had NOT been Kushanku but rather someone else posing as him. However, those thoughts would have to wait for Satoshi had noticed Kushanku becoming the subject of mockery from Amberpaw in the adjacent cell once again, Dashiell looking on and doing nothing. Flashing a volcanic glare at the two Cheetahs, Satoshi tried to take Kushanku out of sight.

"You know how much we wish you were dead, you two," yelled Amberpaw as she tried to spew corrosive acid onto the mental scars Dashiell had inflicted on the pair days earlier but one of the Centaur wardens bashed a hand on the cell gate and yelled at her to shut up and leave the pair of Nekomata alone. Amberpaw reluctantly did so but she maintained her mocking glare on Satoshi and Kushanku.

As the Elves left the detention room, they were faced with another accusation that had sprouted against Kushanku; one of Gandalf and Kyukon's daughters, a seven-tailed Fox, was glaring at the Elves. She was accompanied by two Jackalopes and a female Bat whose faces were also creased into looks of outrage.

"Where's Kushanku," snarled the Fox angrily.

"We've caught him sticking up sheets of mocking drawings towards Gandalf, Kyukon and Aslan featuring them getting gorily killed by Jadis on which the notes exalted and called her a goddess over all of Narnia," said the Bat.

"We have already incarcerated him, you four," said one of the Elves, "So there's no need to confront him."

Then he and the other Elves with him left. One of the Jackalopes, a male based on the size of his antlers then looked on, a furious glare on his face.

"That Kushanku is honestly a troublemaker, I can tell you," he said to the other three.

"That's the second time he's been incarcerated in the detention room," said the other Jackalope, a female based on her shorter antlers, "Any more trouble from him and we're gonna have to throw him into the dungeon compartment."

"Yes, absolutely," said the seven-tailed Fox. The Bat nodded in agreement.

Back in the medical compartment, Molayne was sitting near Cyril, his front paw still rubbing the area of his cheek where Padparadchsa had struck him earlier. Under his silvery grey fur, a faint black blotch was forming, obviously a bruise. Paddy had hit Molayne so hard that she had inflicted a bruise on his face, and that bruise was going to be a nasty one. Furthermore, that impacted area was aching and groaning, making Molayne groan with it with discomfort. Cyril was going through his own discomforting tunnel. The Fracture-Fix Potion he had guzzled down was beginning to work its effects on the broken bones in his right wing, and it was causing him a lot of dull pain. It seemed that everything about the Fracture-Fix Potion was unpleasant; first, the utterly VILE taste of the potion during consumption and its torture on the tongue and throat and then the discomfort as it worked on mending the bones, and Cyril still felt the disgusting aftertaste of the foul liquid on his tongue and down his throat, and his face was still somewhat contorted by the this aftertaste. Despite the warning he had received from Tuvok during the first lesson on the medical plants, Cyril did not believe that he would eventually have to take some of the potion and did not expect it to taste THIS vile, but now the young Hippogriff knew better. However, despite the discomfort from both the aftertaste of the potion in his mouth and throat and the painful ache on his right wing as the bones were being fixed, Cyril was glaring at Molayne as he moaned and wept in pain from his slapped face.

"I cannot believe you would go as far as to tell him that Mr Dashiell did not want him, you know," said the Hippogriff, "No wonder Paddy gave you a serious literal slap across the face."

Molayne did not reply and only flashed Cyril a guilty, tearful and pained gaze. Cyril continued.

"Don't forget how you lost your uncle Growler and rest of biological family back at Jadis's castle, especially Soran, your cousin, after he had won the Massacre Event," he said, before he blinked, "Or rather, _forced_ to leave them behind because they turned to reject the otherNarnians in favour of that Witch's so-called 'better life'…"

This struck a nerve and it sent Molayne over the edge. The Dog began to break down and sob loudly, the guilt at saying the scathing remarks at Kushanku finally reaching critical. As Molayne broke down and practically howled his sobs, tears flying from his eyes like a fountain, Cyril just breathed a sigh and settled onto his bed to endure more of the discomfort from the Fracture-Fix Potion as it mended his wing bones.

 **Later, in the training compartment**

A training session was going on in this compartment as usual. Various creatures were practicing wielding stick-swords and sparring against each other, shooting arrows at targets in the archery zone, and practicing their agility and stealth in the wooded area zone, the fake wooden trunks erected to simulate trees in a wood and create a cluttered environment. Other creatures were practicing weapon-less combat (equivalent to our world's martial arts) or with a variety of other fake weapons, and some were involved in mock scenarios in which they had to treat an 'injured' casualty from various injuries and carry them to safety. Kushanku and a few others such as Cyril and Molayne were absent for they were still in either the detention room or the medical compartment. In the archery area, Crystal the Parrot chick, together with Dahlia the Jackalope and Mensa the Skvader's son Snowwing were practicing firing arrows while Desdemona nearby was practicing aerial combat with a Falcon tutor. Crystal and Snowwing's aim had improved, some of the arrows moving closer and closer to the bullseye or centre of the target boards. Dahlia, however, still had some more practicing to do, her arrows still hitting the outer concentric circle of the target boards, with a few more missing and she was being mentored by a Tengu who was an expert archer on how to use the bow and arrow correctly to get the best and accurate shot. While the young Jackalope was undergoing a tutorial with the Tengu archer, Snowwing was hitting near the centre of the target board acrobatically by twirling in mid-air, aiming the bow and arrow and shooting the arrow at the target much to the annoyance of Crystal.

"You sure are a show off at times, Snowwing," muttered the Parrot chick as the Bird-Rabbit touched down and elegantly swing the bow in his paws proudly, "you know I cannot manoeuvre elegantly as you."

"You will with practice," said Snowwing with a smile but Crystal just rolled her eyes and released a sigh. Then Tesseract the Unicorn came in with a young Rhino calf named Stompfoot, a troubled look on his face.

"Hey, Tesseract," said Snowwing when he saw the Unicorn and the Rhino, "you still look agitated."

"Um, yeah, I'm still troubled over witnessing that horrible Basan hen push Obsidian over the edge over the death of her family," said Tesseract in a timid voice.

"I heard Mr Bursyamo had punished that hen, which turned out to be an orange Hen named Phoenix-Feather, who seemed to match Tesseract's description of that Hen," said Stompfoot, "but I also heard that Phoenix-Feather said that she had NEVER said anything like that to that poor Wampus-Cat and would NEVER say anything to ANY of the evacuees, prompting Mr Bursyamo to halt his punishment of her…"

"I heard you attempted to gore that Hen only to get your alicorn lodged in the wall as well, didn't you," said Crystal. Tesseract nodded.

"I honestly could not tolerate what she was saying to Obsidian but had it actually been one of Mr Bursyamo's underlings, I'd have been severely punished for attempted murder," said Tesseract darkly. Just then, Dahlia noticed a familiar form out the corner of her eye. At this, the Jackalope kit turned and to her surprise, she saw Gandalf walk in with some helper Ducks, a Marsh-Wiggle, a few Elemental Birds and a purple-black Wolf.

"Hey, isn't that Nanu from the dungeon?" asked Dahlia, prompting the others to follow her paw point as she pointed her paw to the group.

"It is," said Tesseract.

"What's he doing out of the dungeon with Mr Gandalf?" asked Crystal.

"Maybe Mr Gandalf had decided that he was trustworthy enough to be allowed around the base?" asked Snowwing.

"Well since you guys told me of his origins of being one of the Witch's younger cronies," said Stompfoot sternly, his frown on Nanu as he gazed at some of the sparring evacuees, "I wouldn't be surprised if he's being kept a close eye on."

Tesseract, Snowwing, Dahlia and Crystal only shrugged and resumed their activities, Stompfoot doing the same.

Nanu watched the sparring creatures as they 'fought' with their stick-swords as well as some of the flying creatures among them Desdemona, as they trained with the expert flying creatures in aerial combat. He was under the watchful eye of some of Gandalf's assistants including Cumulonimbus, the unusual purple-black Thunderbird with silvery flecks thrown over his plumage who had accompanied the nine-tailed Kitsune when he had Nanu released from his cell in the dungeon and had been ordered to keep a close eye on the young Wolf, together with a couple of Rocs and a Phoenix. Gandalf had felt that Nanu was now safe enough to be released from the dungeon but only under strict supervision in case he truly was a spy for Jadis like how Belladonna was suspected. During his time in his cell, Nanu had been told of countless Narnians who had lost loved ones either to the Massacre Event, incidents at the clutches of various snow monsters such as Obsidian's family with Krampus, and also the Witch's own cronies such as Guinan's clan leader as told by the Faun girl herself, which she described to have happened during a food collection visit from a group of them led by a Hellhound to their village that day. Nanu had also been told of the Witch's true colours and that she was not some angelic being as he often believed Jadis to be, and after hearing more on Jadis's true colours as a being of Ultimate Evil as well as an incredibly sadistic, power-hungry, dictatorial, tyrannical, gluttonous, greedy (worst possible Narnian expletive I could possibly concoct but will not show), Nanu's view of Jadis had begun to crumble all the more, and now Nanu was having second thoughts about his allegiance to Jadis. However, he had a few other ideas and had something on him that he had kept hidden from the group for so long since his entry into the base: the communicator he had managed to salvage from the stolen sled during his trip with Trotterhoof and his group.

While Nanu continued watching the training evacuees with Cumulonimbus, the two Rocs and the Phoenix watching him, Gandalf was talking with a Marsh-Wiggle named Duckweed and two Ducks.

"Because the Kitsune that have turned to Jadis's side have become so evil," said the nine-tailed Fox and patriarch of the whole Kitsune species, "Kyukon and I have actually coined the term 'Nogitsune'. We didn't mention it in the beginning while we were telling you of our species' slyness and tricky traits due to it being so painful."

"Oh, so those Kitsune, though they had fallen for the evil Witch and became her assistants, are still your offspring?" asked Duckweed.

"Yes," said Gandalf, "but they really don't deserve the term 'Kitsune' at all, so from now on, I'll refer to them as Nogitsune, as will Kyukon and the rest of our faithful offspring."

"These Nogitsune have particularly caused Humans all kinds of trouble haven't they?" said one of the Ducks, "such as disguising themselves as attractive men or women and luring either the Kings or Queens or their princes and princesses into a trap and causing their downfall…"

"That's exactly right, Marshall," said Gandalf darkly, "and because of those Nogitsune's antics, our species' reputation had become severely damaged and we're now seen as untrustworthy tricksters."

None of the Ducks or Duckweed the Marsh-Wiggle said anything. Then a Canid creature called an Okuri-Inu entered. Okuri-Inu were mountain dwelling Wolf-like creatures that came in three adult forms. The first was the Daytime form which resembled a four-footed or quadrupedal Wolf-Dog with vivid yellow and orange fur sometimes spotted with and black blotches like our world's Dalmatian dog on some parts of their bodies and a large mane of fur around their necks. The second form was the Nighttime form which resembled a bipedal or two-footed Werewolf with very dark colours ranging from midnight blue and deep violet to jet black fur with silver and white marks strewn through it. These colours were often comparable to the colours of the Narnian night sky, and unlike the Werewolves on Jadis's side, the Nighttime Okuri-Inu were loyal to Aslan. A third form of Okuri-Inu, called the Twilight form was extremely rare and the rarest of the three forms. This form resembled a cross between the Daytime and Nighttime forms and was dark orange, red, pink and navy blue like the sky at dawn or dusk with a few spots of green in their fur, and could either be quadrupedal like the Daytime form or bipedal like the Nighttime form, by choice. Despite the vast differences in the three adult forms, Okuri-Inu pups bore the same appearance but as they aged, they will develop into one of these three forms depending on wat lifestyle they chose. If they were diurnal or daytime active during most of their pup-hood, they will mature into the Daytime form and will be daytime active; but if a pup chose the nocturnal lifestyle, they will mature into the Nighttime form and be nocturnal. This behaviour made Nighttime Okuri-Inu ideal as night watchers but sometimes they performed early morning duties as well, though this was rare. To mature into the Twilight form of the Okuri-Inu, pups must choose and live a morning and evening lifestyle, developing crepuscular (dawn or dusk-active) habits. Based on this, Twilight Okuri-Inu was often crepuscular and were often helpful during dawn and dusk jobs such as looking after a flock of dumb sheep during those times to give their co-workers a break. Because of the Okuri-Inu's developmental life history involving the development and maturation of pups into one of the three forms being so heavily dependent on the day-night cycle, pups of the Wolf-like creature required exposure to that natural cycle aboveground, or pups would not mature and be fertile for reproduction since Okuri-Inu were only able to reproduce if they were fully matured. As a result of it being eternally winter aboveground and because of Jadis's corrupt system and also because Gandalf's base had no proper day-night cycle despite having realistic day, dusk/dawn and night sceneries in some of its compartments, the Okuri-Inu species had not seen the maturation of its pups into proper and fertile adults for over 30 years, resulting in infertility and the vast reduction of the number of pups being born. Based on this reproductive problem and its serious threat to the Okuri-Inu species' population, Gandalf and Kyukon and their helpers of the other species were especially concerned for the Dog-like creatures' survival, and the aged Kitsune couple had hoped to send all the Okuri-Inu off to Archenland first and earlier than the other species so that their pups could become exposed to the natural day-night cycle and develop into fertile adults in order for more pups to be born which will lead to the preservation of the Okuri-Inu species until the Winter Revolution and the Dawn of Spring came.

As the Daytime Okuri-Inu, who was a male named Kokuten (who had a few black patches on his head, back, belly and mane) approached Gandalf, Duckweed, Marshall and the other Duck; he gazed at them with a frown on his face.

"The same can be said for the Satyrs that are still faithful to Aslan based on some of their species members falling for Jadis's side as well," said the bright yellow and orange Wolf, at which a Satyr nearby shot the Daytime Okuri-Inu an agreeing glare, "only they had gone down an EXTREMELY immoral path besides loving bloody violence. They have practically given the good Satyrs a bad name as being… um… immoral and… disgusting to say the least…"

"That is true, Kokuten," said Gandalf darkly, before his onyx eyes travelled to the Satyr gazing at the group with a frown, "but it's an EXTREMELY sensitive subject to discuss in front of our loyal Satyrs such as Alphard over there, so let's not discuss it unless Alphard or the other Satyrs offers us permission."

Kokuten nodded and put off the subject before something else entered his head.

"By the way, the main reason why I came here is because I want to speak to Tesseract about his witnessing of that Basan Hen provoking Obsidian into attempting to drown herself in one of the tanks in the aquatic compartment over the extreme guilt over the loss of her family to Krampus some time ago," said the Daytime form Okuri-Inu, "do you know where he is?"

At this, Duckweed and the two Ducks pointed a finger and two wings at a certain unicorn as he practiced his charging skills into a lump of wood, piercing it with his icicle-like horn to the cheer of a Nighttime Okuri-Inu. After saying thanks to the trio, Kokuten left to meet Tesseract as he struggled to remove his jammed horn in the wood with the Nighttime Okuri-Inu's help and to allow another Unicorn to have a go. As the bright orange and yellow Wolf-Dog left, Duckweed gazed at Tesseract with a concerned look.

"I suppose you're suspicious about that hen he had seen push Obsidian over the edge, am I right?" he asked Gandalf.

"I am, yes," said Gandalf with a stern look, "I have never known any of Bursyamo's underlings be so insensitive about a traumatic subject for one and none of the Basan are like that anyway for another."

As he spoke, one of the Ducks spotted Nanu leave from the supervision of Cumulonimbus and the two Rocs and the Phoenix accompanying him.

"I just need to go somewhere," said the Wolf to the four Elemental Birds and with that, he hurried off before any of the four Elemental Birds could protest.

"I wonder were that Wolf is heading off to," said the Duck to himself and with that, he began to follow the purple-black Wolf.

As Nanu left, he passed by Crystal, Snowwing, Milky Way and Dahlia who were now practicing sparring with Desdemona now practicing her aerial sparring with a Hippogriff tutor this time in order to sharpen her skills over combating a six-limbed flying foe. The former three were also practicing aerial combat skills with a Falcon and an adult Griffin while Dahlia, whose species the Jackalope was a non-flying Talking Beast, was sparring on the ground with an adult Tengu using a stick-sword and slab of wood for a shield. His wary eyes on the five and their tutors as they were engrossed in their sparring sessions, Nanu quickly sneaked past them, something in a front paw he had kept hidden from the eyes of Gandalf and the others. However, he had not gone far when a very loud, "HEY!" exploded from nearby. Alarmed, the Wolf shot a terrified glance at the shouter and to his horror; he saw a sparkling white young Pegasus foal swoop down towards him, her front hooves outstretched and poised to deliver a double front hoof kick. Nanu, a startled bark escaping his muzzle, dodged and sent Milky Way's front hooves slamming into the wall. However, Milky Way recovered and hovered in the air with her large white wings flapping back and forth, a furious glare on the Wolf and the object he had in his paws.

"What is that you've got in your paws, Nanu!?" demanded the Pegasus just as Crystal, Snowwing, Desdemona and Dahlia and their tutors turned up, along with Cumulonimbus. Nanu was too thunderstruck with shock and fear to reply when the purple, black and silver Thunderbird noticed something in his paws.

"Oh, thunderbolts don't tell me THAT'S A…" blurted out Cumulonimbus but before the sentence could completely leave the Thunderbird's beak, the Wolf had bolted for the corridor. Alarm tore through Cumulonimbus and also the Tengu, Hippogriff, Griffin and the Falcon tutors.

"EVACUATE THE ROOM, QUICKLY!" barked the Falcon to the Griffin and the Tengu to which they did, but as they left, Crystal, Desdemona, Snowwing, Milky Way and Dahlia had disappeared; they had charged off after Nanu, furious shouts exploding from their mouths and beaks. Alarmed, Cumulonimbus rocketed off after the quintet and Nanu with Gandalf not too far behind with a few assistants and other trainees, among them Alphard the Satyr, Kokuten the Daytime Okuri-Inu and Tesseract the Unicorn, behind him as well.

Moments later, Nanu was charging like a frightened dumb deer fleeing a pack of hunters through the corridor, the communicator tightly clasped in his right front leg and his face laced with pure terror. Behind him, Griffin and Parrot squawks and Pegasus neighs rang out as Crystal, Desdemona, Snowwing, Milky Way and Dahlia continued their furious pursuit of the Wolf. Then as Nanu came to a trifurcation in the tunnel, he shot decisive glances from one split tunnel to the next until he finally reached his decision to dash down the middle one. Flashing a terrified glance at Crystal, Desdemona, Snowwing, Milky Way and Dahlia as they appeared around the corner and charged after him, four of them beating their wings furiously while Dahlia scrabbled to pick up speed, Nanu tore down the middle tunnel with the quartet in hot pursuit. Behind the quintet, Gandalf's group appeared and also charged down the middle tunnel, a Minotaur jerking backwards to avoid getting trampled on by the little crowd.

"COMING THROUGH!" shouted Gandalf as he passed the Minotaur who looked on in confusion. Nanu continued rushing down the tunnel, not caring about where it led to, and as he did, he barged past several passing helpers of the base. He leaped over a Horse, a Mare, as she pulled a cartload of fruit from the food storage area, much to her shock while a couple of Fauns dived to one side to avoid getting struck down by the Wolf as he continued on. Moments later, Crystal, Snowwing, Desdemona, Milky Way and Dahlia appeared. The first four flew over the Mare while Dahlia swept her back legs forward and ducked to drift through the Mare's legs. After skidding through the Horse's legs to her surprise, the Jackalope hastily rose to her feet and charged on.

"GOOD GRIEF!" shouted one of the Fauns as he watched Dahlia rush on but then a shout erupted behind the trio as another group of creatures charged in.

"GANGWAY!" bellowed an aging Kitsune and within moments, the Mare and two Fauns looked up and saw Gandalf and his group rush in. Alarmed, they scurried to the side to allow them past, one of the Fauns seizing any fruit that fell out of the Mare's cart during the haste. Then after the little crowd had rushed past them, the trio looked on, dumbfounded. Back at the front, Milky Way let loose a growl.

"I KNEW we couldn't trust that WOLF from the start!" she bellowed.

"He's HONESTLY AS BAD AS BELLADONNA and KUSHANKU!" shouted Desdemona as she swooped to one side to avoid a protrusion in the tunnel wall. When these words reached Nanu's ears, the Wolf flashed a terrified glance at the quartet and continued rocketing on.

"Just WAIT TILL WE GET OUR CLAWS, HOOVES AND MITTS on YOU, you TRAITOROUS DOG-FEATURED WEASEL!" bellowed Snowwing at the top of his voice and with that, the young Skvader rocketed forward and tried to pounce onto Nanu from above but because of the winding tunnel and the obstacles such as the other helpers going about their business and tasks, tackling the Wolf from above was not going to be an easy option, and Snowwing was forced to dodge a flock of Hummingbirds as they washing a wall. The little Birds all screamed and scattered to avoid the Bird-Rabbit as he shot past them, much to their anger. Snowwing issued an apology before continuing. Then after another few more terrifying minutes with fatigue beginning to set in all of the runners and flyers, Nanu quickly bolted for a compartment, one of the food storage areas, by cornering sharply with a 90 degree turn. Crystal tried tackling the Wolf as he cornered but she missed and was sent into a violent tumble further down the corridor, coming to rest a good few metres away from where Nanu had swerved for she had been flying so fast. The other four, however, managed to swerve sharply after Nanu, too lost in the fury of the chase to give Crystal a thought as she began to recover.

As soon as he was in the food storage room, which was built like a massive freezer to preserve the food within, and with streams of condensation clouds escaping his mouth as he exhaled, Nanu dove behind a pile of frozen fish and began to activate the communicator. As he did that, Milky Way's voice rang out, "Where did he go!?"

"Great, now we've GOT TWO PESKY INTRUDERS TO DEAL WITH!" bellowed Snowwing's voice, just as a pattering of paws and hooves sounded as Gandalf's group turned up. Sure that he was out of sight, Nanu continued to activate the communicator which he had salvaged from the stolen sled and had connected to the magic communicator in Jadis's castle, allowing for direct communication with the evil Witch. However, as the communicator activated, a Hare with antlers suddenly leaped over the pile of fish and charged right into the Wolf. As Dahlia pounced onto Nanu and sent him and herself into a vicious tumble, the communicator, which had begun to glow, was flung out of Nanu's paw. Then Dahlia began to throttle Nanu real good.

"How COULD you BETRAY US LIKE THAT, you NO-GOOD WOLF!?" yelled the Jackalope as she pressed her paws against the Wolf's neck to cut off his breathing. Then Gandalf and the others appeared behind the frozen fish pile. Nearby, the communicator had begun to change shape, changing from a cube to a flat square. As it did that, it rose into the air. Nanu then bolted and gave Dahlia a hefty kick to the abdomen to shove her off of him and to free his throat. Dahlia was sent flying into the fish pile right next to Gandalf, whose furious glare was on the Wolf as he coughed and took in some deep breaths before turning to the communicator. He had planned to punish him but not with incarceration but before he implement it, he had decided to give Nanu a chance to see what he would do. Then as soon as he was breathing normally again after freeing himself from Dahlia's chokehold, Nanu, a gleeful and triumphant look on his face, stood up and walked over to the transforming communicator.

"I hope she can sort this chaos out," said the young Wolf as he gazed gleefully at the communicator as it formed as a glowing silver-white rectangle. Seeing that the communicator was about to activate into a screen, Gandalf seized Dahlia and pulled her behind the fish pile with the others and barked at everyone else including Crystal, Desdemona, Snowwing, Milky Way, Tesseract and Cumulonimbus to duck. Then within seconds, the rectangle formed into an image and on that image, a Hag with eyes in her hands and not her head (leaving her face eyeless), a Satyr similar to Alphard, a Goblin-like creature called a Sluagh whose skin was bone white and looked very decayed with lesion-like bulges on its face and chest, and a horrible looking Minotaur-like creature but with a Spider's body called an Ushi-Oni, appeared.

"This is Aku no the lead Tenome speaking," said the Tenome, her hand-eyes formed into a stern frown.

"Yes, Miss, Aku no," said Nanu as he addressed the lead Tenome, "I don't suppose you have forgotten about me, have you? It's Nanu, one of the young Wolves."

When Nanu mentioned his name, the Satyr and the Ushi-Oni fell forward, relief washing over them.

"Nanu!?" barked the ugly Bull-faced Spider creature incredulously.

"Oh thank our goddess Jadis's magic," said the Satyr, "You're safe!"

Nanu managed a small smile and a nod. Behind the fish pile, Desdemona looked on in confusion.

"Is that a Satyr?" she asked the others.

"Then what sort of Satyr is he or she?" asked Dahlia. At this, Alphard shot the Griffin and Jackalope youngsters a dark glare.

"If you two really wanna know," said the bipedal Goat with disgust lacing his voice, "Yes it is a Satyr, and one of those individual Satyrs that had joined that evil Witch's side, and much like the Nogitsune and the other Narnian creatures that had joined Jadis, they had followed and EXTREMELY dark path but in this case…" the Satyr paused uneasily as reluctance to go any further gripped him hard. This was an EXTREMELY sensitive subject for these bipedal Goat creatures to discuss.

"In this case?" repeated Tesseract curiously. Alphard gave the Unicorn an extremely disgusted look. "In this case," he reluctantly said, "the Satyrs that had joined Jadis's side had not only become lovers of extreme violence but, for lack of a better word, debauchery, perversion, immorality and other unmentionables, of EVERY kind. In other words, they have become extremely, repeat: EXTREMELY… lecherous…"

"Lecherous?" repeated Dahlia. Cumulonimbus shot the Jackalope a glare.

"You SERIOUSLY don't wanna know," said the Thunderbird seriously, "It's not for youngsters such as yourself to hear."

"In fact, it's not a subject ANY creature should hear," said Alphard, "regardless of age."

Dahlia said nothing and daren't ask any more questions. Then the group resumed their attention on Nanu as the Sluagh asked, "Where are you calling from?"

"Um, could I see Her Majesty, please?" said Nanu nervously, "I wanna speak to her first."

"Look, just answer the question," snapped the Sluagh annoyed, "Where are you calling from."

Nanu began to think. Behind the fish pile, Gandalf and the others looked on, Gandalf poised to strike. His paw had become engulfed in small golden orange flames. Based on the description of the exclusive ability Kitsune possessed, you can bet what Gandalf was planning to do should Nanu give the location of his base away. However, Nanu said after some hesitation, "from a small thicket," to the relief of the listeners.

"But I really wanna see Her Majesty. It-it-it's an emergency," said the Wolf, "Is she there?"

"Well…" began the Sluagh when suddenly, the familiar, crystalline, Yuki-onna-like voice sounded.

"Aku no, you three," it said, pulling the quartet's attention to her.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" asked Aku no, her hand eyes turned in the direction of the speaker off-screen.

"Is that Nanu calling from somewhere?" said the voice, which Gandalf and the others identified as being from Jadis, but the conclusion sent shivers down some of the creatures' spines and Alphard actually backed away, not wanting to get a glimpse of the Snow Beast, "I haven't heard from that young Wolf for such a long time."

"Well, he is here now, Your Majesty," said the Sluagh with a gesture to Nanu, "so you've no need to worry about him any longer and secondly, his parents and siblings should be alerted…"

"Right, you do that and I'll take it from here," said the Witch and with that, a bone-white hand appeared and lifted the communicator such that the beautiful angelic and queenly figure of Jadis, her icicle crown extending beautifully from her head and glistening in the wintery sun shining through one of her castle windows, was now on the screen. Behind the fish pile, their mouths and beaks exhaling condensation clouds from the low temperature of the freezer, the creatures watched on, some whose faces were saturated with rancorous hatred as they glared at the Witch.

"Your Majesty, Nanu reporting in," said Nanu as he nervously opened up his report, "Sorry for not contacting you for so long. So much as happened and… and…" he timidly flashed glances behind him at the creatures behind the fish pile, "and… um…"

However, Jadis raised a hand in a 'stop' gesture and commanded him to shut up, which Nanu obeyed. She then began to munch on a piece of meat taken from a Talking Beast, her piercing onyx-like eyes boring into Nanu.

"According to Romulus and the other Wolves including your parents and siblings, you have been missing for WEEKS now…" said the Witch, before she glared intently at Nanu like our world's harpy eagle glaring at a macaw, "How is… the search… for Gandalf and Kyukon and their base going?"

"It's… still… um…" began Nanu and with that, he flashed a timid gaze back at the listeners behind the fish pile, "…going on, I'm afraid."

"Hmph, it's been going on for FAR TOO long," muttered Jadis like a spoilt brat waiting impatiently for her next big present. The Witch then moved on. "Where were you the last time you disappeared, HOW did you disappear and WHY have you been gone for so long? Your group had returned and reported to me of your mysterious vanishing from them."

Nanu, at this, paused as he thought of an answer to this question. Behind the fish pile, Gandalf and the others looked on and listened in angst. Finally, Nanu spoke. "I-I-I um… got separated from my group of Wolves and… subsequently got lost and was then… um… attacked."

"By whom?" asked Jadis, her piercing glare fixated on the young Wolf. As she asked this, Aku no peered in, her hand eyes poking creepily out from the corner of the communicator screen.

"By… um… erm… um… by some…" stuttered Nanu. He then flashed a gaze at Milky Way as she glared at him suspiciously. Nervously, he began to concoct a story, "Dumb… savage non-Talking wolves who then chased me through the forest…"

As Nanu spoke, there was movement behind a pile of frozen chicken (the meat of _dumb_ chickens, not the Talking Chickens, obviously). From behind that pile, a Dog emerged and glared at the Wolf as he continued his nervous chat to Jadis. However, Nanu and the others did not notice the Dog.

"B-b-but I managed to escape and… I've sought shelter… I'm on my own," said the Wolf shakily. Jadis then frowned.

"I'll call your parents and older siblings and inform them of your recklessness and your wellbeing," said Jadis in a low growl as she swallowed a piece of the meat, "And if Gandalf and Kyukon's base is found, which I HOPE will happen soon, I will have it ALL destroyed, those two nine-tailed Foxes captured and petrified and ANY remnant of ANY records of Narnia's true history, that filthy Great Cat and that Golden Age Prophecy COMPLETELY vanquished. Thanks for calling in, Nanu."

Nanu, at this, formed a smile on his muzzle.

"I'll dispatch some Ropen and Bat-winged Harpies to fly to your location and collect you and bring you back here," said Jadis. However, Nanu felt a surge of panic set into him.

"Wait…" he blurted out, pulling Jadis's attention back to him, "I-I-I um…the reason I have called is… I think we should put off our search for Gandalf and Kyukon and their base."

Behind the fish pile, Gandalf and the others watched on, surprise at Nanu's sudden change of behaviour and mood.

"I'm afraid we can't do that," replied Jadis and with that, she took another bite out of her piece of meat and began to much on it.

"B-b-b-but… it's so difficult to find and… if the other scout groups haven't found it yet, then I see no point in them risking themselves any further and wasting any more energy in trying to find a base that… is too well-hidden and…" continued Nanu nervously and shakily.

"Why do you want me to terminate my scouts' search for that base?" asked Jadis in a dangerous, deadly voice. There was a hint of suspicion in her voice tone about Nanu's behaviour as she spoke, and she clearly didn't like it one bit.

"Well, the thing is… I have… had a narrow escape from those savage, dumb hungry wolves and I don't want the other followers of you facing the same dangers," replied Nanu, "Besides that, there are Krampus, Jack Frost, Yuki-onna, that shadow Bakeneko-like Cat with the U-shaped eye whites… and the other snow monsters who could pose a risk to those patrol groups…"

As he said this, Aku no flashed a look of disgust at the Satyr, Sluagh and Ushi-Oni and shook her head as if to say, "I don't like that Wolf's attitude."

"Enough stupid talk and your equally stupid excuses, Wolf pup," said Jadis, "I don't care about what immature excuse you try to come up in ANYTHING. You've ALWAYS been like that since you first learned to talk as a very young pup. Your parents and older siblings had been UTTERLY annoyed with you, especially when you tried issuing excuses for the Fighting League participants and why they shouldn't be launched into the arena…"

"WHAT!?" blurted out Nanu.

"Look," said Jadis in a low growl, "just get prepared to meet my Ropen and Harpy scout group will you, and if that base of Gandalf and Kyukon is indeed found, not only will I have it and any records about Narnia and the Great Cat and the Prophecy stored within it destroyed and those two Kitsune turned to stone for my statue collection but I will also NOT hesitate to turn EVERYONE and ANYONE else found in it into either slaves, food, fighters in the Arena of Death, or toys for my Satyrs and some of the younger kids of my dear followers after they have been captured and also brought here along with those two Kitsune…"

This sent immense hot rage and disgust flowing through Alphard. Having had enough of hearing about the evil Witch's immorality and wickedness, he decided to leave the freezer and wait outside until the scene finished.

"WHAT!?" shouted Nanu in utter shock. He especially winced when he spotted the sadistic and demonic glares on the faces of the Sluagh, the Ushi-Oni, Aku no's hand-eyes and head mouth and, most especially the face of the Satyr, whose mind was saturated with stuff of a concoction I will ABSOLUTELY NOT describe.

"You CAN'T throw those poor Narnians into situations like THOSE! THAT'S IMMORAL!" shouted Nanu. This sent a wave of awe flowing through Gandalf's group. Aku no and the other three with her, however, had a completely opposite reaction, and the Tenome actually inhaled a flabbergasted gasp.

"Are you questioning my flawless, perfect authority!?" snapped Jadis in utter disgust.

"No, I'm questioning your plans you have for the Narnians once you have captured them… Your Majesty," replied Nanu.

"WELL!" snarled the Ushi-Oni.

"I've NEVER KNOWN…" began the Sluagh but then the ugly Goblin stepped aside as Jadis angrily seized the communicator and glared volcanically at Nanu.

"YOU are WELL AND TRULY… out of LINE!" growled the Witch.

"B-b-b-but," began Nanu but Jadis cut him off.

"I am NOT interested in the meagre excuses of a STUPID Wolf pup," snapped she. Nanu tried to speak but Jadis swept on. "You have DISRESPECTED MY AUTHORITY as QUEEN OF NARNIA and GODDESS OF THE HIGHLANDS."

"But…" began Nanu.

"SHUT YOUR MUZZLE" snapped Jadis, to which Nanu did. Gandalf and the others continued to watch the confrontation in angst behind the fish pile while behind the frozen chicken, the Dog looked on, flabbergasted.

"YOU have failed in EVERY AREA of your training growing up," Jadis swept on, practically lambasting Nanu to his face, "YOU have allowed yourself to become a stupid schnook to those LOWLY NARNIANS who REFUSE TO BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP ME and HONOUR ME IN EVERY AREA OF THEIR LIVES, be it their FOOD OFFERINGS, THE FIGHTING LEAGUE, OR THEIR LIVES, and on top of that, you have WASTED your only chance to redeem yourself by NOT helping out in the search for those two Kitsune's hidden base, which I WANT FOUND RIGHT NOW…"

As the Witch continued to spew her acidic criticisms at Nanu, the young Wolf began to tremble in frustration. His eyes were tight shut and his teeth were gritted as though he were in pain.

"…So that I CAN HAVE THOSE TWO NINE-TAILED FOXES who have developed into a SERIOUS THREAT TO MY ETERNAL THRONE brought to me," added Jadis, "and TURNED TO STONE FOR MY STATUE COLLECTION as SOON as POSSIBLE! IS… THAT… CLEAR… NANU!?"

"Then I won't RESUME THE SEARCH FOR GANDALF AND KYUKON'S BASE!" retorted Nanu in a furious, frustrated voice, "I can tell you one thing, there are FAR TOO MANY INNOCENT NARNIANS, MOST ESPECIALLY YOUNG ONES, who have BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH TRAUMA AND DIFFICULTIES AS IT IS ALREADY! THEY DON'T NEED TO BE THROWN INTO ANY MORE TURMOIL AND TORTURE!"

Gandalf and his group's admiration of the Wolf continued to swell while the Dog's anger also ballooned, especially as the confrontation reached critical but what happened next sent a MASSIVE storm of flabbergast tearing through everyone.

"WHY do you WANT ME TO SPARE THOSE NARNIANS FROM THE TORTURE they MUST FACE, NANU?" retorted Jadis in an extremely loud, volcanic voice, the behaviour of the young Wolf finally sending her over the edge. At this, any composure Nanu had completely evaporated and he practically lost control of his temper completely.

"It's probably BECAUSE some of them have potentially BEEN DAMAGED beyond REPAIR BECAUSE OF YOU…" howled the Wolf at the top of his lungs, "you… FERAL, BLOODTHIRSTY… DISGUSTING… White Witch MAGGOT!"

That did it. Jadis's face went RIGID with FURY BEYOND DESCRIPTION. Behind the fish pile, Gandalf and company looked on with ever increasing awe and some of them even had their lower jaws drop. Milky Way was especially one of them. The Dog, however, was utterly OUTRAGED. Then Nanu realised what he had spat at Jadis. Shuddering, he said hastily and timidly, "Gotta go, sorry," seized the communicator and shut it off, transforming the rectangle back into a cube. The moment he did that, Gandalf and the others emerged and crowded around him, congrats at his bravery exploding from their mouths.

"That was INCREDIBLE!" cried Milky Way.

"I just… can't believe I just said that," muttered Nanu timidly, the aftershock of the climax of the confrontation still gripping him.

"I KNEW you'd eventually come to your senses about the White Witch's true nature, despite your bratty attitude at first," said Desdemona jubilantly.

"I can't believe I just SAID THAT!" Nanu murmured again.

"It certainly was a difficult situation but you did well, Nanu," said Gandalf with a smile. Then Tesseract came in, a smug look on his face.

"Jadis the White Witch just had her PRIDE TORN, SHREDDED and MAULED by NANU'S WOLF JAWS!" he yelled happily and in mockery of Jadis's reaction to Nanu's insult. Nanu only released a groan in response to this. Then he handed the cube to Gandalf.

"Can you get rid of this please?" he asked.

"Why?" asked the nine-tailed Fox as he took it from Nanu's paw.

"Because I'm too shaken up to get rid of it myself," replied Nanu. Tesseract was about to speak when suddenly, Gandalf's head and upper body jerked up as though he had heard a startling sound.

"Everyone, LEAVE THE AREA NOW," he barked. At first, the group hesitated, confusion hitting them but then they complied when they saw what Gandalf was going to do, especially as one of his front paws ignited and became consumed in a golden yellow fire-lightning-like aura.

"And TAKE THIS WOLF TO SAFETY AS WELL!" barked Gandalf. At this, Cumulonimbus seized Nanu, who was curled up on the floor and took him to safety. As soon as everyone was out of the way, Gandalf tossed the communicator cube into the air and a second later, a beam of fire-lightning surged from his paw and struck the communicator. Dahlia and the others apart from Nanu watched on and flinched as Gandalf blasted the communicator to smithereens with his foxfire, before going round to pick up the blackened and shattered pieces and return to the group, especially as the cold of the freezer was getting to him. However, as he left, he flashed a glance in the direction of the pile of frozen chicken but saw no-one there. Pulling his gaze uneasily away from the chicken pile, he returned to the group with the blackened communicator pieces.

"I thought I could reason with her," continued Nanu despairingly.

"Yeah, but you didn't half make her FURIOUS," sniggered Milky Way.

"And then you insulted that Snow Beast to her face," said Alphard the Satyr who had heard the whole thing at the entrance.

"You know what this means, Nanu?" asked Dahlia joyfully.

"I'm a traitor to the Queen," replied Nanu sombrely.

"Not only that, you're one of us now," cried Dahlia and with that she wrapped her arms around Nanu and pulled him into a tight hug, much to his groaning, especially as Gandalf said, "whether you like it or not."

Nanu could only groan sombrely to this. Then at Gandalf's orders now that the threat was averted, the group left the freezer, taking Nanu, who was still groaning with them.


	53. Chapter 52

**Chapter 52- things get worse**

 **Night time**

Everyone in the base had retired to the cell-bedrooms sleeping quarters for the night though some guards were on night patrol, especially at the sealed off entrances leading to the snowy aboveground land of Narnia that was enveloped in total, freezing, foggy darkness. Nanu, now a new and official member of the enormous crowd of evacuees after showing his change of allegiance to Jadis to her face as well as badly insulting her and slashing her IMMENSE pride, was asleep in one of the cell bedrooms, a makeshift Wolf's den built for him by Alphard the Satyr and a couple of Monkeys and a Gorilla which will be his sleeping spot from now on. Nanu had requested that his den be built near Ahhuayo's bed for Ahhuayo was also a former member of Jadis's crowd, and his requested had been granted. Now he slept near the Ahuizotl as well as some other Wolves who were also against Jadis's reign and corrupt judicial system. However, trouble was lurking for the purple-black Wolf and his new Ahuizotl friend, for someone had overheard Nanu insult Jadis to her face in the most offensive way possible.

Nanu did deeply regret calling Jadis a 'White Witch maggot' a while after Gandalf had destroyed the communicator with his foxfire to prevent the tool linking to Jadis's throne room and communication centre in her castle from falling into the hands of the possible intruder and to sever his or her only chance of connecting to the evil Witch, and Gandalf did rebuke Nanu somewhat over calling Jadis a maggot for he had sensed that someone had been listening in on the scene. Nanu definitely agreed with this rebuke but he had told Gandalf that he had been so frustrated with the Witch and her immoral ways that stretched to such a depth so incomprehensible that he just lost all control. However, Nanu vowed NEVER to have anything to do with the White Witch again, especially after learning of so many backstories from so many of the evacuees such as Obsidian's loss of her family to Krampus, the deaths of Nyarth, Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira's parents Frosty and Ferntail, including Ferntail's near-selection to be thrown in to the Arena of Death in one of the previous Massacre Events while STILL pregnant with her four kits (to Nanu's UTMOST horror), and the loss of Gingerfur also in the most previous Massacre Event, alongside countless other Narnians except Soran the Dog who had won that sanguinary fight and his family showered with excessive luxuries by the Witch eventually. Even now, Nanu was still sick in the head and stomach from the Witch's ways. He had always seen Jadis as some sort of angelic figure based on her long, flowing pure crystalline, furry royal robes, crystalline icicle crown atop her head and beautiful, snow-white face, onyx eyes like a Kitsune and crystalline voice as pure and as hypnotic as a friendly Siren's. Now, all the Wolf saw in her was a bloodthirsty, greedy, tyrannical, sadistic, even lecherous (and so many other HIGHLY negative adjectives that would probably take me hours to write) Yuki-onna-like Snow Beast followed and worshipped by her equally bloodthirsty, VILE, LECHEROUS, and so on, followers (including some former-Narnians such as the evil Satyrs and the Nogitsune) and he was still nauseated by her true nature even now. 'No wonder so many of the Narnians despise her and call her a White Witch,' thought Nanu at one point. However, putting these thoughts aside, he simply went to his new den and settled down for the night with his roommates including Ahhuayo, who had also explained to him once again of the White Witch's true nature.

Nanu mumbled in his den bed, mumbling when he suddenly jolted awake and drew in a sharp gasp. The young Wolf then shot terrified glances this way and that to examine his surroundings. To his relief, he was back in the sleeping quarters and released a sigh of relief. Glad that he was still here and not back at Jadis's castle (where he would have been put to death and his meat processed as food for his insulting the Witch earlier, without a doubt), Nanu stood up, curled up on his bed and lay down to try and return to sleep. However, he found it a bit difficult to drop off once again for he was afraid that he might return to the nightmare. As Nanu tried to return to sleep, a mysterious glow appeared from outside of the entrance to the sleeping cell, for Nanu had selected one of the cells on the ground level to sleep in for he wanted to stay in the same cell as Ahhuayo as one of his roommates. When the young Wolf's eyes caught the glow emanating from the right of the entrance to the cell, curiosity welled within him.

"What in Narnia?" murmured Nanu to himself in perplex as he continued to examine the light as it continued to expand from the right of the cell entrance. Then abandoning his attempts to return to sleep due to the compulsion to investigate overtaking him, Nanu rose to his four feet, left his bed and trotted quietly across the sleeping cell, his eyes cautiously examining the sleeping forms of the other creatures including Ahhuayo who slept in a bed made out of the materials you'd expect to find in a boggy area, such as reeds, for Ahuizotl were mostly quagmire-dwelling creatures like the Kappa and the Marsh-Wiggle. Sure that the other animals, his other roommates, were sound asleep for the air was rattling somewhat with the snores of some of the mammals and birds, and also a Pterosaur that slept in a nest above Ahhuayo, Nanu pulled his gaze from the sleepers and moved it to the glowing light. However, as Nanu was about to disappear around the corner and out of the cell, Ahhuayo's eyes opened and he spotted a purple-black Wolf's tail disappear out of the cell's right lip. At this, the Ahuizotl pushed his upper body from his pillow made of swamp grass and gazed curiously after the Wolf.

"Nanu?" he whispered and before long, his Reptilian eyes had landed on the glow as well. Then it was Ahhuayo's turn to be perplexed about the yellow glow, so he rose to his hand-feet and followed Nanu to investigate. He had initially assumed the light to be from one of the night patrollers but based on the brightness of the light, that assumption was immediately scrapped by the Ahuizotl. With his tail-hand rubbing his head hair in confusion, Ahhuayo peered around the corner and watched Nanu as he traced the light from the sleeping quarters and into the corridor leading to the compartment.

"Nanu," called Ahhuayo and with that, he followed the Wolf. Ahead, Nanu continued to follow the light and as he continued to trot down the corridor, he heard music and laughter which ignited confusion within him. A party, at THIS time of night, especially since tomorrow was to be a very busy day!? How can anyone possibly throw a party since tomorrow would require a well-rested creature to participate based on the type of day it will be? Furthermore, Gandalf and Kyukon had written in their rules that no parties were to take place before a training day and yet there was someone throwing one in one of the rooms down the corridor. This was definitely not right and Nanu wanted to investigate to be sure and then report it. Soon, Nanu turned a corner and peered into the compartment from which the light, the sounds and the music was emanating and as he stood, his eyes inflated wide in shock. Ahhuayo soon turned up moments later.

"Nanu?" called the Ahuizotl but when he saw the young Wolf pup gaze into the lit room; he stopped by, followed the Canid's gaze and also peered into the room.

"What in Narnia?" murmured Ahhuayo in surprise.

In the room ahead of the corridor branching from the one Nanu and Ahhuayo stood in was the light and in that light was a table. Sat around the table was a variety of creatures and on the table was a variety of cakes, food and drinks, all of which were sparkling, and the creatures were merrily laughing and drinking and eating away.

"Shouldn't that lot be asleep like the rest of us, Ahhuayo?" said Nanu, "We have a very heavy schedule starting tomorrow."

"They should," said Ahhuayo with a stern look on his Doglike face, "Gandalf and Kyukon did explain to us the rules against staying up late and partying before a training day when we should be in bed past the required time."

"Then why is that lot disobeying that nine-tailed Kitsune couple's rule?" asked Nanu but then the compulsion to investigate showed itself, "I would like to enter there and see why those creatures are staying up so late and partying."

And with that, the Wolf walked off towards the room full of cheery animals and their tea party, Ahhuayo following close behind. As the pair entered the room, the room was indeed flooded with light, that light emanating from a bright magic star orb set in the middle of the table that was decorated with various attractive cakes, fruit and food, some of them basically glittering like gemstones on the slab of wood on legs. Around the edge of the table, the creatures consisting mostly of Rabbits, Squirrels, Stoats, Otters, Cats and Dogs sat around, eating the food and laughing merrily. Then one of the Squirrels turned and saw Nanu and Ahhuayo standing at the entrance to the room.

"Hey, you two," said the fluffy-tailed Rodent in a squeaky, cheerful voice as it fed on a nut, "Why are you both standing there? Come and join us will you?"

"You're missing out on our tea party," said another creature, a Cat (regular Cat, not the closely-related magical Cats, the Bakeneko or Nekomata). The Wolf and the Ahuizotl, glances exchanged between them, walked over to the table and sat down at one of the ends on two empty chairs. Then the pair gazed at the food properly.

Every plate was full of the purest of food Nanu and Ahhuayo had ever seen. All the fruit and vegetables bore sparkles on their surface and their skins shone as though they had been polished to perfection. The cakes were well-done and decorated with brightly coloured and sparkling icing, fruits, sprinkles and other confectionary decorations, and the meat and the nuts were glistening like metallic gold and other coloured metals in the light of the mini star orb hovering like a little star in the centre of the table. Around the table, the Rabbits, Squirrels, Stoats, Otters, Cats and Dogs and the other creatures continued to chat, consume the food and laugh. Then Nanu's eyes inflated out o0f their sockets as they were fixated on the food and his tongue dropped open greedily.

"Look at the beautiful food, Ahhuayo," cried the Wolf in awe and with hunger, the desire to eat the lavish food igniting within him. Ahhuayo, despite the temptation to gaze at the food pulling on him strongly like gravity, wore a look of uncertainty on his face.

"I'm not sure, Nanu," said he, "There's something not quite…"

However, before he could finish, one of the Rabbits leaned in and offered him a plate loaded with a sparkling fish decorated with duckweed and other swamp-dwelling herbs. It was a dish called Swamp Salmon, and it was salmon that lived in the Northern Marshlands served with Swamp herbs and duckweed, one of the common dishes prepared and served by Keplies, Marsh-Wiggles, Kappa and Ahuizotl and some other swamp creatures that dined on fish, and one of Ahhuayo's favourite meals.

"Here, have a Swamp Salmon," said the Rabbit as he sat the platter down before the puzzled and uncertain Ahuizotl, "I heard that it's your FAAAVOOOURITE!"

As the Rabbit departed to feast on another glittering carrot, Ahhuayo gazed at the fish on the platter decorated with the sparkling green swamp plant leaves. Despite feeling the urge to sink his teeth into the IMMENSELY-TASTING and appetizing looking fish with its equally IMMENSELY luring aroma attempting to tickle the Ahuizotl's nose and send his salivary glands into overdrive, (and it was INDEED TASTY and IRRESISTIBLE even), Ahhuayo reached forward with his hand-tail and began to fiddle with it to feel it. As he lifted the fish slightly by grasping its tail, a horrible feeling began to well within the spiny swamp Dog-like creature.

"Um, Nanu, even though this food looks… tasty…" began Ahhuayo as the aroma set his salivary glands off and he began to drool. At this, the Ahuiztol flinched and bolted from the table and shot Nanu an alarmed look, "I don't think we should… EAT THIS…" he squeaked in horror and a strangled voice as he witnessed Nanu chow down an IMMENSELY tasting ruby red apple. This apple glistened like a fresh ruby and resembled a massive jewel and its aroma and appearance had Nanu captured like a fish on the end of a fishing pole. Then as he chomped the last of the edible part of the apple such that only the core was left, Nanu, his eyes saturated with dizziness, as though he had been hypnotised, turned and gazed at Ahhuayo. Behind the Wolf, the Animals continued feasting and merrily chatting.

"You should try this food, Ahhuayo," groaned the Wolf as though he were tipsy, "It's DEE-LICIOUS."

Ahhuayo looked on and said nothing but then he noticed a terrifying transformation in the Wolf. As Nanu continued to speak, his speech became slurred and his ears drooped.

"I've NEVER known such ta-a-a-sty… bluuurr… muuuuur…" then within moments, and to Ahhuayo's horror, Nanu slumped down onto the floor like a boneless ragdoll and collapsed onto his front, his eyes rolled in his sockets and his tongue protruding out his mouth which emanated alarming gurgles. Alarm tore through Ahhuayo.

"Nanu," said the Ahuizotl as he bolted forward and seized the young Wolf in his forepaw hands, "NANU, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

Nanu only responded with a gurgle and flopped over in Ahhuayo's forelimbs, his tongue hanging out like a floppy fish from his mouth as the apple he had consumed began to affect him. Then Ahhuayo shot an alarmed gaze at the partying animals and they only responded with friendly smiles and waves, some of them encouraging him to taste their food. However, Ahhuayo shuddered.

"This isn't real," murmured the swamp creature to himself and the afflicted Nanu, "This ISN'T REAL AT ALL! Furthermore, the food is…"

As he spoke, a small slip of paper appeared and gently drifted down to him and Nanu from above. At this, Ahhuayo seized the piece of paper the moment his Reptile-like eyes spotted it in his tail-hand

"What's this?" muttered Ahhuayo as he held the piece of paper in his tail-hand while his forepaw hands held onto the afflicted Nanu, his head flopped over one of the Ahuiztol's arms with his eyes still rolled in his sockets and his tongue sticking out of his mouth which continued to emanate slickly moans while the partying animals continued to merrily eat and laugh at the table. He then began to read the paper which had writing.

"'Those who… blaspheme the TRUE Monarch and Deity of ALL OF Narnia shall be PUNISHED in the most AGONISING way…'" after reaching the final word, Ahhuayo creased his face into a puzzled look and twitched his ears.

"What's this supposed to mean?" he said, "Is this talking about Aslan, the Great Lion?"

As he said these words, a form appeared behind Ahhuayo as he continued to puzzle over the note and hold the afflicted Nanu and strode towards him. This figure resembled the Snow Monster Yuki-onna and had a bone-white face, crystalline blue puppy-eyes, sleek black hair and cherry-red lips and cheeks.

"Oh, little Ahuizotl," groaned the figure in a crystalline, innocent girly voice, pulling Ahhuayo's attention from the note to her. At this, the Ahuizotl went rigid with fear with his back spines rising like a Hedgehog or Porcupine's spines, his ears pricked up and his Reptile's eyes inflated out of their sockets in shock. His mouth was also dropped open and he gripped the still-afflicted Nanu tightly with his forelimbs. The cute Yuki-onna-faced figure continued to gaze at Ahuuayo with her puppy-dog eyes. Around the table, the partying animals all turned their gazes onto the Wolf and Ahuizotl.

"You've just read a note about you-know-who," whispered the cute figure. Ahhuayo, despite fear growing in its flame height within him from the sight of the figure and the partying animals, managed to form some words in reply.

"What do you mean?" he replied, "A-A-A-A-Aslan?"

At this, the figure's eyes morphed from the soulful and cute puppy-dog's pupils to a more sinister, DEMONIC appearance and its teeth morphed into a terrifying set of fangs. The faces of the partying animals also changed from cute appearances to more terrifying ones.

"NOT the NONEXISTENT OVERSIZED FLEABAG WITH HAIR PROBLEMS, AHHUAYO!" bellowed the main figure in a demonic voice, sending immense shivers down Ahhuayo's spine and his body began to tremble violently as his fear managed to break through its confines. Then suddenly, the Ahuizotl felt the most EXCRUTIATING pain course through his body as though a pack of invisible knives had been forced through his insides. Yelps and screams of agony exploding from his Doglike muzzle, Ahhuayo accidentally tossed the sickly Nanu aside and began to thrash and convulse like a fish caught in an electric eel's electric grasp. As he continued to scream and writhe, Ahhuayo flashed one terrified glance at the Yuki-onna figure as it watched on sadistically, the partying animals gathering around her, the demonic face of the figure replicated on their faces as well. The Yuki-onna figure then grinned and transformed its face once again, this time into an EVEN MORE FRIGHTENING one and screamed like a Banshee at Ahhuayo, the demonic faced animals doing the same before their faces transformed into images of the most gruesome sort. Then the petrified screams of an Ahuizotl exploded from the lit compartment which, however, went unheard by the sound-asleep creatures.

 **Next morning, in the medical compartment**

Two Fauns and Belle the lead Mermaid medical doctor stood talking with a Swan named Swomee who was Cygnus's cousin. The quartet was standing next to two beds that held a certain Wolf and Ahuizotl, the latter who was in terrible shape. Nanu was better but when he had been admitted to the medical room with Ahhuayo, he had been in much worse shape. He had been very close to death until a special potion made from the medical plants that had poisoning-curing properties had been administrated to him in time, and it had been an emergency. Meanwhile Ahhuayo was still in hysterics similar to how Akira had been weeks before. Ahhuayo's spikes and fur was puffed out, his Reptile eyes were inflated as though he had seen a ghost and he was rigid as though paralyzed.

"I found these two in one of the quiet rooms not too far away from the sleeping compartments just as we were getting everyone else up ready for today," explained the Swan, a worried and concerned look on the worried Wolf and catatonic Ahuizotl, "and I tried getting the pair to respond such as asking them what had happened but they wouldn't respond, especially the Wolf who looked like he was precariously close to death," Swomee then released a sigh, "I mean, last night the Wolf and the Ahuizotl were perfectly fine when they went to bed with everyone else… I just don't get it…"

"Could Nanu have eaten anything that could have been contaminated?" asked Belle, before the Mermaid's gaze turned to the worried and stunned Wolf who was still gripped by the two to speak, "I mean this is the umpteenth time we've had a patient brought in that has eaten something that has possibly been contaminated resulting in some sort of food poisoning…"

"And Ahhuayo's state is no different from that of Akira and several other patients who had claimed to have seen terrifying visions once they had recovered from their catatonic state," said one of the Fauns, his gaze on the catatonic Ahhuayo, "But in this case, that Ahuizotl's state is one of the worst I've ever seen."

"It's obvious that something has HORRIBLY frightened him beyond belief," said the other Faun, a female as she examined the Ahuizotl's rigidly shaking body and inflated eyes, "We need to report this to Gandalf and Kyukon at once and as soon as Nanu is up for speaking, which at the moment he is not, he'll wanna question him."

Suddenly, Nanu bolted and began to panic, shouting and wailing that he was seeing things. In response, Belle rushed over to the Wolf and began to try and calm him down. The two Fauns and Swomee looked on.

"And as for whatever Nanu has consumed which had almost KILLED him, it isn't good," said the female Faun.

"Yeah, he looked ever so sickly and unwell that I actually thought he was gonna die," said Swomee, "Good job I have found him and Ahhuayo and have had those two admitted into here in time because he would have been gone, especially if that Poison-Cure Potion hadn't been admitted to that Wolf in time."

The two Fauns nodded in agreement as they watched Nanu as he began to calm down under Belle's comforting words and strokes. Not too far away, Cyril looked on with concern. The young Hippogriff was very drowsy and bloodshot-eyed for he had not sept much last night for his wing had still been healing with the help of the Fracture-Fix Potion. He was not far from being discharged from the medical compartment now and was keen on re-joining the others but when he saw Nanu and Ahhuayo in their states when they were admitted into here when Swomee the Swan had found them, especially with Nanu so close to the brink of death, he had been utterly horrified and concerned, and was glad that the Wolf had been rescued from it in time. However, he decided to leave the health of the two in the hands and wings of the medical team and focus on his release from the medical compartment, hoping that the Ahuizotl and the Wolf would also recover, especially after the latter's precarious brush with death.

 **Few days later**

The activities of the base continued to flow by as usual but things were not as normal as they had been. Search groups were still trying to hunt down the escaped Belladonna and also Troodon and the other Rabbit who were still wreaking havoc, Faline and Ena, their mothers, becoming more and more frantic and worried for their sons, while the other kids involved in Belladonna's assisted escape, Webby the Platupus, Cloudhorn the Alicorn (Winged Unicorn), and the other four Rabbit kits excluding Fluffy-Cotton had been transferred from the detention room to the medical room to be treated for their addiction to chocolate cake which had been sending them ABSOLUTELY crazy by now, their minds consumed with the thoughts of sampling that delicious cake and their behaviour explosively exhibiting violent impulses, and despite all the medical team members trained in helping with overcoming addictions could do, the six kids were still swamped with the desire for more chocolate cake. Furthermore, there was absolutely no medical plant or potion that could cure them of their addiction to the stuff or reverse the effects of the chocolate cake Belladonna had synthesized for them, and THAT had sent a MASSIVE wave of despair coursing through the parents and relatives of the afflicted kids, especially Faline the Bunny and Fluffy-Cotton who was still being tortured by shame and guilt of helping to release Belladonna.

Outside the medical room once again, Milky Way, Dahlia, Snowwing, Tesseract and Crystal listened in on the conversation between Belle, her two Faun assistants, Swomee and Kyukon, Bursyamo and three Centaurs. Nanu had recovered from the shock of nearly dying from his poisoning from the apple and had managed to answer the questions proposed to him by Bursyamo, Kyukon and the three Centaurs about his and Ahhuayo's incident a few days ago. However, Ahhuayo was still in a state of hysteria even after a few days so he was not questioned. As the Winged Horse or Pegasus, the Jackalope, the Skvader, the Unicorn and the Parrot youngsters listened in, shivers made their skins crawl, their fur and feathers bristle and their nerves shudder.

"It was _definitely_ a casted illusion alright," said Kyukon sternly and seriously, "and a VERY convincing one at that, although the HIGHLY poisonous red apple Nanu had eaten and the Swamp Salmon dish served with duckweed and swamp plants almost given to Ahhuayo had been very real things and had likely been laced with a potent toxin designed purposely to induce a fatally slow and painful sickness in which the victim dies slowly from agony…"

Crystal and the other four jolted their heads up in horror.

"Did I just hear that right?" gasped Tesseract.

"Looks like Ahhuayo had a very narrow escape from also getting poisoned like how Nanu was," said Milky Way. Then Crystal peered in and saw that Kyukon was wearing a serious expression on her face. However, the Parrot only heard part of Kyukon's serious sentence.

"…as soon as we can!" said the nine-tailed Vixen sternly, "Before anyone else falls victim to…"

Suddenly, a voice pulled Crystal and the other four from the conversation to its owner, a Basan Hen named Phoenix-Feather whose face was creased into a stern look.

"What are you five doing out here?" asked the Basan, "You should be studying, not lounging about near the medical room centre."

"Um, sorry, Miss Phoenix-Feather," said Crystal as she and the other four with her prepared to leave, "We were just very concerned for Ahhuayo and Nanu."

"They're fine, they're in the hands of the experts," replied Phoenix-Feather, "Now you five return to the study area at once. You've still got plenty to learn before you leave for Archenland and I want you five prepared for it like everyone else."

Milky Way, Dahlia, Snowwing, Tesseract and Crystal nodded and obediently left. As he followed the other four, Tesseract turned and gazed at Phoenix-Feather with an apologetic look on his face.

"Miss Phoenix-Feather, I'm sorry I got you into trouble with your leader Mr Bursyamo over Obsidian's incident," said the Unicorn foal sadly, "That Basan that drove her to almost drown herself…"

"Look, Tesseract, you've no need to apologise," said Phoenix-Feather, "It's like Bursyamo said, it wasn't your fault. It has been obvious that this intruder had been disguising themselves as one of us Basan to cause the evacuees problems…"

Suspicion ignited within Tesseract and he shot the orange Basan Hen a worried look.

"Intruder?" he repeated. However, Phoenix-Feather commanded him to return to studying, which he did. But as he left, Tesseract shuddered as a thought on the intruder's identity entered his head. Pushing the thought aside, the Unicorn followed Milky Way, Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal back to the study areas.

However, while the inhabitants of the base were drawing conclusions about the intruder and the connections of the illusions, food poisoning, and other abnormalities to them as the pieces of the puzzle began to click together, things were getting worse and worse for one of the evacuees, a certain Nekomata and the youngest kit of the four quadruplets. More and more evacuees and base helpers were shunning him and accusing him of taking their things and vandalism, all of which Kushanku kept denying in vain that he didn't do and a Centaur even threatened to incarcerate him in the dungeon compartment if this trouble continued to which Kushanku shuddered. To make things worse, even the closest friends of him were beginning to doubt him. Alexandrite and Kushanku had developed a strong friendship of sorts but even that bond was about to be threatened.

In one of the study rooms, Alexandrite was studying how the invented evolution story of Narnia's history contrasted with the true history and to her utmost surprise and shock; she saw that the beginnings of all life in Narnia differed drastically. In the evolution story, all life started in the sea of Narnia as bacteria-like microbes, supposedly formed from the comet that exploded and rained down the rocks into the sea while in the creation story, Aslan had sung all land creatures into existence literally out of the earth. The sea creatures, such as Dolphins, Merfolk, Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs, however, were created by Aslan straight in the sea but even they did not get a microbial start. Rather, Aslan had sung them into existence, fully formed, from the sediment of the seabed of the Narnian oceans. As she continued to study the contradicting events, Alexandrite was snacking on a slice of peachberry cake she had baked with some of the other evacuees in the kitchen during a baking class. The kitchen had been closed off until the soupy mess caused by Satoshi and 'Kushanku' had been cleaned up but now it was open so that meals could be cooked and cooking lessons could be carried out once again. As Alexandrite took a bite out of the peachberry cake slice, a Dragon came by, carrying some important documents.

"Hey, Kairyu," Alexandrite called to the Dragon and attracting his attention, "I cannot believe that whoever had invented this false evolution history would invent a story as to how we creatures came into being to be TOTALLY different from Aslan's account of creation."

"That's the thing with that secular view, Alexandrite," said Kairyu sternly, "the inventors have been trying to explain Narnia's formation without Aslan involved since so many of the creatures are sadly in doubt of our world's genesis. To add to that, they have proposed that over millions of years as the various creature kinds evolved from their separate microbe ancestors that formed in these primordial oceans of Narnia, they conflicted with each other resulting in an eternal fight for survival that is red in tooth, claw, nail and talon even before the first humans found their way into Narnia when in actuality, death came into Narnia shortly AFTER Jadis and the others with her entered into the world via a magical circular adornment…"

Alexandrite tipped her head to one side in curiosity. As she did that, a metallic icy blue, grey and white fork-tailed Cat appeared and walked over to Alexandrite while her back was turned with her attention focussed on Kairyu.

"But if Narnia REALLY came into being via natural processes, how do you explain the inorganic, non-corporal creatures like the Pyros, the Naiads, and the Sylphs?" asked Alexandrite, "How did THEY form since they don't have an organic body?"

Kairyu turned round and took a few steps away from Alexandrite, his back turned to her. "That's a very good question, Alex."

As he took two more steps from Alexandrite before turning to face her again, the Nekomata quickly darted to the cake slice while Alexandrite's attention was still on the Dragon, and injected something into it. However, Kairyu turned to face Alexandrite again and as he did, he caught-sighted a form near Alexandrite's cake, putting something into the slice. At this, he threw on an 'Uh-oh' look. The Nekomata then quickly retreated to a short distance.

"But it seems to me that the scientists who had conceived the false evolution story of Narnia have had trouble trying to explain how those spirits of water, fire and air formed with one theory being proposed that they had been lifeless wisps of water, fire and air who had somehow evolved sentience over millions of years," continued Alexandrite as she picked up the peachberry cake to take a bite, "But that is just a pile of nonsense just like the ancestors of us organic creatures developing sentience over millions of years through the violent struggle to survive."

Alexandrite then proceeded to sink her teeth into the cake to take another bite out of it when Kairyu shouted, "PUT THAT CAKE DOWN!"

At this, Alexandrite flinched and dropped the cake, gazing at it in shock. Then Kairyu darted forward, seized the cake slice and tossed it into the air before incinerating it with a blast of his fire breath. Alexandrite and the Nekomata who resembled Kushanku flinched as the cake was charred to a blackened lump of coal. Then Kairyu seized the coal-like lump, patted it to put out the smaller flames and disposed of it into a waste bin. As he let loose a sigh of relief, Alexandrite threw on a confused and rather offended look.

"Why did you char my cake slice?" she demanded. Kairyu turned to her and was about to explain when he saw Kushanku stand a short distance away, a sour look on his face. At this, Alexandrite followed the Dragon's gaze and also saw Kushanku with that look. Then Kairyu stormed over to the Nekomata.

"Did you put something into Alexandrite's cake, young kit!?" the winged, fire-breathing Reptile demanded. At this, Alexandrite flinched in horror and astonishment. Kushanku continued gazing at Kairyu, flashed Alexandrite a spiteful look and then darted away before Kairyu could seize him. The Dragon slammed a Reptilian hand against the rocky wall in rage before turning to Alexandrite.

"He had put something into your cake and you were about to eat it," said the Dragon, explaining why he had seized the cake and had charred it, "and based on what happened to many of the casualties who had ended up in the medical compartment after eating something, especially Nanu who was EXTREMELY close to the brink of death, I did not want you winding up in the same situation."

Alexandrite flinched harshly and gazed in horror in the direction in which Kushanku had fled, shaking with her colourful fur puffed out. Then rage flared within her.

"Are you meaning to say Kushanku tried to _poison me!?"_ she bellowed, "I-I-I thought we were FRIENDS and that HE WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING!"

Alexandrite then rose to her feet and slammed her books shut. Then before Kairyu could protest, the Nekomata had stormed out of the study area.

"When I meet him," shouted Alexandrite furiously, "I'm gonna tell him, TO HIS FACE, TO GET OUT OF MY SIGHT and NEVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN! I GUESS he cannot be trusted AFTER ALL!"

And with that, she left the study compartment with Kairyu shouting after her, protesting only for is protests to fall on deaf ears for Alexandrite was too blinded by sheer rage to hear him.


	54. Chapter 53

**Chapter 53- an attempted and potentially fatal escape averted and a horrible feeling**

Sometime later, lunch had arrived. Kushanku was on his way to get his meal when he was met with a sea of disdainful glares and mutterings from the crowd of evacuees. Many of them were shooting him those glares while some of the others were whispering acidic comments about him to each other. At this, Kushanku shuddered and continued to walk on. He picked up a tray, two plates, and some cutlery and made his way to the queue. However, as he walked along, a Leopard who had followed him to also get a tray, leaped over to him, stuck out a front paw and caught Kushanku's foot. Kushanku let loose a surprised yelp as he felt his left foot get snagged onto something. Then, unable to bring the foot forward to break his fall, he tumbled over and fell flat on his front, the contents of his tray flying everywhere and clattering to the floor. As Kushanku struggled to heave himself off the floor and gather his things, a cacophony of laughter filled his ears. At this, the Nekomata turned and laid his eyes on the source of the noise, which was the Leopard who had tripped him, and his friends consisting of various Cat types such as Regular Cats, Bobcats, other Leopards, Cheetahs (excluding Sandstorm for these Cheetahs were teenagers with one being a young adult), two Tigers, a Jaguar, a Bakeneko and a couple of Nekomata (not Nyarth, Alexandrite, Paddy, Akira or Satoshi, but two more, and different, Nekomata).

"Well, well, well, if it ain't the disease who likes to go round contaminating other Animals' foods to make them super sick," cackled one of the Nekomata spitefully.

"And the thief who steals things," chortled one of the Cheetahs.

"Not to mention the lure for these nightmarish illusions," added a Bobcat, also called a Lynx. Then the Bakeneko came forward, picked up one of Kushanku's plates with his telekinesis and slammed the plate into the Nekomata's face with it. This pushed Kushanku over the brink of weeping as his eyes oozed tears, so he hastily seized his dropped things, gathered them onto his tray and stood up to escape the group of Feline bullies. Then a Satyr came in, a cross look on his Goat-like face. The Feline group backed away to avoid being scolded but watched on as the Satyr stormed over to Kushanku.

"Kushanku, STOP fooling around," barked the bipedal Goat, "Get up and get your lunch!"

Kushanku obeyed, stood up and bolted for the queue but not before flashing one final tearful gaze at the Leopard and his comrades as they continued uttering snickers before leaving to join one of the other queues themselves. Behind the Feline group, a familiar female form had appeared. At this, hope ignited within Kushanku but when he saw the glare on Alexandrite's face before that glare was yanked from him, that hope was extinguished. When he saw Alexandrite walk into one of the other queues without even flashing him a sympathetic gaze, a horrible feeling made Kushanku flinch as it bit him, and he began to shudder. Was Alexandrite thinking him to be a troublemaker too? Pushing that thought aside, Kushanku joined the queue where he met Satoshi, one of his brothers.

"Everyone's been treating me like I'm some pest these days," said Kushanku in a strangled voice as sobbing threatened to erupt, his eyes were still oozing tears and he was very upset. He had hoped to receive some comfort from his brother but to his dismay, Satoshi only responded with a sour look.

"Satoshi?" asked Kushanku confused. Satoshi at first did not respond and received his meal, the main course from one of the cooks which was a lump of chicken and some potatoes. Then after receiving his dessert and was ready to find a table to eat his lunch, Satoshi shot Kushanku a glare.

"I still haven't forgotten that incident the kitchen, Kushanku," he snapped, "I can see those cooks are still giving me the stink eye as they hand out my food."

At this, Kushanku flashed a look at one of the servers, a Faun, and saw that she bore a glare as she eyed Satoshi and gave him his fruit salad. Then Kushanku snapped his gaze back at Satoshi.

"Wait, are you thinking that I got you into trouble in that area now?" snapped he incredulously, "I-I-I thought you had arrived at the conclusion that that imposter was NOT me!"

Satoshi paused before glaring at his brother again.

"Just leave me alone, Kushanku!" he shouted and with that, he stormed off to find a table, leaving Kushanku to look on, confused and tearful once again. Then after receiving his meal, Kushanku left to find someplace to eat. The dining area was filled with the sounds of various creatures as they ate and talked but as Kushanku walked by, many of them either shot him a foul glare or turned their backs to him when he looked their way. Timidly, Kushanku walked on until his eyes found Alexandrite who sat by herself, eating her lunch. Kushanku then walked over to Alexandrite, his legs feeling like jelly from timidity. Then as he sat down, Kushanku tried to ignite a conversation with Alexandrite.

"This just hasn't been my day lately," muttered Kushanku, hoping to get Alexandrite's attention, "Everyone's been AWFUL to me and think I'm some kind of stinking rat. What's going on?"

However, the only response he got from Alexandrite was silence as she continued eating her lunch and pretended that he wasn't there. Kushanku tried his luck again.

"Kushanku to Alexandrite," he said timidly, "I asked you a question. Why is everyone treating me like this?"

Still Alexandrite didn't respond and kept eating her lunch. Kushanku began to shudder and weep.

"Alexandrite, I-I-I thought we were friends!" he wailed, his voice threatening to break, "Why are you ignoring me?"

At this, Alexandrite snapped, slammed her cutlery down, shot Kushanku a volcanic glare and screeched back.

"Friends!?" she snapped, making Kushanku flinch and back away, "FRIENDS!?"

Kushanku shuddered violently and his hair spiked out but then Alexandrite stood out of her chair and lunged at him. She then slammed her paws into his torso and pushed him away violently, sending Kushanku into a stumble and nearly falling over. Thankfully he had placed his tray onto the table otherwise the contents would have flown everywhere again, this time with food included.

"YOU NEARLY POISONED ME WITH SOMETHING WHILE I WAS TRYING TO EAT THAT PEACHBERRY CAKE IN THE STUDY ROOM A WHILE AGO," shouted Alexandrite at the top of her lungs, her eyes weeping tears and attracting an audience. Kushanku shook his head in confusion and tried to protest but Alexandrite swept on, "If it WASN'T for Kairyu who had spotted you inserting something into that cake, I WOULD HAVE ENDED UP as ANOTHER VICTIM WITH FOOD POISONING! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!?"

Kushanku did not know how to reply to this, but seeing the enraged look on Alexandrite's face as well as the attention the pair was getting for Alexandrite was deliberately making a scene to severely humiliate him, he began to feel the urge to flee. Alexandrite then calmed down.

"Get outa my sight and DON'T EVER come near me again," she snapped and with that, she returned to her table, seized Kushanku's tray and shoved it into his stomach, some of the food spilling onto the floor, "And TAKE THIS TRAY WITH YOU AND SIT SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

Kushanku flinched harshly and began to weep as Alexandrite resumed her table, sat down and resumed eating her meal. Shaking, dumbfounded and distraught at Alexandrite's change of behaviour towards him, and also that of Satoshi and some of the other individuals he called friends including Akira, Sandstorm and Nyarth, his own family, Kushanku slammed down the tray and dashed out of the dining area, some of the diners hurling either scornful laughter, caustic insults or saliva at him in his wake.

Kushanku left the dining area and rushed down the corridor that was crowded with more evacuees walking to the dining area for their lunches. His eyes had begun to ooze tears and his breath was spiralling out of control. He pushed his way past more evacuees, many of which were also hurling insults and mocking laughter at him. Back in the dining room, Alexandrite continued eating but she had begun to feel guilt at yelling at Kushanku well within her. The same was true for Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira and Nyarth and they actually stood up to shoot worried gazes for Kushanku in the crowd. While this happened, Kushanku continued rushing down the corridor, his tears increasing in flow rate from a trickle to a waterfall and the insults launched at him from the other evacuees propelling him into a run but as if things could not get any worse, the Nekomata suddenly found himself face to face with a group of familiar Bird-People, all whose faces were saturated with HIGHLY scornful and mocking glares.

"Oh, lo-o-o-o-ok, he's _crying_ ," crooned one of the Harpies, Lana, mockingly and childishly when she saw the distraught and tearful look on Kushanku's face.

"He must have seen the notes about him," said another Harpy, a male. Titters then rolled through the group. Then before Kushanku could ask, Hala stepped in, a scornful look on his face.

"Everyone has a replica of our notes about you, so everyone knows of your true nature, Two-Tails," crooned Lana's boyfriend. Kushanku flashed each Harpy a confused look.

"Including us," said another female Harpy, Lana's sister Suiren. The others uttered sly murmurs in agreement.

"And you should have seen the reaction of your beloved little brothers, sister and adopted Cheetah brother as well," added Morgana, another female Harpy meanly, "They were ABSOLUTELY repulsed!"

Titters rolled through the group. Kushanku looked on.

"What notes about me?" he asked. At this, Lana's group just exchanged scornful glances and left past the tearful Nekomata.

"Just wait till you see them, Cat," crooned Lana, "And if you want to see them, we've left a replica of them on your bed, in the sleeping quarters."

"Now if you don't mind, we're gonna have lunch with all your former friends, including your beloved little friend… Alexandrite," crooned Hala and with that, he stomped his Bird's foot on Kushanku's foot, making him yelp, seize his foot and hop, his face twisted in pain as he passed the Nekomata, and left with the others while Suiren and another Harpy slapped Kushanku with their wings as they each passed him. Then the group of part-Bird, part-Humanoid creatures left for the dining area, laughing as they went. Kushanku put his foot down, gazed tearfully at them and departed for the sleeping quarters. Kushanku then resumed his tearful journey to the sleeping quarters, a whirlwind of confusion, distress, and other negative emotions consuming him like one, especially as more evacuees hurled more insults and accusations at him as he went past, one of the Nighttime Okuri-Inu yelling at him an accusation of his placing a mousetrap-like device into a drawer near her bed, which nearly, according to her, 'snapped her paw from its wrist when (she) put her paw into it to fetch a comb)' which was why her right paw was in a bandage. She had been in the medical area in order that the mousetrap-like thing can be removed from her paw and the paw itself put in a bandage. Kushanku flinched at each and every insult, mocking laugh and accusation that came his way and continued to the sleeping quarters, moving at a faster pace.

As he approached the sleeping quarters, tears streaming down his cheeks, he picked out the sleeping cell, which was on the ground row, and rushed into it. As he then approached his bed, Kushanku saw some white sheets protruding from under his pillow. At this, and with a horrible feeling at Lana and her group's statements of 'those notes about him' blooming within him like a blizzard from Krampus, the Nekomata seized the notes and began to look through them. However, as Kushanku looked through the notes, he realised that they weren't just writing, but also drawings and those drawings were from a certain Harpy based on the style. When Kushanku gazed at the first picture, he saw a crude drawing of himself, fangs like a Wendigo deliberately drawn into his mouth, bowing prostrate before a crude drawing of Jadis, words in a speech bubble exalting her and blaspheming Aslan. Red ink had also been applied to the drawing of Kushanku's face, paws and tails, intended to resemble blood. Horrified, Kushanku quickly set this page down and looked at the next image. That image was him sitting amongst Jadis's ugly cronies and laughing at Narnians dying and slaughtering each other in the Arena of Death, complete with patches of red intended to resemble blood, like in the event seen on the magical televisions and what some, such as Ahhuayo, had seen with their own eyes. The next image had Kushanku drawn torturing his own family members, including Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira to the Nekomata's utmost horror and distress, while yet the next one consisted a drawing of him uttering derogatory and obscene comments about Gandalf, Kyukon and their helpers as well as another drawing of him standing near Jadis with the two nine-tailed Kitsune turned to stone and some creatures gruesomely killed. This picture depicted him gruesomely covered in blood and laughing evilly. Finally, the last drawings depicted him mocking some of the Narnian's traumatic backstories such as Obsidian's loss of her parents and brother Granite to Krampus during a hunting trip, Guinan the Faun's splitting up of their clan after the death of the patriarch Faun and the woodworkers, the death of Gingerfur intended to be directed at Sandstorm and also Dashiell and Amberpaw in order to make the two's hatred for Kushanku worse, the death of a Bat called Firewing, who was Shadewing the Bat's son, in the previous massacre event, intended to be directed at Shadewing, and also obscene and mocking remarks about Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and their group including Molayne's loss of their families to the Witch when they won the Massacre Event, among other things. As Kushanku finished reading the last note, something within him finally exploded. **('Breathe Me' by Sia starts playing).**

With his paw on his mouth, his eyes oozing more tears and his body trembling, the Nekomata began to break down into a massive sobbing episode as he continued to gaze at the drawings of him doing or saying those obscene things and mocking the highly sensitive backstories of some of the evacuees. Tossing the sheets of paper aside and backing away, Kushanku seized a pillow from his bed and wept into it, collapsing onto his front with his face buried in the pillow. Then he stared at the notes and drawings and sobbed more, before standing up and walking around aimlessly as he began to reply the events in his mind such as Alexandrite's rejection of him, Satoshi's pushing him away, Dashiell's disowning him, and more. Then after a while of this, Kushanku seized one of the sheets of paper and a pen and began to write a note as his mind continued to break down. Sometime later, some of the evacuees, having finished their lunch, were leaving the dining area to go to different parts of the base to relax or study. Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi were also leaving the dining area but they had only eaten half of their meals, the guilt at having pushed Kushanku away having cost them their appetite. After placing their trays containing their cutlery, dirty plates (after throwing away the rest of their meals) and drinking cups onto the pile of other dirty dishes and cutlery for the staff in the kitchen to take and wash, the quintet left the dining area and walked down the corridor past some other evacuees and helpers yet to get their meals. However, they were not going to chill or study, they had another thing on their mind. Alexandrite explained to Kushanku's siblings and adopted Cheetah brother of her behaviour towards the Nekomata while the four told her theirs. They then began to ask around for the last time the evacuees had seen Kushanku. Lana and her Harpy group did not reply and only uttered scornful and obscene remarks about the Nekomata so they were of no use, but a Flying Squirrel told the quintet that he had seen Kushanku apparently leave for the sleeping quarters, so Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi left in that direction. However, as they continued, they saw some evacuees gaze at some sheets of paper and flinch, but because the five were so worried for Kushanku, they did not give those sheets, which were some of the replicas of Lana and her group's obscene and slanderous drawings of Kushanku, any thought for the moment.

Back in the sleeping quarters, Kushanku had finished writing his note and had left it on his bed. Then he tore away in serious tears. Sometime later, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi turned up and began to spread out and look for Kushanku, some going to the upper rows using the levitating platform and others going for the ground-level rows. Satoshi and Alexandrite, having chosen the latter option, had entered the room in which Kushanku and his family slept, and began to search through the beds, hoping Kushanku was in here somewhere. However, as they did that, Satoshi spotted a thin slab of white wood on Kushanku's pillow while Alexandrite saw some of the replica notes of Lana and her Harpy group's drawings. Repulsed, she seized them and tore them up.

"Alexandrite," called Satoshi, pulling Alexandrite's attention to him and the sheet of paper. At this, the pair sat down and began to read it, just as Akira, Nyarth and Sandstorm returned, having heard Satoshi shout Alexandrite's name.

"What have you found, Satoshi?" asked Sandstorm. At this, Satoshi's paw shot out and told him to be quiet as he began to read the note. Meanwhile, Kushanku was running like mad through the corridor, tears streaming down his face and uncontrollable sobs exploding from his throat. He hid behind every nook and cranny he could find to avoid getting spotted by any passing helper and guard before continuing his dash. He passed by one of Bursyamo's underlings, Achamo, but she only gazed after Kushanku and thought that he was running to lunch and thought nothing of it.

During this, Satoshi read the note to Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira.

"'Dear Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira, Satoshi, Alexandrite, Padparadscha (et cetera);

I do not know why everyone keeps treating me this way, shunning me, insulting me and accusing me of these abnormalities that had been going on throughout the base but I have come to the conclusion that everyone HATES me and are better off without me, which is no surprise, because I now HATE myself as well. I don't see any reason…'"

Satoshi, at this, began to weep and falter in his speech, and Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira also began to ooze tears from their eyes, the guilt at shunning Kushanku like pretty much everyone else boiling dangerously within them as Satoshi continued to read the note:

"'…f-f-for living… a-a-a-any more… for I'm also… the possible c-c-cause…'"

While Satoshi continued to tearfully read the note in the sleeping quarters, Kushanku stopped by a protrusion in the corridor wall, sobbing and breathing as his mind continued to break down. Satoshi continued to read the note until he finally reached the end but as he read the last words of Kushanku's note, he flinched and Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira flinched in alarm at what the poor Nekomata was planning to do.

"'So I'm done with everything. Goodbye, everyone… forever.'"

"Alert the elder helpers and Gandalf and Kyukon, NOW!" barked Alexandrite the moment Satoshi had read the last word. At this, all five of them bolted like frightened mice and shot out of the sleeping cell. As this happened, Kushanku continued running down the corridor and wailing and sobbing when he ran into a Deer. The moment he locked tearful eyes with the Deer, the Deer formed a demonically sadistic glare and said, "You know what you have to do, Kushanku."

At this, Kushanku darted off, sobbing, the Deer gazing sadistically after him. However, as he rushed along, he felt a sense of familiarity prick at him about that Deer and her voice. However, the whirlwind of emotions and his mind breaking down snuffed out that tiny hunch like wind blowing out a weak candle flame. All he could think about was the unthinkable, but he was not rushing to the aquatic tank compartment for Kushanku had an altogether very different plan to that of what Obsidian had when she was like this…

Meanwhile, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi were charging like frantic Dogs through the corridor, asking passing creatures if they had seen Kushanku only to receive 'no' for answers much to their distress.

"Where could you be, Kushanku," yelled Alexandrite worriedly. As she said this, Sandstorm spotted a familiar Fire Woman as she glided down the corridor towards them with a clipboard in her fire hands.

"Miss Emberflame!" cried the Cheetah cub and with that, he shot off to meet the Pyro which was indeed Emberflame. Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira immediately followed. The moment the five screeched to a halt before the Pyro, she shook her fire head in surprise at the sudden appearance of the five Cats. Kyukon and Bursyamo also came in, having seen the frantic behaviour of the four young Nekomata and the Cheetah while they had been discussing about the intruder's identity and the struggle to find that intruder.

"Whoa, you five," shouted Emberflame in shock, "Calm down! What's up?"

"It's KUSHANKU," replied Alexandrite, "I think something's TERRIBLY WRONG WITH HIM he-he-he wrote a note now we can't find him and we're REALLY on edge…"

"Whoa, Alexandrite, slow down," said Kyukon.

"You're talking too fast for us to decipher what you're saying," said Bursyamo, "So what are you saying is happening with Kushanku?"

However, nothing could prepare the lead Basan Cockerel, the nine-tailed Kitsune and the Pyro for what Satoshi said next.

"I think Kushanku's gonna do what Obsidian almost did," said the brother of the troubled Nekomata. At this, horror tore through the trio and Kyukon barked at the five to hunt down the Nekomata before he could even go there. Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi nodded rapidly and shot off with Emberflame following. Bursyamo also darted off to alert some of his Basan underlings while Kyukon rushed off, her nine gleaming ivory yellow tails flowing behind her like a massive sheet of hair spread out like a Peacock's train feathers, to call in some helpers.

Kushanku continued his rush down another corridor, sobs and tears flying from his mouth and eyes until his teary eyes landed on a sign pointing to 'exit', one of the hidden entrances and exits to the underground base, and because it was lunch time, the guards will have sealed off the entrances to eat with the other inhabitants of the base. Using this as an opportunity, Kushanku tore off in the direction of the exit, shedding some white hair on the go without even noticing due to his breaking down mind. At this moment, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi continued to hunt down Kushanku, shouting his name and asking various creatures if they had seen him, to which they had replied with 'no'. They then ran into Achamo who was surprised by their hurry.

"Where's Kushanku, have you seen him?" asked Alexandrite. At this, Achamo pointed down the corridor.

"He went running down there but I assumed he was late for lunch so…" said the Basan Hen but the five Cats rushed off in that direction.

"He's NOT late for lunch," retorted Nyarth.

"He's got something else on his mind and he's gonna do what Obsidian almost did but I doubt he's gonna throw himself into the tanks in the aquatic compartment," added Akira. At this, alarm tore through Achamo and she tore after the five Cats, having realised the reason for Kushanku's rush now. The six continued to frantically run down the corridor.

"Kushanku?" called Alexandrite. She then ran into a Deer, the same one who Kushanku had run into.

"Where's Kushanku?" she demanded.

"How should I know? Am I supposed to be his carer?" said the Deer nonchalantly and with that, she darted off. Nyarth flashed a disgusted and suspicious look at the Deer as she left but Achamo shifted his attention back onto the current matter.

"Let's catch Kushanku before he does anything stupid and life-threatening first," she said, to which Nyarth obeyed and the six continued rushing down the corridor. Meanwhile, Emberflame had called together Thundersparx, Milky Way and several other creatures while Kyukon enlisted the help of some of the other helpers of the base when she saw some sheets of paper held by a group of Bears and Elephants as they continued talking obscenely about Kushanku. At this, the nine-tailed Kitsune shot the group a furious glare and demanded that they had over the paper sheets to which the group was hesitant, terrified by the onyx glare from the 900-year-old Fox. At this moment, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira, Achamo, and Satoshi passed by Obsidian who was taking a walk with three Fairy medical assistants.

"Where's Kushanku?" asked Alexandrite.

"Um, I think he's gone down that corridor?" said Obsidian but when she saw the six rush off in that direction, alarm and concern flashed within the Wampus Cat and the three Fairies.

"Sounds like something's wrong," said one of the Fairies.

Kushanku rushed for the exit of the corridor which was sealed off by a large boulder. As he neared that exit, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi and Achamo arrived and found some white hair laying on the floor near the sign saying 'exit'. At this, Satoshi picked up the hair and examined it.

"It's Kushanku's hair," he told the other five. Without answering, those five shot off in the direction with Satoshi following. Kushanku then reached the exit and began to look for a gap between the boulder and the lip of the entrance. When he had found one just wide enough for a small Nekomata kit to squeeze through, he prepared to leave the base.

"I… know what I have to do…" he whispered to himself, his eyes continuously weeping tears and with that, he threw himself into the gap and began to try and squeeze through it, not knowing that there were six pursuers after him and that they were almost near him by now. As Alexandrite and her group neared Kushanku, Sandstorm had broken away from the group to alert any other chasers and guide them down the corridor for he could run faster than the other five. While this happened, Emberflame, together with Thundersparx, some medical assistants, Shadewing the Bat, Bursyamo and now Gandalf as well, were hurrying down the corridors for Bursyamo had transmitted a signal to them having located Kushanku on his mini magical map of the base which projected a 3D map of the construct, through this was rarely used since the base was supposed to be totally hidden and safe. However, these devices had been built at Gandalf's order during the base's construction in the event of an emergency to locate missing members. While all this was happening, Kushanku continued squirming through the gap in an attempt to get outside which was smothered with a massive and freezing blizzard. The blizzard was so cold that it could potentially kill any creature, and most certainly a Pyro, exposed to it without adequate protection. Kushanku continued trying to squeeze through the gap so that he could throw himself in to the blizzard outside when his name reached his ears.

"Kushanku?" called Alexandrite as she continued to rush to the exit with Achamo, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi right behind her when her frantic eyes landed on the legs and split tail of a familiar Nekomata.

"I can't get THROUGH THIS GAP!" cried Kushanku tearfully when suddenly, he felt paws and a pair of wings seize his forked tail and legs and pull him back into his base. At this, the Nekomata erupted into a MASSIVE tantrum and screamed at the grabbers, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Achamo, Akira and Satoshi, as they began to pull him back into the base. Kushanku fought back by kicking and spinning his tails but because he was outmatched in a tug-of-war involving one against five, he was yanked back into the base. The moment he was fully back into the safety of the corridor, he screamed and shouted and writhed in the restraints consisting of four pairs of Nekomata paws and a pair of Basan wings as Alexandrite, Achamo, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi struggled to restrain him. Kushanku's screams and cries reached the ears of Obsidian and the three fairies and they rushed down the corridor upon hearing the commotion. Moments after this quartet had left; Gandalf and company turned up and they plunged down the corridor as well. Alexandrite, Nyarth, Akira, Achamo, and Satoshi continued struggling with the kicking and screaming Kushanku with Achamo seizing some small stones and jamming them as hard as she could into the gap Kushanku had attempted to squeeze out of to prevent the Nekomata from escaping through it again. Seeing that his escape route had been sealed off just as Obsidian and Gandalf's group turned up, Kushanku bellowed at Alexandrite, Nyarth, Achamo, Akira and Satoshi, "WHAT HAVE YOU DOOOOONE!?"

Then Gandalf appeared and gently ushered the five aside as he took over.

"Step aside, you five, I've got it," said the nine-tailed Kitsune and with that, he pulled Kushanku into a tight hug as Kushanku finally entered a MASSIVE meltdown, and stroked him.

"I WANNA DIE!" cried Kushanku as he wept in Gandalf's forelimb embrace. Alexandrite, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi, now with Sandstorm standing with them for he had led Gandalf and company here, looked on trembling with guilt and sadness while Obsidian stood by with her three Fairy counsellors and the team of medics, together with Bursyamo, Shadewing, Emberflame and Thundersparx, stunned at the whole scene. It was indeed a very heart-breaking scene, watching the poor Nekomata who was so confident in the weeping mess and screaming, "I WANNA DIIIIEEEE!" over and over again in Gandalf's embrace. Tears of guilt spilled down Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi's cheeks as they watched the badly traumatised Nekomata as he continued to wail and weep in Gandalf's forelimbs, the Fox continuously issuing him comforting words to calm him down.

 **('Breathe Me' by Sia ends)**

 **Later**

Kushanku lay in a bed under sedation through the administration of a special sedation potion made from a medical plant that had these properties used normally to treat sleep problems, which some of the creatures had been taking to help them sleep due to the troublesome sleepless nights caused by the intruder, but can also be used to sedate severely troubled casualties. Standing around him and his bed were Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi, along with Obsidian, Milky Way, Thundersparx, Shadewing, Desdemona, Cyril (whose wing was now better and he was able to fly again, and he was indeed relieved to be free from the torturing bone-mending process accelerated by the DISGUSTING tasting Fracture-Fix Potion which the Hippogriff hoped to NEVER taste again), Molayne, and the rest of Kushanku's friends. All of them had guilt, confusion and distress boiling within them and Molayne was weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. Not too far away, Nanu the Wolf was looking in, stunned. The scene reminded him of a certain trauma some Narnians went through during his patrolling trips with his family and some of Jadis's other cronies, especially after the Massacre Event, and he flinched at the memories of those other patrol members including his own parents and older siblings laughing at those Narnians either dying of a broken heart or even taking their own lives, unable to cope with the loss of their loved ones in that AWFUL arena as well as the trauma of the gory scenes, and those scenes also made Nanu's stomach lurch. Nearby, Bursyamo and some of his underlings including Achamo were discussing with Gandalf as to who had caused Kushanku to be pushed to a breaking point like that to which Gandalf angrily shrugged and said that he had hoped to find out as soon as possible before anyone else ended up in the same situation. And besides that, growled the Kitsune angrily, this has been TWICE an evacuee had tried taking his or her own life; first with Obsidian in the tanks, and now Kushanku attempting to throw himself into the cold outside to freeze to death.

While Gandalf continued to talk with the little group of Basan, Kushanku's eyes moved and slid open and he moved his head as he woke from his sedation, to the relief of the watchers, for the sedative had begun to wear off.

"Oh, you're awake," said Shadewing with relief and with that, he swallowed Kushanku up in his membranous wings, to Kushanku's surprise. Then Thundersparx took his turn to hug Kushanku and as the Raiju did that, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi backed away for they felt too guilty in giving Kushanku a hug. After all, they were no better than Lana and her group of bullying Harpies for they had been treating him badly as well, but they were relieved that Kushanku was awake and had been saved from throwing himself into the freezing blizzard outside where he would have frozen to death in minutes. Then after the last Talking Animal, Obsidian, had broken the hug with Kushanku, Belle the Mermaid in her legged land form came in.

"Excellent, he's awake," she said with relief.

"You okay, Kushanku?" asked Satoshi timidly as guilt boiled within him. Kushanku gave his brother a weary gaze.

"Yes, but I'm still sleepy," he replied wearily and groggily.

"It's because we gave you some Sleeping Potion," said Belle, "and it's starting to wear off."

Kushanku breathed a sad sigh as Belle turned to Gandalf and Bursyamo and his group as they separated, the former then walking over to the group.

"I don't understand what's going on or what's been happening, Gandalf," said Shadewing, "the entire base has been turned upside down lately with Nanu almost dying from severe poisoning, Ahhuayo still in hysterics…" at this, Gandalf turned to face the Ahuizotl who was asleep but still traumatised from the nightmare illusion the other night. Then a stern and dark look formed on the Kitsune's face.

"Well, I can tell you one thing, we DEFINITELY have an intruder in here," he said to Shadewing, "but it's absolutely NOT Kushanku for we should know full well that he CANNOT do pretty much any of the things like casting highly convincing illusions, and CERTAINLY not poison food such that the eaters end up violently sick, even fatally like Nanu over there (he flashed a glance at the young Wolf), which reminds me…" and with that, he gave Shadewing a deadly, angry look, which sent shivers down the Bat's spine. Behind the Bat, Thundersparx, Obsidian, Milky Way, Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi and the others with them shuddered.

Outside the medical room, Tesseract was walking with a young female Sauropod Dinosaur named Chicory, a concerned look on his face.

"This cannot be happening, Chicory," said the Unicorn in a sombre voice, "Another incident has just been reported, this time with a falling bookshelf almost crushing Alestomeria, one of Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's OWN offspring, to death when she was trying to place a book back onto one of its selves."

"In addition to Kushanku trying to exit the base into dangerous territory rife with FRIGID temperatures that could potentially freeze you to death in minutes if you're not adequately protected from them," added Chicory as she flashed a glance into the medical room and in the direction of a certain Nekomata to which Tesseract nodded in agreement.

"This is UTTERLY acrimonious…" hissed Tesseract when Chicory spotted someone walk in the direction of the medical room. At this, the Sauropod tapped Tesseract on the back with her prehensile tail and the two scuttled to one side of the corridor.

"Looks like someone's in SERIOUS trouble, Tesseract," said Chicory with dread as she examined the facial expressions of the incoming group, which were Ptériga the Sphinx, Cygnus the Swan and his cousin Swomee, Truffula the Tanuki, and Brina the ice Roc, as they approached the medical room. The faces of the feather winged Lion-Humanoid, the two graceful white Water Fowl, the Raccoon-Dog and the Ice Bird were looks of severe thunder and in the clutches of the Sphinx, the Roc and the Raccoon-Dog were sheets of paper while the two Swans carried some sort of device close behind the other three.

"Looks like those five have managed to find the source of those obscene drawings about Kushanku and the magical device used to replicate them multiple times to spread them amongst everyone else as a method of malicious gossip," said the Sauropod warily. Tesseract gazed at the object in the wings of Cygnus and Swomee just as they disappeared into the medical room and saw that it was a copier from the workroom in the library compartment which he had occasionally seen when he went to the library to study. Copiers were magical items in Narnia that served to function like how our world's photocopiers worked, only these copiers were often magically powered, but they worked in the same way as our photocopiers and like them, they needed fresh sheets of paper for the replicated drawings and writing to be projected on to create duplicates of the original work. Gandalf and company had a number of these devices which they had used to produce copies of their work such as Narnia's history to distribute amongst the evacuees and for spare records in the event of the originals getting lost or burned. But it seemed that someone had misused one of them for malicious purposes, and as Chicory and Tesseract remembered, the evacuees' use of the magic copiers without permission was punishable with incarceration in the detention room, but due to how the copier in Cygnus and Swomee's wings had been used, the Sauropod and the Unicorn expected the punishment to be much worse. Nervously, they watched Brina's group enter into the medical compartment and call Gandalf's name.

"Why do you want to have a SERIOUS talk with me, Blaze, Cumulonimbus, Brina and everyone else in that evacuation group, Gandalf?" cried Shadewing incredulously and shakily to which Alexandrite, Nyarth, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi and also Kushanku who was still recovering from the sedative flinched and shuddered. Gandalf was about to angrily reply when he heard his name get called.

"Gandalf," said the voice, a female Sphinx.

"Not now, Ptériga, I'm trying to establish a discussion on a VERY serious matter," said Gandalf but Ptériga insisted.

"But Gandalf, we've found the source of Kushanku's slanderous gossip," she called again. At this, Gandalf issued an "Excuse me" to Shadewing and turned and walked over to Ptériga and her group with Bursyamo and his underlings following. As Gandalf arrived before Ptériga and her group, Swomee and Cygnus placed the used copier, which was lightweight and thus easy to carry, before them while Truffula and Brina placed the piles of the drawings of Kushanku and the notes, the very same notes Kushanku had read in the sleeping quarters, down in front of Gandalf, outraged looks on their faces.

"It seems that someone has been in the copier room without permission from any of us and has used it to make these numerous copies of these HORRIBLE gossip drawings about Kushanku, leading to him nearly throwing himself out into the freezing blizzard through one of the base exits-slash-entrances," said Truffula acrimoniously. Gandalf took one of the drawings and examined them but the moment the nine-tailed Fox laid his onyx eyes on one of them; he flinched violently in revulsion and thought his stomach was going to leap into his chest.

"Do you know who drew these DISGRACEFUL and DISGUSTING pictures and made replicas of them, you five?" demanded Gandalf.

"No but…" began Cygnus but then Ptériga, who had an excellent, as well as photographic, memory, another trait of the Sphinx species besides their telekinesis and fighting skills, and could remember a large amount of information right down to the final detail in the case of some of them, took a bit of time to identify the style of the drawings and the writing. At the door, Tesseract and Chicory peered around the corner.

"I believe this is the work of one of the Harpies, Gandalf," said the Sphinx at last, "specifically that Harpy who had lost her hair flower gift from her boyfriend a while ago, and I believe she was accompanied by her friends when she drew those pictures…"

Shock and horror tore through Tesseract and Chicory wile nearby, a certain Bird-Person shuddered when she heard Ptériga talk about the drawings and who drew them. But what came out of Gandalf's muzzle next sent immense fear coursing through her body.

"Are you meaning to say that Lana and her gang are responsible for these pictures?" asked Gandalf furiously, "Especially since these drawings are not only defacing, but also UTTERLY BLASPEMOUS, ABOMINABLE and so forth!?"

Ptériga, a cross and thunderous look on her Humanoid woman-like face, nodded without hesitation and with certainty. During this, Nyarth left the others to talk with Tesseract and Chicory, having seen the two peering into the medical room. However, he flinched at Gandalf's fury as he then stormed towards the medical room entrance, his nine ivory and metallic yellow tipped tails magnificently flowing like a Peacock's fanned train feathers, indicating his age, maturity and experience, behind him. However, as he left, he issued Bursyamo an order.

"Bursyamo, you get Shadewing and the others who were in Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina's evacuation group to the discussion room while I order a search for Lana and her group," he commanded, to which Bursyamo turned and ordered Shadewing and the others to meet up outside the discussion compartment at the appropriate time. Shadewing timidly nodded to this command while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way only exchanged glances and shrugged. Gandalf then finished with, "And when we find those Harpies, I'm gonna confront them and have them incarcerated in the dungeon compartment for what they have done is UTTERLY CRIMINAL and BEYOND MALICIOUS!"

Then as he ordered Ptériga, Cygnus, Truffula, Swomee and Brina to follow him, Lana flinched violently.

"I don't like the way Mr Gandalf said that… and I CERTAINLY don't like the idea of staying in that dreary… dark… terrifying compartment where Belladonna was supposed to have been held…" said the Harpy quickly and before Gandalf and the others with him could appear from the medical room entrance, she had whirled round, spread her Bird's wings and had bolted into the air like a frightened Eagle. At this, Tesseract and Chicory bolted after her and shouted her name but she had already disappeared down the corridor, moments before Gandalf arrived.

"Have you seen Lana, you two?" demanded the Kitsune to the Sauropod and the Unicorn. At this, Chicory replied with a tail point in the direction of the corridor. Then without hesitation, Gandalf, with Ptériga, Cygnus, Truffula, Swomee and Brina following in his wake, charged off in the direction. Then a moment later, Nyarth arrived, an astonished look on his face.

"Lana was the one who SPREAD THOSE MALICIOUS DRAWINGS about my brother!?" he blurted out.

"It seems like it, according to Mrs Ptériga," said Chicory sadly. Nyarth breathed a sigh and decided to leave.

"But at least Kushanku is okay and… I think I'm gonna go to the training room to practice my jumping and agility skills in a cluttered environment," he murmured and wit that, he trotted off in the direction of the training compartment.

"Well make sure to meet us outside the discussion room, okay?" called Bursyamo as Nyarth left. Nyarth nodded obediently and rushed off as Bursyamo and his underlings also departed to search for the many of the other members who had been part of Kushanku's evacuation group to bring to the discussion room as well, also issuing the order to Tesseract and Chicory who had also been part of the evacuation group before leaving. As the Basan group left, the Unicorn and the Sauropod walked into the medical room to check on Kushanku.

"You know what?" Chicory told Tesseract, "Based on all these mysterious mishaps we've been getting since Belladonna had joined our group which continued until after we had settled in here, I have had that same odd feeling about the intruder's identity."

"Yeah, so have I, Chicory," said Tesseract, "especially since most of these horrible mishaps, some of which had been _immensely_ intense such as Nanu's near-fatal food poisoning and Ahhuayo's illusion scare," the Unicorn flashed a glance in the Wolf and Ahuizotl's direction, "had been occurring after Troodon and his group foolishly released Belladonna from the dungeon, I believe the intruder who is behind these mishaps could be you-know-who…"

And with that, the Unicorn and the Sauropod walked over to Kushanku who was surrounded by Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Thundersparx, Alexandrite, Obsidian and Milky Way and everyone else, while Nanu, who had been listening to Tesseract and Chicory's conversation, shuddered violently and lost control of his breathing as a horrible feeling regarding the intruder's true identity welled within him, and also flashed a timid glance at Ahhuayo who was still stunned from the illusion scare a few days ago. Timidly and shaking violently, he returned to trying to get a nap.


	55. Chapter 54

**Chapter 54- a HORRIBLE… HORRIBLE revelation and a LETHAL mistake realisation**

 **Later**

Shadewing stood with Mensa the Skvader and her son Snowwing, Quill the Hedgehog, Dahlia the Jackalope, Rubyfeather the Parrot and her daughter Crystal, Emberflame, Akira, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Tesseract, Chicory, Faline the Rabbit and her offspring apart from the five that were either still missing or were still in the medical room undergoing treatment for their severe chocolate cake addiction, Ena the Theropod (Troodon's mother), and Webby and Cloudhorn's relatives, and many of the other evacuees including that had been in Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina's group, and those three Elemental Birds were also present. Kushanku will not be attending due to his recent breakdown and will need to stay in the medical room to be looked after and Alexandrite, Trotterhoof, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and Link had been absent when Blaze came to pick up the Green Leaf Towners to guide to Gandalf and his base but Milky Way, Thundersparx and Obsidian will be attending as will Ahhuayo and Nanu now that the pair was well enough to participate in the interrogation with Gandalf and some of his higher ranking helpers such as Bursyamo, and Dashiell and Amberpaw will also not be participating for they had not come on the evacuation journey either. Shadewing and the others stood before the door leading to the discussion room which was a large room dotted with sofa and chair-like constructions and a large table in the centre. This discussion room was where Gandalf and his higher ranking helpers held important discussions and updates but this time, it was going to be used in a serious talk, and Gandalf was soon to turn up with his group. Some of the youngsters were frightfully nervous.

"I knew we may have done something TOTALLY stupid," murmured Tesseract with dread.

"I fear the worst," said Snowwing as he huddled against his mother's side with her comforting him. Blaze just glared at the young Bird-Rabbit and said nothing. Then a thought came into one of the Harpy's heads. This Harpy was not one of the gang led by Lana, and she was furious with the group at what they had done to Kushanku.

"Have you guys heard what punishment Mr Gandalf had bestowed upon that group of stupid hoodlums led by Lana?" she asked.

"Yes," said Cumulonimbus furiously, "Incarceration in the dungeon compartment for their nights and labour in their most DESPISED jobs such as cleaning the stables and barns of the dumb animals of their dung and other waste, the lavatories and other dirty jobs."

"I hope that penalty will teach that brat and her group a BIG IMPORTANT lesson about incorporating references to Jadis and the Massacre Event to slander a victim as well," said Emberflame thunderously, "What they had done is UTTERLY EVIL."

"I couldn't agree more," said another Harpy named Misty who was one of Lana and Suiren's cousins. Although she had thought Kushanku to be a nuisance, she had refused to participate in the evil gossip of the Harpy and her group due to how malicious they were getting, the last straw being her seeing the disgusting drawings of Kushanku before the group entered the copier room without permission to duplicate them and spread them throughout the base. Misty had told Lana, Suiren, Hala and the others in the gang that this was going too far and that they would end up in DEEP trouble with Gandalf and company if they saw those drawings and if they hear that they had used one of the copiers without permission but Lana and company did not listen and went ahead with the scheme anyway, forcing Misty and two other Harpies to break away from the group. Then Misty resumed her attention on preparing for the meeting with Gandalf which was imminent, some of the creatures moaning and groaning timidly and fearing the worst.

While groans continued to roll throughout the crowd, Emberflame had begun to scan the corridor for any sign of a missing Nekomata for only Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm were present.

"Where's Nyarth," she murmured at which Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm exchanged glances and shrugged. While Blaze's evacuees continued to wait outside the door to the discussion room for Gandalf and company, in the training compartment, Nyarth was practicing leaping between the poles built to resemble tree trunks in a forest. As he landed before a tutor, a Capelobo (a humanoid Beast but with the head like an Anteater instead of a Bull like a Minotaur) congratulated him on his progress.

"Your agility's improving, Nyarth," said the Humanoid-Anteater, "Soon you'll be befuddling your opponents big time when you fight them in a cluttered region like a forest."

Nyarth managed a smile as he took the complement but then he flashed a gaze at a clock.

"Oh, _peachberries_ ," the Nekomata and Kushanku's older brother blurted out and darted off for the exit, much to the Capelobo's confusion.

"Nyarth?" called the Capelobo.

"Sorry to cut off our session abruptly, Mr Vermilingua, but I have an important meeting to attend and I have just realised the time," called Nyarth as he rushed off. At this, the Capelobo tutor, Vermilingua nodded in understanding and left to attend to another task. Nyarth sped along the corridor, dodging every obstacle and creature that walked along; issuing those he nearly hit an apology before continuing. Lunch had finished, and everyone was back to their usual daily activities, the guards having returned to the entrances/exits of the base to resume their patrols. However, as Nyarth continued to his rush to the discussion room, he was met with a startling site. As he rushed along, he screeched to a halt and gawked at the form.

"Wha- Kushanku!?" blurted out the Nekomata when he saw the form, which was a metallic powder blue Cat with a forked tail, light grey head and neck and white hair cascading down his head back and sides, walk down a corridor. Kushanku should be back in the medical room and yet he was wandering down this corridor but then suspicion bloomed within Nyarth, and he began to follow the form. The Nekomata began to skulk behind the form as it walked along the corridor, hugging any shadow he could find and hiding behind any obstacle to avoid getting spotted. The Kushanku-like Nekomata ahead of him was doing the same and was avoiding any passing creature, Nyarth doing the same. Then Nyarth continued to follow the Kushanku-like form as it continued walking and sneaking down the corridor, forgetting the fact that he had an important meeting with Gandalf with most of the other evacuees Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina had guided to the base.

Back at the entrance to the discussion room, Emberflame continued scanning the corridor for any sign of Nyarth but to her dismay, he did not show up. Then a male 900-year old Fox's voice reached the group's ears. At this, Emberflame and the others turned and saw Gandalf walk in with some of his highest ranking helpers, among them Bursyamo, Kairyu who was one of the Dragon leaders and was still grieving for Kushanku and all the trouble he had faced and had been wondering about the 'other' Kushanku, the one that had almost poisoned Alexandrite, and some of Gandalf and Kyukon's own older first-generation offspring including Alestromeria despite her still being shaken from almost getting crushed by that falling bookshelf caused by the intruder. Also with Gandalf were Milky Way, Thundersparx, Obsidian and her three Fairy counsellors, and Ahhuayo and Nanu. Then as soon as Gandalf and his group met with Blaze's group, he gave them a pleased smile.

"Well done, you lot," he said, "You have arrived on time as ordered. Now let's enter the discussion room and get this talk on the road."

"Um, Nyarth still hasn't turned up yet," said Emberflame.

"Don't tell us he had forgotten about this meeting," said Akira in slight anger while Satoshi and Sandstorm said nothing. Then Dahlia, Snowwing, Tesseract, Crystal and Chicory saw Nanu and Ahhuayo and were surprised by the pair's presence.

"Oh, you two, especially you Nanu, you're alright," said Dahlia with relief.

"We heard what had happened to you both that night," said Tesseract. Then Milky Way stepped in front of the Ahuizotl and the Wolf.

"They're fine but Ahhuayo's still a bit traumatised from that illusion scare," said the Pegasus. Ahhuayo breathed a sigh.

"And since then, I had been UTTERLY terrified of the dark and walking about in the corridors outside the sleeping quarters alone at night, especially if there is a light on," he said, "even if I'm in the medical room, I'm still petrified…"

"And as for me," interjected Nanu, "I've been refusing every apple offered to me since that ruby red one almost _killed_ me that night after I had become overwhelmed by its super-tempting scent and appearance, fearing that those apples might be extremely toxic as well," the Wolf then shuddered, "I had been too sick to get help while Ahhuayo had been paralyzed when that form petrified him beyond… Oh, I just cannot describe that night. It was TORTUROUS and EXCRUCIATING honestly. My insides, especially my head, HONESTLY felt like they were being burned by an extremely corrosive substance, and if it weren't for that Swan who had found us the following morning, I'd have likely died back then…"

"Both you and Ahhuayo have had an EXTREMELY narrow and fortunate escape," said Bursyamo in a severe voice, "If Swomee hadn't found you sooner like she did, you, Nanu, would have been found dead in that room…"

"And when we tested the remains of that apple and the Swamp Salmon dish which were the only parts of the illusion that were actually real," continued Kairyu, "we found that the food had been laced with an EXTREMELY potent poison capable of causing a slow and extremely painful death of the consumer," the Dragon then turned his gaze to Ahhuayo, "and based on how Nanu was in that state while you weren't which suggested that you had resisted the irresistible appearance and smell of that fish is utterly impressive indeed."

"I'll talk about that when we enter the discussion room," said Ahhuayo at which Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi flashed him a surprised look. As this happened Gandalf had unlocked the door and her opened it and had begun to usher the group inside.

"You've experienced those illusions from someone you know before?" asked Satoshi.

"So have I," said Nanu, "and I heard that one of the Bakeneko had witnessed a similar thing during a visit to a Faun village when I had been a very young pup…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Satoshi. Just then Gandalf called for everyone to enter the room which they did. After the last of the group had entered the room, Gandalf scanned the corridor for any sign of Nyarth.

"If Nyarth turns up late, or not at all, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to talk with him separately," the Kitsune said sternly. With that, he entered the discussion room after some of his highest ranking helpers, his nine tails sweeping behind him and disappearing through the door before it was closed and locked by their owner. Then a sign saying, 'Do Not Disturb, Meeting in Progress' was placed at the hole of the door to warn anyone outside of an important meeting going on within the room.

Once he was inside and had set up the sign, and had sat down in the biggest chair reserved for him, and once all the members of Blaze's group had also sat down around the table and on the sofa-like chairs, Gandalf began to open up the discussion. The Kitsune was very troubled and he looked shaken, his ivory and metallic yellow fur on end and his nine tails were twitchy. He then began to focus on the discussion.

"Thank you all for coming here at my command," said the Kitsune, "As you will know, this discussion is about who you have encountered on your way to here, as well as all the happenings that have been occurring throughout the base since you guys had entered…"

Worried and nervous glances were exchanged amongst the listeners as Gandalf continued. While this happened, Nyarth continued following the Kushanku-like form as it walked down another corridor, keeping out of sight of any passing creatures on the go. Nyarth also sometimes hid behind any objects or wall protrusions to avoid getting spotted, especially as the form whipped round to see who was following it. Nyarth hid behind one of them when the form did that, before turning round and continuing, allowing Nyarth to continue his following of the form. This continued for a few more minutes until the Nekomata disappeared down one of the corridors leading to one of the exits, much to Nyarth's surprise. However, Nyarth suppressed his surprise when he saw the behaviour of the Nekomata and how different it was to Kushanku's behaviour when he tried to throw himself into the blizzard at another exit. The Nekomata was eager and that was the only similarity between it and Kushanku during his attempt to escape, but unlike Kushanku, the Nekomata was abnormally calm and sneaky. Cautiously, Nyarth followed the suspicious Nekomata.

"For the past few nights, Aslan had contacted me in dreams and had sternly told me that we have a wicked intruder in our base," said Gandalf, "and that we need to find that intruder, catch it and deal with it as soon as possible before it does any more damage…"

As these words came out of the Kitsune's muzzle and reached their ears, the members of Blaze's group shuddered. Then Kairyu stood up, a stern look on his face.

"We have been piecing together these horrible mishaps that had been occurring for weeks," said the Dragon, "such as these terrifying illusions with Ahhuayo and Nanu's one being most recent, things mysteriously going missing… sleepless nights… doppelgängers appearing up and down the base such as that of Kushanku… and we have found that these mishaps have…" the Dragon then turned his back, took a few steps away and turned round to face the evacuees of Blaze's group whose nerves were dancing more and more wildly at the heat of the confrontation. Then Kairyu formed a look of seriousness and said, "Been going on since you guys arrived at our base."

At this moment, Nyarth continued following the Nekomata which had arrived at the exit of the tunnel leading to Gandalf's base. The exit, which was also an entrance, was now partially open for the guards of this entrance had returned to their duty, so the outside world was visible. A flurry of bright white snowflakes flooded the entire area of the entrance thought the blizzard had soon died down and Nyarth could hear talking outside. Hiding behind a wall extrusion, Nyarth deduced the owners of the voices.

"The guards," whispered Kushanku's older brother to himself. He had managed to identify Hocico the Capelobo's voice for he had gone to guard this exit/entrance with a few other guards, among them another Sphinx, two Centaurs, an Eagle and two Coyotes. Nyarth then pulled his attention back to the Kushanku-like form and watched intently as it carefully approached the boulder that sealed off the entrance and noticed a change in its behaviour. As Nyarth watched on, the Kushanku-form, its appearance and face obscured by the shadow of the boulder, listened to the guards' conversation while remaining hidden and then reached for its forked tail. Nyarth watched on as the creature then pulled out something from its forked tail which was at first obscured by the shadow of the boulder partly eclipsing the entrance to the base tunnel, which was shaped like a large burrow but it was not the burrow through which Nyarth and the others, under the leadership of Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina had entered. Nyarth looked on and tried to identify the object the creature had pulled from its forked tails until his eyes landed on something just outside the light part of the eclipsed entrance. Nyarth identified it based on its shape and the contents it held.

'A tray holding a bowl with food and some hot drink cups,' thought the Nekomata but when he saw the creature reach out with its arms extended through the hole, Nyarth began to take action but had to abort his plan when the creature retracted into the tunnel to avoid getting spotted. Then moments later and with the Nekomata hiding behind the boulder, Nyarth watched on as a Coyote paw lifted up the cover over the bowl with the other inserting into the bowl and take hold of a piece of food, which was some bread. Nyarth then heard the Coyote distribute the bread amongst the other guards including Hocico while the cups also moved for the guards had taken them to drink their contents, but the Nekomata shuddered, especially as he eyed the Nekomata hiding in the shadow of the boulder. He had not seen the creature do something to the bowl of bread and possibly the drinks as well but he had deduced what the Nekomata had done and as that conclusion popped into his head, he began to shudder, especially as similar food-related incidents came to mind.

Back in the discussion room at this moment, Gandalf was glaring angrily at Blaze's group who were shuddering.

"You have made a LETHAL error during your journey, you lot," he said, "You have taken in someone you shouldn't have taken in…"

During this, back at the cave-like exit/entrance, Nyarth heard the sounds of food being eaten and drinks being gently slurped from their cups, the discussion continuing as though nothing had happened. The conversation continued as, at first, nothing was happening but then moments later, Nyarth heard the sounds of groaning, much to his horror.

"Oh… I feel strange…" said one of the guards, Hocico, "I don't feel well..."

"Neither do I," moaned one of the Coyotes.

"My head feels like… like…" said a Centaur. Then Nyarth saw one of the Horse-Humanoids stagger into the entrance through the hole between the boulder and the cave mouth. The Centaur, which was a female, looked absolutely dazed as though she had been struck hard on the head and as the part Humanoid, Part Horse creature stumbled into the tunnel in Nyarth's direction, the Nekomata creature stuck out a foot and snagged the Centaurette's front Horse's feet on it. The Centaurette, at this, stumbled forward and slammed against the wall but before she could poke a finger at what had tripped her, the unthinkable happened. The Nekomata creature lunged forward and plunged something into her back, much to Nyarth's horror. Nyarth managed to stifle a scream as the Centaurette, her eyes bulging from their sockets and her mouth wide open but emitting no sound went completely rigid. Then the Nekomata creature proceeded to plunge the same something into the Centaurette's Horse-like lower body to ensure its wicked deed. This done, the Nekomata creature darted from her body to outside to deal with the other four guards. Nyarth jumped out from his hiding place and over to the Centaurette as a pool of blood bloomed out from under her and caught hold of her Humanoid body but then the Nekomata heard the sounds of agonised screams explode from outside the entrance, prompting Nyarth to shoot a terrified gaze in the direction of the boulder and tunnel exit/entrance. To his horror, he saw some blood drops land in the white snow as the other six guards including Hocico were savagely attacked. However, Nyarth pulled his attention from the carnage outside and turned to face the Centaurette in his arms.

"Look at me," he begged as the Centaurette struggled to keep her eyes open, "Look at ME!"

The Centaurette wearily and weakly gazed into Nyarth's eyes as her life ebbed away. She only had enough strength to recognise him and issue him a command.

"N-N-N-Ny… arth…" she murmured inaudibly, "G…g… get… Gan… Gandalf…" but before she could finish, her whole body went limp, much to Nyarth's horror. Nyarth could only deduce one thing. Horrified, he gently slid the Centaurette's body onto the floor and, carefully avoiding her blood pooling beneath her on the stone floor, backed away, disbelief at the scene. He then stood there, torn as to whether to rush down the corridor and find Gandalf or any of his helpers or continue to watch the Kushanku-like form to see what its next scheme was. However, because the meeting was underway by now and that he would be barred from being allowed into the discussion room until Gandalf had finished his discussion with the other evacuees under Blaze's care and also because of little time the Nekomata had in devising the next part of whatever heinous scheme it was planning, Nyarth chose the latter option, rushed to the boulder and peered outside. He found the dead and bleeding bodies of the other guards including Hocico, their blood colouring the snow a bright red colour exactly how the blood of the slain Narnians in the Arena of Death at Jadis's place had done to the snowy arena floor. The bread and broken shards of the hot drink cups also lay scattered about the area, the guards having dropped them when the substance the Nekomata had laced their drinks and food had worked its sinister properties on them. Repulsed by the mini carnage scene, Nyarth turned his attention to the Nekomata whose fur was covered in blood, as it glared menacingly at the guards' bodies before walking away in the direction of some trees in the snow.

"During the Yuki-onna incident," continued Gandalf back in the meeting room, "she had _deliberately_ lagged behind to separate some of you from the others and had deliberately abandoned Sandstorm, Satoshi and Kushanku to deal with that Snow Siren alone…"

As Gandalf said this, Satoshi and Sandstorm had a flashback to when they were confronted with Yuki-onna, when they were under the spell of her angelic song before showing her true colours and almost attacked them in her true, demonic form only for Kushanku to appear and drive her away, saving them from death. In that scene, someone had been hiding behind a tree and glaring sadistically at Sandstorm and Satoshi as they were almost gruesomely devoured by Yuki-onna moments before Kushanku lunged at the Snow Siren. Back at the entrance again, Nyarth continued to watch the Nekomata as it approached some trees and called out to someone. Nyarth then carefully crept out into the open air, took Hocico's coat to wrap himself up warm and protect himself from the frigid temperatures while mourning Hocico's dead body in the process and issuing him an apology, and crept over to a rock where he hid. As Nyarth, now wrapped up in the coat, looked out, the Nekomata was met with a group of ugly looking creatures, one of them a floating black cloak with ragged sheets. Nyarth hardened his gaze. He had seen a few of these creatures before and a few of them had come to visit Green Leaf Village to collect the food in including most of Dahlia the Jackalope and her family's indoor grown fruit. Then a conversation between the Kushanku-like Nekomata and the new arrivals started.

At this very moment, Gandalf continued in the discussion room.

"That Eagle Beast incident that occurred before you guys entered our base, just outside the entrance…" said the nine-tailed Kitsune in a serious voice, "That same someone had been absent when that Eagle Beast had attacked but that absent someone had been that Eagle-Beast that had attacked you guys and almost devoured some of you…"

At this, Snowwing shuddered violently as he remembered being plucked like a fly by a pair of monstrous talons and almost eaten by the Eagle Beast. It was clear that the Eagle-Beast hadn't been any Eagle-Beast… it had been someone in disguise. Back once again at the entrance; Nyarth watched the Nekomata as it talked with some ugly creatures but as it did its body suddenly became enveloped in a sinister red light. Nyarth drew in a sharp gasp and inflated his eyes as the shining red form began to change its shape. The forked tail became morphed into a single bulky one, and the Cat's body shape also changed. The Cat also dropped down on all fours and its hair receded into its head and its ears became more pointed. Nyarth examined the ear shape and saw that they were shaped like the ears of a certain creature…

Gandalf continued in the discussion room.

"She had been the one to trick Troodon and the others with him into eating that chocolate cake as a 'reward' for setting her free from her cell in the dungeon compartment, and since then, these mishaps had been happening throughout the base over the past number of weeks, with two of you almost ending your lives…"

Obsidian flinched as Gandalf then went on to explain the doppelgangers, the illusions such as Truffula's hallucination of the terrifying eyes on the beehives, the trees and the flowers and Colress's hallucination of a fiery skull chasing him down the corridor, the incidents including Satoshi's incident in the kitchen and Padparadscha's attacking of the 'Kushanku' form and also Emberflame's attack on the Krampus figure, Lana's head flower going missing, the food incidents…

Back outside, Nyarth continued to watch the red form as its light faded and as the shell vanished, the true identity of the figure was revealed… and it was IMMENSELY jaw-dropping and bloodcurdling. The form walked on four legs, had a bushy tail and to Nyarth's stomach-churning revelation, the four-footed creature had purple-black fur. Nyarth shuddered violently, far more violently than he had ever shuddered in his life. There were two creatures that were doglike and had purple-black fur. Nanu was ruled out for he had defected for one and was inside for another. Furthermore, the purple-black form was more slender than the hulking Nanu… and far… FAR… older. This meant only one thing.

Gandalf had stepped aside to allow Ahhuayo to take over, the audience trembling violently by now. Some had already arrived at the possible conclusion of the identity of the intruder.

"She is the most SADISTIC… BLOODTHIRSTY… EVILLEST… Canid you could EVER meet," he said, before turning to Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way, "And when I first met these three and Trotterhoof's group in that sled with Nanu, I had told them about her and what she is truly like…"

"She's been like that even when she was a young cub," said Gandalf, "and when she had joined Jadis with a number of other creatures she had become MUCH… MUCH… worse…"

"And as I've told Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx here," said Ahhuayo with a nod to the Wampus Cat, the Pegasus and the Raiju respectively, "You ABSOLUTELY do NOT want to meet her…"

The Ahuizotl then stood on the table, an angry look on her face.

"That is why I've been feeling unwell since I've first heard about her potentially wandering in here," he continued, "but the evil of that character does not stop there…"

The audience shuddered all the more as Ahhuayo went on. "She may look innocent, sweet, and pretty on the outside but on the inside, she is an EXTREMELY toxic and potent fruit with virulence like that of a super-disease, and she uses that innocent and sweet appearance and behaviour to fool her targets, to get them to trust her, and to take her under her wing…"

Gandalf nodded in agreement to these facts but the audience shuddered violently all the more and some even felt nauseated. Nanu then stepped in.

"She was also the one responsible for the incident in the Faun village when she took her HORRIBLE looking teddy bear and caused a bloody incident as I've heard from a Bakeneko whose name was Nyaonix…" said the young Wolf to which Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx nodded in agreement.

"And that same individual could be that individual whom we have taken with you into this base," said Blaze. Regret then came over the Phoenix and he began to weep. "I KNEW I shouldn't have let her join us."

The audience continued to shudder.

"Are you meaning to say…" began Shadewing as the other audience members reached the conclusion on the intruder's identity.

Back outside once again at this moment, Nyarth continued to examine the creature as it talked with the group of ugly creatures. He then identified her voice and shuddered with both fury and horror.

The audience back in the discussion room shuddered in disbelief and flabbergast, their eyes agape as they remained pinned on Gandalf and company.

"Not that PURPLE-BLACK FOX who we have TAKEN UNDER OUR WING and BROUGHT HERE!" screeched Shadewing, Crystal, Mensa and some of the others including Farfella the Fairy at the same time. However, the confirmatory look remained on Gandalf's face.

"I'm afraid it's true, you lot," he said, "She's the one who has been behind all these incidences."

The audience said nothing and went completely numb. Some even felt sick and some others also fainted at the revelation.

Back outside, Nyarth continued watching the creature, which was a purple-black Fox and the very same one who had accompanied Blaze's group to Gandalf's base, as she continued talking with the group of ugly creatures which were in fact one of Jadis's patrol groups and unaware that she was being watched, his whole body shuddering with rage and disbelief. Nyarth then prepared to make an appearance and confront the Fox as the patrol group of Jadis's cronies, one of them Pazuzu the Shadow and head of the Shadows, prepared to hand something to the Fox.

They were clearly ecstatic at the Fox's work in finding Gandalf's hidden base.


	56. Chapter 55

**Chapter 55- the true nature of you-know-who**

The discussion room was flooded with the boiling concoction of guilt, regret, outrage, disappointment, disbelief and the like as the evacuees of Blaze's group, as well as those who had been guided by Brina and Cumulonimbus, were severely tortured by these negative feelings and emotions, but most especially guilt. Many were trembling at the revelation of the intruder's identity from Gandalf and his group as well as the lethal error they had made, while many others were violently sick or were in a state of panic as though Narnia was going to swallow them alive. Blaze the Phoenix, Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird and Brina the Ice Roc were especially saturated with pure guilt and had requested to Gandalf that they be fired from their roles as carers and protectors of the evacuees and incarcerated in the dungeon compartment. However, Gandalf had told the three to leave that until they had dealt with the current issue first which was more important. While the guilt continued to boil within the group with some of Gandalf's helpers trying to calm them, Sandstorm violently and furiously swiped a rock on the floor and sent it flying into the wall where it bounced and clattered onto the floor.

"I KNEW we shouldn't have trusted Belladonna in the first place," snarled the infuriated Cheetah cub after he had swiped the rock, "That sly Dog-faced Weasel has caused us UNTOLD amount of damage!"

"She must have been the one who must have driven Kushanku into almost ending his life by coercing some of the other evacuees such as Lana and company into maliciously gossiping about him," muttered Satoshi, "as well as disguise as him to land me in trouble with the cooks in that kitchen. I'm glad Padparadchsa slashed that slime-ball across the face in self-defence when she, in Kushanku's form, attacked her and her group as well as fling Cyril into the wall and break his wing."

"I reckon she's also been the one to push Obsidian into almost ending her life in those tanks in the aquarium room regarding her guilt over losing her parents and brother during a hunting trip as a cub as well," put in Tesseract as the Unicorn stomped out of the door in anger.

"Not to mention the puppetry of that illusion that scared me into a catatonic state for quite some time and had almost killed Nanu with that toxic apple deliberately conjured to resemble a sweet ruby red jewel, which would have been my fate had I not resisted that Swamp Salmon dish likely laced with the same poison," said Ahhuayo nearby with a stern voice and stare, "Like I've said before. Belladonna is a Fox you ABSOLUTELY do NOT want to meet. She's an EXTREMELY BLOODTHIRSTY, BEYOND-SADISTIC and VIRULENT Nogitsune and a mini-Jadis in the making."

Satoshi and Sandstorm shot the Ahuizotl a look, especially when he mentioned the red apple that had severely poisoned Nanu such that he had been slowly and very painfully dying only to be pulled from the brink of death in the nick of time by Swomee and the Poison-Cure Potion. An EXTREMELY toxic apple with a beautiful, glistening, ruby red skin covering… the EXACT description of Belladonna in her behaviour and appearance. And her toxicity had wreaked total havoc throughout the base the moment Troodon and company had foolishly allowed her to escape her cell and her subsequent awarding them with a massive chocolate cake. Nearby, Blaze was wandering about, his wings on the back of his head and his face utterly flustered. He was having a complete meltdown, which was understandable. After all, the wellbeing of Kushanku's group had been his responsibility and he had participated in allowing Belladonna to join the group and enter Gandalf's base, so he was partly responsible for the enormity of the mess as well, and he knew he should have known better and prohibit the evacuees from taking Belladonna under their wing in the first place, but like everyone else, the Phoenix had been fooled by the devilish Fox's sweet, vulnerable and innocent appearance, but Blaze knew that he should have followed his gut and kick Belladonna from the group. Elsewhere in the discussion room, some of the other evacuees were also having a meltdown, a panic attack or were being sick. Shadewing was trembling violently in particular, and was losing control of his breathing as a panic attack was setting in. This panic attack reminded Satoshi, Sandstorm, and also Dahlia, Crystal, Akira and Snowwing of his reaction to the Massacre Event in which his son Firewing was gruesomely slain, the violent imagery on that magical TV screen of the Narnians slaying each other gruesomely to the sickening entertainment of Jadis and her cronies in the most recent one in which Gingerfur, Sandstorm's brother, had died, bringing back a MASSIVE torrent of bad memories of his son's death and his mate's dying of a broken heart, not to mention the disbanding of his roost shortly after that, and Emberflame was clearly troubled, her fire-hands clasped distraughtly over her fire-mouth like many of the other evacuees, and Quill the Hedgehog, Mensa the Skvader and Snowwing's mother and Rubyfeather the Parrot and Crystal's mother, were being violently sick. Panic, guilt and disbelief were indeed churning furiously like a violent blizzard in the discussion room.

While all this was happening, a Centaur appeared at the door and knocked.

"Come," called Gandalf while he was trying to help to calm some of the distraught evacuees of Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina's groups including the three Elemental Birds themselves who were really weeping, their faces buried in their magnificently coloured wings indicating their species (various shades of red and gold for Blaze, the dark purple-black dotted with silver for Cumulonimbus, and the icy blue and white for Brina). The Centaur, who was one of the elderly individuals named Colress, then entered the room.

"I bring a report on Lana and her group after they are caught with the malicious pictures of Kushanku, Gandalf," said the Centaur, his face twisted in a frown, "Lana has confessed to us that she and her Harpy group including her boyfriend Hala had been coerced into promoting that method of malicious gossip by some Faun, which I know is not one of our Fauns or the Fauns of the evacuees."

As he said this, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira immediately guessed who that Faun imposter was. Colress continued. "Furthermore, it seems that Troodon and Faline's Rabbit kit still missing had participated as well, and must have helped the Harpies enter the copier room to replicate those drawings."

"Alright, thanks, Colress, but tell them that it is STILL not an excuse for their maliciousness," said Gandalf firmly as he comforted Faline the Rabbit, Ena the Theropod and their offspring excluding the missing ones, who were utterly distressed. When they heard about Troodon and the missing Rabbit, their anguish only ballooned more and they released wails and continued sobbing, making Gandalf flinch and continue to comfort them while Colress looked on sympathetically. Gandalf then continued, but in a MORE serious and urgent voice, "And also organise an emergency search. That intruder, who we now know to be Belladonna, is still at large and if she is not stopped, then further damage to the base," the look on the nine-tailed Kitsune's face then morphed to one of utter dread, "or even worse, is likely to be imminent."

Colress nodded and set off to carry out the command. Then a thought crossed Emberflame's mind: The missing Nekomata and one of Kushanku's brothers. Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm saw the worried look on the Fire Sprite's face.

"Miss Emberflame," said Satoshi.

"What's troubling you?" asked Akira. Emberflame said nothing at first but when she finally turned to the trio, and also Dahlia, Snowwing and Crystal who also wore equally worried looks on their faces, she said, "Stay here with Gandalf and the others, you six. I'm gonna go and find Nyarth and make sure he's alright. I've a bad feeling about this which I hope isn't true."

Then before any of the six could ask why, the Fire Woman had flown off, her orange flames sweeping out behind her. Satoshi, Sandstorm, Dahlia, Crystal, Akira and Snowwing exchanged worried glances and hoped that Nyarth was alright.

 **Meanwhile**

"Here, Belladonna, take these beacon balls and set them up around the base," said Pazuzu as he handed a bag of crystalline balls that transmitted some form of wave that made things bearing them show up on a special locator screen, a sort of GPS-like device resembling a crystalline rectangle which many of Jadis's cronies possessed and used to track the location of each other via the beacon balls they always carried, to the Fox, whose face was laced with pure sadism and beyond-wicked glee. Belladonna immediately took the bag and snickered triumphantly.

"Her Majesty is GONNA BE so PROUD!" crooned the Fox evilly as she swung the bag of the balls over her back, "She's WANTED to find this base for a LONG TIME and now it's finally HAPPENING! Now we can get started on raiding the base, capturing those two nine-tailed Kitsune and destroying everything within it, including any record about that Lion (bleep), Narnia's true history and the Golden Age Prophecy." She then went on to mention the planned fate of the evacuated Narnians staying within the underground construct, supposed to be a refuge from the Eternal Winter for a number of years before their Exodus to Archenland until the Winter Revolution, at the hands of the Witch and her cronies once they were captured and brought to her, some of the planned fates being too disgusting and disturbing to describe. From behind the rock, Nyarth, who was covered in Hocico's coat for warmth, continued to watch on, flinching harshly at Belladonna's description of the planned fates of the Narnians like a severe and extremely painful electrical jolt.

"Now you distribute those beacon balls around the base while we leave to alert Her Majesty," said one of Pazuzu's accompaniers, a very creepy faceless Humanoid creature with long, lanky limbs and dressed in some form of black suit, called a Slender-Man and based on its height for Slender-Men grew very tall, the average height of the males being around three times the height of a full grown Faun when they reached adulthood, it was an adolescent. Though not as violent or as bloodthirsty as many of the other species under Jadis's leadership, Slender-Men were known for stalking their victims at night and terrifying them with their appearance, and they also posed as spies for the White Witch, their snow-white faceless heads, limbs and black suits camouflaging them against the shadowy, snowy forests, especially at night, and were part of the Secret Police force. However, like every other crony of Jadis, the Slender-Men still loved the corrupt Massacre Event and everything else immoral.

Near the young Slender-Man, a Xenojaw and a group of Goblin-like creatures with bone-white skinned faces, bulging eyes and devilish, red-lipped toothy smiles spanning the entire widths of their faces, looked on gleefully. These creatures were called Killer Ghouls, and were a species of Horror who ABSOLUTELY loved killing their victims, often involving blood splatter, as a sickening hobby, which was also one of Belladonna's disgusting thrills.

"And make sure that you alert Her Highness of that STUPID young Wolf's attitude towards her and his defection as well," said Belladonna to which Pazuzu put up a cloaked arm.

"She already knows, Bella," said the lead Shadow, "We already know. We don't need to remind Her Majesty again."

The Slender-Man youngster then began to quiver. And although Slender-Men were faceless and absolutely lacked eyes and a mouth, they could still see and talk.

"But you SHOULD have seen Her Majesty after the conversation with that young Wolf had ended, honestly," said the faceless, ghostly figure with long, lanky arms and legs, "Her outburst was absolutely NOTHING like we had EVER seen before. She practically DECIMATED an entire room into a destruction site."

"Yes, we had to keep out of her way until she calmed down," said one of the bone-white faced Killer Ghouls, "That young Wolf pup certainly has crossed the line."

"In MORE ways than one," snarled Belladonna in agreement, "Believe me, when I get hold of him once again, I'm gonna…" and then a torrent of the VILEST and GORIEST of descriptions of her plans came out of her mouth, prompting Nyarth, who was spying on the group to cover his ears to block out the toxic and caustic music. Not only was Belladonna LETHAL in her behaviour but she was also VILE in her language as well. Then she remembered something.

"Mind you, having said that, I thought and really hoped he was gonna die when I successfully tempted him with that EXTREMELY toxic apple disguised as a beautiful ruby red jewel-like fruit I had conjured up with my food making potion when I lured him and that Ahuizotl maggot with my highly convincing illusion of a tea party," continued Belladonna evilly, "which he had successfully eaten. That Ahuizotl, however, refused to eat the highly toxic but attractive and appetizing Swamp Salmon I had also conjured up from my food-making potion so I simply gave him a MASSIVE scare instead in order to teach him a lesson about blaspheming our one true Goddess of Narnia AND mention the name of that Lion (bleep)…"

Nyarth, when he heard this this, shuddered with fury.

"She was definitely the one behind that tea party illusion and was the one who had poisoned Nanu with that apple and almost Ahhuayo with that fish but had resorted to scaring him into that catatonic state instead the other night," he murmured under his breath as this confirmation hit him. That confirmation certainly did come straight from the horse's… or rather, the Nogitsune's… mouth. Belladonna had indeed been the one behind the tea party illusion and the attempted murder of Nanu and Ahhuayo's severe scare that night. Belladonna then went on to describe, with titters interspersed in her speech, how she had almost driven a certain Nekomata she had detested the most into almost throwing himself out into a blizzard when everyone turned against him; how that Wampus Cat had almost drowning herself in that tank due of the guilt of the deaths of her family at the clutches of Krampus and his minions she had felt; and how a certain young Faun girl, her cousin and her uncle had lost their clan due to the fright she had given the woodworkers by casting an illusion onto her demonic teddy bear to cause the gory chain reaction resulting in the deaths of so many of them including the patriarch of the clan. As these words, interspersed with titters as though these things were hilarious, Nyarth continued to tremble with rage, grit his teeth and puff out his fur. Then Belladonna turned round and led Pazuzu and company to the bodies of Hocico and the other guards she had slaughtered with no sliver of remorse whatsoever.

"But for now, let's celebrate;" said Belladonna as she gazed sickeningly at the bodies of the guards, "I feel a celebratory lunch coming on."

"Her Majesty is gonna reward you HANDSOMELY when she finds out that you have managed to find Gandalf and Kyukon's base after our apparent fruitless search and Her Majesty's constant impatience and temper tantrums for so long," said the Xenojaw who trotted alongside her, "She could make you her second-in-command and leader over ALL the Secret Police force, patrol groups and spies under her power."

"After all," said the Slender-Man adolescent, "You were one of her best students in her magic lessons and came out on top all the time."

The others in Pazuzu's group nodded to the compliment in agreement, which Belladonna took with immense relish.

"And I can't wait to see the reaction of Her Majesty when she hears the news," she crooned, "and I sure hope to become a nine-tailed Kitsune under her leadership in seven centuries time."

"How about being captured by Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon and put to death there and then, you, double Dog-faced, deadly nightshade Fox?" growled a voice, promting Belladonna and her friends to stop in their tracks. Then the group turned to the growler's owner and to their surprise, they were met with a bipedal Tabby Cat with puffed out black, brown and red striped fur splattered with metallic grey patches and a forked tail, and a THUNDEROUS look on his face, the most thunderous one he had ever borne in his life, as he strode from behind the rock and shed his cloak.

"Nyarth," said Belladonna in a sweet, thrilled voice as she attempted to cover up her true nature with a sweet personality, "What a nice surprise."

However, Nyarth saw straight through the façade and was not fooled this time. Glaring thunderously at Pazuzu, the Slender-Man, Killer Ghouls and the Xenojaw and then back at Belladonna with the bag of beacon balls, Nyarth began to tremble violently with rage, his fury threatened to explode like a highly pressurised steam kettle with no outlet to relieve the pressure.

"So, YOU are the one who was behind all those incidents including my brother's near taking his own life, eh?" snarled the Nekomata volcanically. At this, Belladonna melted away her cute personality and allowed the true nature of a demonic, psychotic and bloodthirsty Nogitsune that she truly was, to show itself to Nyarth while Pazuzu and the others in the little group of Jadis's spies released sniggers of mockery at the Nekomata's boldness.

"Heh, foolish fork-tailed kitty," scoffed Pazuzu as Nyarth stopped before the group, before gesturing to Belladonna, "Don't you know this sweet Kitsune? She's one of Her Majesty's top students in her training lessons."

"And possibly soon-to-be second-in-command over all of us now that your little hiding place is found," put in the Slender-Man mockingly. Because he had no face, he bobbed his head up and down as an expression of his triumphant, evil happiness and glee. Slender-Men always used head and arm movements to convey their emotions due to having no eyes or mouth. When they were enraged, or were threatening someone, they would hunch over, and rock their upper bodies and spread their lanky arms in a threatening manner, and when they were scared, they would shiver. Nyarth, however, was not amused by the mockery. Ignoring the creepy faceless Humanoid, the Nekomata addressed the fiendish purple-black furred Fox.

"I KNEW you weren't who you said you were," he continued, "Mrs Kyukon was RIGHT! You're a SICKENING imposter who pretends to be nice to hide her lethal and true nature."

"Don't be surprised, fork-tailed Feline Rat," said the Slender-Man firmly, his faceless head hunched and his long arms spread out and hanging down to show his threatening posture, "Kitsune are known for being tricksters and sly creatures."

"That's right," said Belladonna in agreement, "And I'm the very definition of a tricky Kitsune."

Nyarth continued to tremble with rage especially as Pazuzu, the Killer Ghouls and the Xenojaw laughed at him. Kitsune? Belladonna was no Kitsune. She, and the other magical Foxes like her who had fallen for Jadis's side, was the COMPLETE opposite and were called Nogitsune. Then Nyarth began to try and reason with Belladonna to see if there was any sliver of care within her.

"What about Troodon the Theropod… Webby the Platypus… Cloudhorn the Alicorn… and those five Rabbit kits whom you have given that chocolate cake after they had released you from the dungeon compartment?" said the Nekomata in a more pleading voice, "They're your friends, aren't they? You said so yourself."

But any sliver of guilt Nyarth expected from Belladonna was completely vanquished, especially as Nyarth saw the Nogitsune's muzzle widen into a demonic smile.

"What you mean that bipedal Lizard slug, the Duck-billed (bleep), the horned Pegasus worm and those six Rats with big ears?" said the Fox nonchalantly, to the draining of the colour of the skin under Nyarth's tabby fur, "Well, they're worthless dirt worms who have helped me ever so much." The Nogitsune then glared at Nyarth evilly, "And so have you lot. You have been a great help to Her Majesty in finding the hidden base we had been so sought after, and now it is time to award you in the most handsome way possible."

Belladonna's companions including Pazuzu smiled widely as she said this. At this, Nyarth flinched in utter flabbergast.

"Are you meaning to say you've actually TRICKED US!?" he blurted out, "Wh-when we first met you, you had that injured paw and told us that you were escaping from Krampus…"

"As I've said before, Cat-face," said Belladonna, "Us Kitsune are tricky creatures."

Nyarth trembled as Belladonna went on to explain.

"When I first saw you lot follow that red Firebird, I sensed that something was going on, so I took a wood shard and deliberately cut my paw as badly as I could so that I can appear as an injured Fox so that you can take sympathy on me and take me under my wing. I wasn't really fleeing from Krampus, but I do remember watching him and his minions kill and consume that six-legged Wampus Cat worm's brother and parents while they were out on a hunting trip, which I enjoyed very much…"

Nyarth stood there, dumbfounded as Belladonna giggled about the demise of the parents and brother of a certain Wampus Cat he knew. But then it all made sense to him. When Belladonna first met the group, she really hadn't been fleeing from Krampus and had cut herself during her escape. She had cut her paw DELIBERATELY and had made up that story to get Blaze's group to believe her, take sympathy on her and take her in. Belladonna continued.

"Now that Gandalf and Kyukon's base is no longer a secret," chortled the Nogitsune wickedly, "It is time to let our Goddess know. Gandalf and Kyukon will be captured and turned to stone, and the records they had collected on Narnia's history, that Kitty (bleep) with the hair problems and the Golden Age Prophecy will be destroyed. As for the Narnians captured during the process," Belldonna's face then morphed into a more demonic, sly, sadistic look, like that of an evil snake, "I'm sure Her Majesty will have them as ideal playmates for her followers such as the Satyrs."

"I am NOT gonna have that wicked White Witch make immoral toys out of ANYONE in Mr Gandalf's base!" snarled Nyarth in retort.

"That's HER MAJESTY to you, Nyarth," retorted Belladonna furiously while Pazuzu and the others looked on, outraged at what Nyarth had called Jadis who they viewed as their master and goddess of the highlands. Then the Slender-Man tipped his faceless head to one side.

"Nyarth?" he whispered.

"Must be that Nekomata Rat's name," said one of the Killer Ghouls. Nyarth continued.

"Oh, yeah, Her Majesty, eh?" he retorted sarcastically, "She certainly is Her Majesty alright; she's Her Majesty the White Witch and Queen of ALL things disgusting and no different from dumb animal dung," Nyarth pushed it further, his sarcastic, mocking face morphing into one of acidic scorn and rancour, "In other words, she's Queen of the flies."

Belladonna was about to retort and as she did so, she raised a paw but Nyarth swept on, "And YOU are now different, Deadly Nightshade. I guess you aren't called Belladonna for nothing…" Nyarth then turned his back on the Fox and took a few steps away before returning his disgusted glare at the Fox. "You're twisted… you're essentially Jadis in Nogitsune form… YOU are the reason my brother Kushanku almost took his own life because everyone doubted him and assumed he was a spy for Jadis when it was IN FACT YOU…"

"Oh, you mean that good-for-nothing (bleep) and that scrawny, useless brother of yours?" crooned Belladonna in reply, "It sure was funny watching him almost take his own life, amongst other things that I had caused to happen in that base, such as another of your brothers getting into trouble when I forced him into tipping over that vat of soup in the kitchen…"

Nyarth trembled with fury again as Belladonna continued on, her sadistic nature taking over once again. "And HOW I wished… WISHED… that he had actually landed in that lake of SCALDING hot liquid… it would have been utterly funny seeing him get badly burned, but then I had to flee…" Belladonna's face then morphed into a look of fury, "but then that Nekomata and that sister of Kushanku's little friend slashed me across the face during my escape from the kitchen. Oh, I sure hope to get hold of her and…" then a graphic, violent description snaked out of the evil Fox's mouth as she threatened what she would like to do to Padparadscha, the one who had clawed her across the face during her escaped from the kitchen after she had knocked the vat of soup onto the floor and land Satoshi, one of Nyarth's brothers, into trouble. That did it as something within Nyarth snapped. Not wanting to listen to the Nogitsune's caustic music any longer, the Nekomata lunged at Belladonna, raised a paw and with all his might brought it down onto the Nogitsune's face. Pazuzu and the others with him flinched at the sound of paw against Fox cheek and as Belladonna was thrown to the side by the force of the blow. Nyarth then looked on without a sliver of remorse and his face blazing like a raging fire. His fur was completely puffed out and he was quivering violently. Belladonna then shot Nyarth a volcanic glare of her own and placed a paw to her face where Nyarth had struck.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time since you started treating Kushanku like dirt, (bleep)," hissed Nyarth with no sympathy and with scorn, "Especially now that I know that you're a murderer… a SADIST… an IMPOSTER… and I can't WAIT to have Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon and everyone else to see who you TRULY are… the EVIL… VILE… TOXIC… DEADLY NIGHTSHADE of a Fox who had caused us weeks of UTMOST MISERY… HATRED, especially towards my brother… and OTHER THINGS…"

Belladonna glared daggers at Nyarth as he swept on.

"You may look like a beautiful and innocent little Fox… angelic and cherubic even…" said he in a mock charmed voice, before his voice became saturated with pure rage once again, "but you just like Jadis… you're honestly UTTERLY ROTTEN like a _decaying_ carcass to the core on the inside… and you're also an EXTREMELY virulent disease with behaviour like one, and you have left most of the base in a state of infection like a body damaged by that disease, as well as a potent pollutant to a pristine pond or air above a pristine forest resulting in trees wilting…" Nyarth then put his paws on his hips, a posture known as akimbo, "and I wish we'd never met… in fact I wish none of the other Narnians had never met you in the first place… certainly not any so-called friend you had while you were at your master's castle enjoying seeing victims in extreme pain and, gorily killing themselves and each other and torturing them for the fun of it. and I can't WAIT for Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon to get their paws on you," Nyarth's face then morphed into one of scorn, "And believe me… aren't they gonna be FURIOUS…"

"Well, if YOU really insist on turning me in, Cat-face," snapped Belladonna, "Then hold my fruit juice! I'M NOT gonna surrender without a FIGHT!"

As this, Nyarth, the desire for revenge for what Belladonna had almost done to Kushanku and everyone else in the base igniting within him, agreed and with that, the Fox and the Nekomata began to circle each other. Pazuzu, the Slender-Man, the Killer-Ghouls and the Xenojaw then gathered round to watch. As the pair continued to circle, Nyarth growled, "I KNEW you were trouble when you first stepped into our group, but then, the blame is on us because WE are, after all the ones that took you into our group in the first place because you posed as a vulnerable and badly injured Fox, completely unaware of your true, TOXIC nature," Nyarth then shuddered with outrage, "And I tell you something, Deadly Nightshade… You're ONE… FILTHY… SLIMY… rotting and overwhelmingly stinking decayed carcase as WELL as a virulent microbe,"

"Well thank you, I'll take that as a compliment," said Belladonna with a smile but then her aggression returned, "But enough palaver and LET'S GET THIS OVER WITH!"

"You're on, rotting-meat Fox!" snapped Nyarth, "I'm gonna SCORE MY CLAWS through your FILTHY PURPLE-BLACK HIDE!"

Belladonna said nothing and continued circling with Nyarth, aggressive growls emanating through her gritted teeth and her reddening eyes locking daggers with Nyarth whose gritted teeth filtered a low and extremely aggressive hiss. As the two continued to circle, Pazuzu flashed a gaze into the tunnel leading to the base.

"Don't be too long, Belladonna," said the lead Shadow, "Gandalf's minions might show up any moment."

"We'll keep watch," said one of the female Killer Ghouls and with that, she and a male Killer Ghoul, and the Slender-Man went and took up watch into the tunnel, poised to slaughter anyone that might appear but they knew they wouldn't have a chance against the stronger helpers of Gandalf and Kyukon and certainly not the two nine-tailed Foxes themselves for they had exceptionally powerful telekinesis and deadly foxfire that can fatally blacken anyone, even inorganic non-corporeal beings like a Shadow, with one blast. Belladonna and Nyarth continued to circle until finally, Nyarth lunged at Belladonna like a pouncing Tiger, his claws flared and his mouth emitting a piercing screech but before he could plunge his claws into his opponent, the Fox, an evil smirk under her muzzle, flashed her eyes a bright orange colour and darted away. As Belladonna did that, a replica of her was left behind and Nyarth plunged right into it, thinking it to be the real Fox. However, the Nekomata phased right through the Fox figure, which was a decoy and crashed into the snow face first at the foot of a tree trunk. At this, Nyarth shook his head to rid his face of the snow and also spat out more snow that had entered his mouth and shot the Belladonna figure a look. To his surprise, the figure had faded.

"HAH! Nice try, two-tailed Ferret face," cackled a wicked Witch-like voice, pulling Nyarth to the speaker, the REAL Belladonna who stood with Pazuzu and the Xenojaw, the two snickering at Nyarth's crash, "I guess you've forgotten that I can cast illusions and fool my enemies which is especially useful in combat!"

Nyarth shot Belladonna a volcanic glare, stood up and leaped onto the tree trunk. Then with a mighty thrust of his legs, he launched himself from the tree trunk and soared like an arrow fired from a bow towards Belladonna. However, the Fox, together with Pazuzu and the Xenojaw, all jumped to one side as Nyarth shot past before he landed on another tree trunk. Then Nyarth began to dart from tree to tree like an adroit monkey, faster and faster, much to the astonishment of Pazuzu, the Xenojaw, the Slender-Man and the Killer Ghouls.

"That Nekomata sure is fast and agile, Bella," said Pazuzu in shock as he struggled to keep his gaze up with Nyarth as he sped up his jumping, "I remember having to deal with another Nekomata rebel that had the same agility as him only to be confounded and attacked."

Belladonna did not reply and just stared straight ahead as though she hadn't heard the Shadow speak.

"Belladonna?" asked the Slender-Man curiously as to why she was ignoring Pazuzu. Nyarth continued leaping from tree to tree and as soon as he was sure that Belladonna's group was confounded enough and seeing that Belladonna was looking ahead, he leapt onto a tree trunk directly behind the Fox and soared towards her, his claws flared out and poised for attacking once he had landed on the Fox. However, unexpectedly, Belladonna whirled round and before Nyarth knew it, he was stopped in his tracks and enclosed in an aqua blue aura, the characteristic of a telekinetic grasp. Nyarth, as he levitated in the air mid-jump, shot Belladonna a stunned look and saw that the Fox's eyes were enclosed in an aqua blue glow for she was using her telekinesis on the Nekomata, and in those aqua blue eyes was scorn and mockery.

"Nice try, fork-tailed maggot but even your agility is not enough to fool me," tittered Belladonna evilly and with that, she thrusted Nyarth mentally back towards the tree he had leaped from and with all her mental might slammed the Nekomata into the trunk. Nyarth twisted his face as the force of the impact drew the breath out of him and jarred his insides and skeleton from the spine. Then the Nekomata slid down to the foot of the tree as soon as Belladonna had released her mental grip on him, the aqua blue aura disappearing from her eyes and around Nyarth. As Nyarth struggled to his feet, the pain in his back hindering his progress, he slowly glared at Belladonna as she released a cackle at his futile attempts to attack her.

"This is only the beginning, kitty-Cat," crooned the Fox as Pazuzu and the others got into position to form a small audience to watch the battle. Then as Nyarth, anger consuming him like the fire of a Pyro or Phoenix once again and propelling him to his feet and sending him rushing towards Belladonna, the determination to slash and claw the Fox into a pulp for tricking him and everyone else and causing the mighty messes in the base such as nearly driving Kushanku to ending his life eclipsing his logical thinking, Belladonna began to continue the fight with a song.

 **Note: the song is Bad Romance by Lady GaGa which I feel has a suitable ring for expressing Belladonna's true nature as she will sing it herself**

Belladonna: Waaah-waaah, wa-wa-wah! (circles with Nyarth once again), wa-wah, wa-wa-wah! Naaah-naaah, na-na-naaaah! I'm an eeee-vil foxy! (the beat causes Pazuzu and group to start clapping and using sticks to generate percussion for the beat)

(Nyareth shudders with rage and continues to circle with Belladonna as she continues singing)

Belladonna: Waaah-waaah, wa-wa-wah! Wa-wah, wa-wa-wah! Naaah-naaah, na-na-naaaah! I'm an eeee-vil foxy!

(Nyarth leaps at Belladonna but she dodges, telekinetically seizes a rock and throws it at Nyarth, hitting him square in the face with it the moment he looks up).

Belladonna: I may be sweet… I may be cute… (dodges another attack from Nyarth and jumps to one side) I may even be a che-ru-bic gal but I am EEVIL… (Nyarth leaps at her again but she raises a paw and swipes him across the face, sending him flying to one side and into a heap in the snow) Na…na… na… I AM evil! (Pazuzu and company continue the beat with the sticks on trees and clapping, smirks at the scene)

(Nyarth recovers and glares daggers with Belladonna as she continues to scorn him. He then lunges at her, flares his claws and tries to slash Belladonna across the face but Belladonna raises a paw and catches his paw, gripping it hard).

Belladonna (glares directly into Nyarth's eyes): I am beaut-i-ful, and also gor-geous… but I'm also EX-TREME-LY toxic, I AM evil (spits into Nyarth's face and twists his paw brutally, causing him pain and making him screech)… Na…na… na… I AM evil! (releases Nyarth's paw and he catches it with his other paw, a pained look on his face)

Belladonna (jumps over to Nyarth and trots around him, evil, sadistic glare at him, sings in low, growling, sinister voice): you think I am cutesy… you think I am pretty… that's true but I am a bad… BAD foxy!

(Nyarth glares at Belladonna and jumps at her once again but she raises a paw and swipes him again to knock him down)

Belladonna: I AM pretty and I AM evil, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy (swipes Nyarth again before firing a telekinetic grasp onto a nearby rock and mentally lifting it, enclosing it in an aqua blue aura) I AM pretty and I AM evil, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy… OO-OO-OOO-OOO-OOOOOH… OO-OOO-OO-OOOH (throws rock at Nyarth with telekinesis and smashing it on his head before releasing it as bits of rock scatter onto the snow around the Nekomata)… I am a BAD foxy!

(Nyarth, dazed, struggles to his feet, a paw on the back of his head where the rock had hit)

Belladonna: Waaah-waaah, wa-wa-wah! (trots around Nyarth and shoots another glare at some more rocks), wa-wah, wa-wa-wah! Naaah-naaah, na-na-naaaah! I'm an eeee-vil foxy!

(Nyarth charges towards Belladonna but she flashes a light in her eyes again, this time with an orange colour, the aura projecting onto the rocks of her choice)

Belladonna: I am a SICKO, I'm DEADLY NIGHT-SHADE… 'cos I'm such a sweetie at first but then I'm a poison, I am EVIL! (casts illusion at rocks and transforms them into demonic monsters right in front of Nyarth, scaring him outright. Nyarth, frightened, turns tail and runs in the opposite direction but Belladonna casts a demonic-looking illusion onto some trees and turns them into extremely frightening, grotesque figures to frighten Nyarth all the more) Na…na… na… I AM evil!

(Nyarth tries to flee but he is face to face with Belladonna once again)

Belladonna: I am a PSYCHO, I AM a DISEASE (encloses herself in a red shell and changes shape to turn into a demonic-faced Squirrel with Wendigo-like fangs)… such a DISEASE with EXTREME VIR-RU-LENCE (chases after Nyarth in squirrel form) I am EVIL… Na…na… na… I AM evil! (Pazuzu and group who continue with percussive beat on trees and claps: Na…na… na… you ARE evil!)

(Nyarth accelerates his speed but the Squirrel leaps from the snow and lands right on his back, knocking him forward onto his front in the snow)

Belladonna (in Squirrel form glares at Nyarth upside down from the top of his head): you think I am cutesy… you think I am pretty… that's true but I am a bad… BAD foxy! (Nyarth utters terrified whimpers as he then tries to get Belladonna off his head)

Belladonna (hangs onto Nyarth's head hair as he writhes): I AM pretty and I AM evil, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy (descends to Nyarth's shoulder as he continues to writhe to get her off himself) I AM pretty and I AM evil, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy… OO-OO-OOO-OOO-OOOOOH… OO-OOO-OO-OOOH (proceeds to sink her teeth into Nyarth's shoulder as hard as she could, drawing blood and causing Nyarth to scream in agony, much to Belladonna's relish) I am a BAD foxy!

(Nyarth continues to scream, seizes Belladonna's Squirrel tail and throws her off of him before seizing his bleeding shoulder, his face twisted in agony. Belladonna looks on wickedly still in her Squirrel form)

Belladonna: Waaah-waaah, wa-wa-wah! wa-wah, wa-wa-wah! Naaah-naaah, na-na-naaaah! I'm an eeee-vil foxy!

(Belladonna transforms back into her Fox form and then telekinetically levitates some snowballs into the air and projects her illusion casting ability onto them to create an illusory image of Jadis on them before telekinetically forcing Nyarth, his shoulder extremely painful and still bleeding, into bowing to the illusory figure)

Belladonna: That's right, Nee-yarth my boy, good Cat, bow down to the Goddess… That's right, Nee-yarth my boy, good Cat, bow down to the Goddess… (Nyarth struggles in Belladonna's mental grasp as he is held prostrate position before the Jadis illusion and feels EXTREMELY humiliated. Then Belladonna releases him and does away with the Jadis illusion and drops the snowballs)

Belladonna: (as Nyarth struggles to his feet, his wounded shoulder causing him pain, saunters towards him): I am e-e-evil, I am to-o-oxic, I am e-e-evil, and I am to-o-oxic… (glares EXTREMELY demonically at Nyarth; her voice raising in rancorous tone), and I despise Aslan… and I despise Aslan… YES THAT FURBALL… and I DESPISE HIS TEACHINGS…

Pazuzu and group: You're a BAD FOXY!

Belladonna: AN EVIL FOXY… (transforms into squirrel form and lunges at Nyarth once again)

Belladonna (while attacking and biting Nyarth): I AM pretty and I AM evil, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy… I AM pretty and I AM EEE-VIL, yes I am… I am a BAD foxy… OO-OO-OOO-OOO-OOOOOH… OO-OOO-OO-OOOH

Then as Belladonna's song came to a close, she went on to torture Nyarth in her Squirrel form, causing him to erupt into a screaming and writhing friendly as she proceeded to plunge her Wendigo-like teeth into his flesh to inflict more and more wounds on him. In addition, she also cast illusions at various objects in the surroundings and tortured Nyarth psychologically with demonic imagery, scaring him into submission, much to Belladonna's sickening delight. As she relished his screams sadistically, Belladonna cackled.

"JUST LIKE IN THE FIGHTING LEAGUE WHEN THOSE NARNIANS SLAUGHTERED EACH OTHER WITH ALL THAT BLOOD!" she wailed like a Banshee and with that, she bit hard into Nyarth's forked tail and caused him to scream in utmost agony. Pazuzu and his group as they finished playing the percussive beat to Belladonna's song also relished the Nekomata's agony. Then after another while of this, Belladonna transformed back into her Fox form and threw Nyarth hard against the side of the cave entrance to Gandalf's base, causing him to slam into the rocky surface and slide onto the snowy floor into a heap, bleeding bite marks marking his body and causing him a lot of agony. Belladonna looked on as Nyarth let loose wails and agonised cries from his injuries.

"Let's call that my thankyou gift for taking me under your wing and showing me Gandalf's base, (bleep)!" she crooned, Pazuzu and his group clapping for their friend at defeating the Nekomata. Nyarth then slowly looked up at Belladonna, his face twisted with the most agonised look he had ever harboured in his life but then Belladonna sauntered towards him, a look of pure sadism plastering her face.

"I still haven't finished with you yet, Cat," crooned the wicked Nogitsune in an evil whisper, and with that, she raised a paw and aimed it at Nyarth. At first, Nyarth thought Belladonna was going to levitate him telekinetically into the air and possibly throw him against a tree again to deal more damage to him but Belladonna had another, FAR MORE sinister and sadistic idea in her mind.

"I'm sorry, Nyarth, but I just can't help myself," she crooned in a pleasurable whisper and with that, her eyes flashed yellow, similar to how Gandalf and Kyukon's eyes flashed yellow when they utilised the ability that was exclusive to Kitsune, and also Nogitsune, and ONLY to them. However, Belladonna's variation of the ability was FAR more sinister and she ALWAYS used it for sadistic and torturous purposes. Then before Nyarth could wonder what Belladonna meant about 'not helping herself' his body suddenly felt like it was being pierced by a thousand hot knives, fire-like electric sparks dancing all over him accompanied by a sinister buzzing noise as Belladonna enclosed him in an excruciating bear trap of her foxfire. Nyarth let loose an EXTREMELY loud and PIERCING scream and began to thrash and writhe uncontrollably like a fish struggling in a net, the foxfire sparks flashing up and down his limbs, head, forked tail, and torso, his bite marks also still weeping blood and screaming in agony, adding to the pain. As the Nekomata continued to scream like he had never screamed before and convulse violently, Belladonna's mouth widened into a more and more sadistic smile as she relished every second of her victim's agony.

It was indescribable torture for Nyarth at the clutches of the ultra-sadistic Belladonna's foxfire. Every bone and organ in his body felt like it was being twisted and dissolved in hot acid while his head felt like it was about to explode, and his skin felt like it was being lanced and impaled by the thousand hot knives. The EXTREME agony was practically torturing poor Nyarth both inside and out, and he wanted it to end right now, even pass out just to escape the EXTREME caustic acid that was coursing through his body, but Belladonna did not want to stop for she loved seeing victims in extreme agony. While she continued to torture Nyarth and make him thrash like a convulsing fish, she called to Pazuzu, the Slender-Man, the Xenojaw and the Killer Ghouls, "Prepare the bodies of the guards I had killed. I fancy some lunch after that battle."

Pazuzu and the others nodded and went to see to the bodies of the guards slain by Belladonna including Hocico the Capelobo while Belladonna continued to torture Nyarth and also scare him by flashing demonic ghost-face-like illusions to also torture him mentally. The group then moved out of the sight of the entrance to Gandalf's base, now left unguarded, to avoid getting spotted by the other inhabitants.

Then after a while and after Belladonna and company had finished their sickening meal (which I will not describe), Pazuzu gave her a hug and commanded his comrades, the Slender-Man, the Killer Ghouls and the Xenojaw and they all returned to their sled, leaving Belladonna with the severely tortured and catatonic Nyarth, his wounds half-healed, and the bag of beacon balls Pazuzu had given to Belladonna. Then the evil immoral creatures departed ways with Pazuzu and company leaving to return to Jadis's castle with the good news and Belladonna returning to the base with the beacon balls and the severely tortured Nyarth.


	57. Chapter 56

**Chapter 56- horrifying discoveries and regrets**

Emberflame continued to hastily glide like a Humanoid fireball down the corridors, shouting for Nyarth's name and asking passing creatures if they had seen him, only to receive a 'no' from them, much to her flustered chagrin. Distraught, the Pyro continued her frantic search for Kushanku's older brother. As she continued to glide along, she ran into Vermilingua, the Capelobo who had been supervising Nyarth during his most recent training session. At this, Emberflame frantically asked the Capelobo if he had seen Nyarth.

"I thought he had left the training compartment to meet with Gandalf with the other evacuees of Blaze's group about the intruder," replied Vermilingua until he noticed the distressed look on the Fire Sprite's fiery face "Is there a problem?"

"Yes, and a VERY serious one," said Emberflame before she glided off to continue her search, "And no he has not turned up for the meeting but I believe he may have landed in trouble."

Then before Vermilingua could ask another question, the Fire Woman had disappeared down the corridor. Worry for Nyarth taking hold of him, Vermilingua rushed off to find Gandalf.

 **In the medical compartment**

Kushanku was now fully awake, the sedative effects of the sleeping potion having worn off. As he sat up in his bed, Alexandrite looked on with relief when she saw that the Nekomata was now fully awake.

"Oh, brilliant," said Alexandrite gladly, "The sedative has fully worn off."

And with that, she went to hug him but Kushanku backed away, not wanting to receive a hug from her. At this, Alexandrite aborted the hug and gazed at the Nekomata as he then turned his face, which was saturated with sadness and resentment at her treatment of him, away in the opposite direction. Alexandrite looked on, guilt and regret resurfacing at how she had treated him taking hold of her once again to the point of causing tears of those two welling within her eyes. As this happened, Trotterhoof, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and Link came over and gazed at Alexandrite as she began to weep again. Then a wave of guilt struck Trotterhoof.

"I just cannot believe he would attempt to throw himself out to outside to possibly expose himself to the cold or get eaten by a predatory dumb beast or worse," said the Pig regretfully to which Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and Link, guilt also gripping the latter four, nodded in agreement. Alexandrite continued trying to apologise to Kushanku over and over again and more desperately but the only response she got from him was silence and his head back with his white hair cascading down it remained turned to her. Trotterhoof then slowly walked up to her.

"I'm afraid he's too upset with you to accept your apology at the moment, Alex," said the Pig with a nudge of his snout against her paw. Alexandrite, at this, flashed the upset Kushanku one last regretful look and followed Trotterhoof back to the group. Then Padparadscha "Paddy" formed a thunderous look on her face.

"I believe this was the intruder's doing," she growled, her fur of various shades of orange and pink bristling like a Porcupine's spines.

"How can you tell, Paddy?" asked Cyril, "We still don't know of the intruder's identity yet and Mr Gandalf and company might still be talking about it and figuring it out."

"Haven't you not seen the look on that Kushanku-like impersonator's face, Cyril?" asked Paddy with a disagreeing frown, "That face resembled the face of the Rabbit that had almost taken Lwaxana's necklace back in the training compartment… demonic and UTTERLY evil, just like the White Witch's face. It was obvious that that Nekomata WASN'T Kushanku…" as she said this, she gazed back at the still-upset Kushanku in his medical bed as a Fairy nurse came to check on him and his recovery from the sedative effects of the Sleeping Potion, "But having said that, that impersonator's resemblance to him was so convincing that even some of us close to him had been fooled," her glare then snapped to Alexandrite who flinched, "including you, Alex, when your peachberry cake slice was poisoned and Mr Kairyu caught that Nekomata in the act, and according to him, the face on that fork-tailed cat impersonator bore the same demonic and sadistic look as the creature that had attacked me and knocked Cyril into the wall while escaping from the kitchen after spilling that soup vat…"

This caused Alexandrite to flinch again and rush off into a corner as her guilt reached boiling point. Molayne looked on with sadness as the Nekomata then broke down hard; her paws over her eyes and the tears flowing like a massive waterfall along with the sobs.

"I'm in the same burrow, Paddy," said the silvery grey Dog with sadness, "In fact you could even say that I'm no better than my cousin Soran and his family when they turned their backs on the suffering Narnians… I've treated Kushanku badly as well," Molayne then shook his head, "In fact, I should be put on the same level of evil as that Fox Ahhuayo was talking about during our journey to here. Oh, I hope she's not the…"

However, before the Puppy could finish, the frantic pattering of paws reached the group's ears.

"Mr Trotterhoof, Paddy, Alexandrite, Molayne, Link, Cyril, Desdemona!" cried a familiar voice. At this, Trotterhoof looked up and saw three familiar forms, two young Nekomata and a Cheetah cub, rush in with a familiar bright yellow and blue Wolf-Cat right behind them. As Satoshi, Sandstorm, Thundersparx and Akira screeched to a stop, Trotterhoof went to calm down the franticness of the quartet. Alexandrite, her eyes tearstained, then returned and joined the group after spotting the quartet's arrival.

"Whoa, no need to be frantic, you four," said the Pig, "What's the problem?"

"I'm afraid there's no room for calmness, Trotterhoof," said Thundersparx.

"You are gonna seriously FREAK OUT when we say this," said Sandstorm.

"We don't know how to say it so we're just gonna say it," said Akira. Then Satoshi stepped forward as Trotterhoof and company braced for the disturbing revelation. Around the medical room and outside its entrance, Kushanku, his Fairy nurse, and a group of familiar Harpies under the supervision of a Centaurette, a Dragon and one of Kairyu's underlings, two Elves, and Alphard the Satyr who were guiding these badly misbehaved Bird-People to the room to clean the facilities, all stopped their activities and turned to hear Satoshi as he prepared to blurt out the revelation on the intruder's identity, and believe me, nothing could prepare them for what Satoshi said next.

"The intruder is Belladonna," shouted Satoshi so that everyone can hear. A massive shockwave of immense flabbergast course through the entire medical room. All the patients in the medical beds including Kushanku sat bolt upright while some of the medical carers flinched with some of them dropping whatever they had. Alexandrite let loose a piercing scream while Trotterhoof, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and Link released shouts of immense disbelief.

"It CAN'T BE!" barked Molayne.

"Are you SERIOUS!" squawked Desdemona. Thundersparx, a serious look on his face, stepped forward.

"We are, and it is the exact same Fox whom Ahhuayo was trying to remember," said the Raiju, before his gaze travelled to Kushanku as he sat in his bed gazing at the group in utmost shock, "and because of that Nogitsune's manipulation with her illusion casting and shapeshifting powers, she has played all of us for fools and set HIM up time and time again by taking on his form and making him look like a serious troublemaker involved in the variety of incidences such as the kitchen incident and the variety of other incidences resulting in various creatures getting hurt or even almost killed."

Thundersparx's mane flashed with sparks of electricity as he said this as rage burned through him. Trotterhoof, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and Link all stood there and gazed back at Kushanku speechlessly while Alexandrite released another loud wail of anguish and rushed off somewhere to enter another volcanic eruption of sobbing and weeping. Molayne felt his stomach lurch violently and he thought he was going to be sick while Desdemona swayed and formed a nauseated look on her face. It was clear that the Griffin chick was going to faint imminently. While everyone in the medical room continued to stand stock still and gaze at Satoshi and the other three in utter disbelief; Lana and her group flinched.

"BELLADONNA!?" screeched Hala. Then a MASSIVE rogue wave of guilt washed over him and the other Harpies and they felt even worse.

"We should have known from the start," said Suiren, Lana's sister, in the deepest regret she had ever harboured. Lana then began to shake violently.

"We've treated Kushanku like animal dung… even going as far as to call him a crony of Jadis and a lover of Narnians suffering and slaying each other in the Arena of Death as well as draw and replicate those pictures of him doing those things," said the Harpy in an edgy voice.

"Not to mention portray him as poking fun at some of the other creatures who have had traumatic backgrounds like Guinan and the loss of her clan patriarch and Mr Shadewing and the loss of his son Firewing in a previous Massacre Event," said another Harpy, Morgana. At this, Alphard the Satyr stepped in, his arms crossed and an unsurprised look on his face, the Centaurette, the Dragon and the two Elves all wearing the same facial expressions with their arms also crossed for they were in agreement with him.

"You SHOULD feel bad, you lot," the bipedal Goat said firmly, "and you WILL pay this penalty as ordered by Gandalf and Kyukon. YOU are to continue the jobs in cleaning the facilities, the lavatories and the dishes in the kitchen after EACH AND EVERY meal and will continue to sleep in the dungeon compartment for as long as Gandalf decides."

Lana and her group including her boyfriend Hala and sister Suiren all flinched and began to weep uncontrollably. They were indeed sorry for sending Kushanku over the edge but now the revelation of the intruder being Belladonna had made their guilt even worse. It was like having strong acid poured over a fresh and exposed wound and because their guilt was boiling so uncontrollably, the Harpies had entered a severe sobbing breakdown, prompting Alphard and his group to take them to one side to allow them to release the pressure before continuing for they could not work like this. As the Harpies continued to sob hard, Lana, Suiren and Hala's ears picked up the sounds of scorn and mockery of a certain Nekomata. At this, the couple, tears spewing in enormous amounts from their eyes, looked up and saw a familiar Nighttime Okuri-Inu with her paw in a cast, obviously the same one who had suffered having a mousetrap-like device trapping her paw, believed initially to have been placed in her drawer by Kushanku because of the intruder, as she chatted with some other Canids such as a few Dogs similar to Molayne, a couple of Wolves who were not like the Wolves on Jadis's side, a Coyote, a Fox (regular Fox) and a young Kitsune cub (NOT Belladonna for this Kitsune was red with metallic red patches smattered over her fur and was thus a descendant of Gandalf and Kyukon, and she also only had one tail which signified her age).

"I heard Amberpaw in the detention room say that if Kushanku DID successfully take his own life, she wouldn't cry," said one of the Dogs without a sliver of sympathy.

"Why should she?" asked the Okuri-Inu, "That Nekomata drives us crazy and freaks everyone out."

When the three Harpies heard this, hot rage burned through them; bristling their hair and feathers and making their bodies shudder.

"Oh, you STUPID, WRETCHED Werewolf, Midnight-Blue," snarled Hala despite the urge to sob threatening to overtake him only to be pushed back by anger, "You stupid, _wretched_ Werewolf."

The Nighttime Okuri-Inu who was in fact a very, VERY dark blue Werewolf-like creature with silver star-like marks thrown over her near-black pelt and a moon-like patch on her chest and was a female named Midnight-Blue based on the colour of her fur, then entered a laughing fit. Standing upright, Hala proceeded to storm over to the Okuri-Inu, the intention of giving her a piece of his mind taking hold with Lana and Suiren joining him but then the Dragon stepped in and blocked their path.

"Where do you think you're going, you three?" asked the Reptile who was a female.

"That Werewolf if mocking Kushanku, Miss Miniryu," said Hala and before the Dragon named Miniryu could protest; he, Suiren and Lana stormed past her and strode over to Midnight-Blue and her group as they continued tittering. The Canids' laughter was abruptly cut short when they saw the presence of three Harpies, the same trio who had distributed the obscene and slanderous pictures of Kushanku in the first place with their group, stand before them; their wing-hands akimbo. Behind the trio, Alphard and the others glared at the scene.

"Don't you realise we're as bad as Belladonna who is now revealed to be the trouble-causing intruder in this base, Midnight-Blue?" asked Hala at which Midnight-Blue and her friends replied with nothing. Seeing that the Canid group was unmoved in their spite for Kushanku, Lana carried on.

"Belladonna has played us ALL for fools, has manipulated us and caused a MASSIVE amount of trouble and yet YOU still insist on despising him when in fact it should be that FOX who should be loathed?" she said, before volcanic rage against Belladonna sent her into the threat of erupting into an outburst. "Oh, if that FOX WERE HERE RIGHT NOW, I'm GONNA…" then a torrent of caustic and gory threats erupted from Lana's mouth much to the horror of Midnight-Blue and her comrades and the Kitsune cub shuddered and backed away behind one of the Wolves. Then Alphard stepped in.

"Lana, let me see to this," said the Satyr and with that, he ordered Lana and her boyfriend and sister back to the other Harpies with Miniryu following. As they returned to the group with Alphard taking over the confrontation with Midnight-Blue and company, Morgana gazed at Kushanku in the medical room as the group entered into it.

"I would like to do the exact same thing to that Fox for manipulating us into causing Kushanku a lot of trouble when I see her as well, Lana," she said. Lana was about to reply when one of the Elves interrupted.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question, Harpies," said the Elf, "Now let's get back to work. You've had your break so let's resume."

Lana and her group breathed sad sighs and resumed their cleaning tasks.

 **Meanwhile**

"Nyarth!" cried Emberflame frantically as she glided like a fireball down another corridor, "Nyarth, where did you go?"

The Pyro then stopped to a hover and noticed light, OUTSIDE light that is, glowing at the end of one of the corridors. Alarmed, Emberflame charged down the tunnel and towards the white light until the large rock that was supposed to seal off the entrance when the guards were absent melted into view, along with the entrance to the cave and one of the secret corridors to Gandalf's underground base. However, the Pyro was in for a horrifying shock and it was not just the exposure to the outside with the Witch's winter curse hanging in the air and its lethality to Pyros and other fire-based creatures like Fire Bakeneko (who, unlike organic Bakeneko were a breed of Pyros who always took the form of a Cat). As she arrived at the partially sealed entrance, Emberflame slowed to a stop, drew in a breath and screamed like she had never screamed before as her fire-eyes had found something completely disturbing. The Pyro's screams echoed off the walls, travelled down the corridor and reached the ears of a passing Centaur who stood to attention in alarm. Back at the partially sealed entrance, Emberflame continued to hover there, her fiery body trembling and her fire-hands clasped over her fiery mouth as she gazed at whatever had sent her into a frightened scream.

Lying before the Pyro was a part-Horse, part-Humanoid creature, her body pressed against the cave wall and her arms and Horse's legs splayed out on the floor. Her eyes were like glassy stones, lifeless and Emberflame had also noticed a large patch of dried red liquid blooming out from under the Centaurette's body, obviously indicative that she had bled out from severe stab wounds Emberflame had noticed on the Horse-Humanoid's back and the back of her Horse's body. As she continued to gaze at the carcass in utter horror, Emberflame's fire eyes picked out something scattered in front of boulder partly closing the entrance. At this, Emberflame pulled her gaze from the Centaurette's body to the spot and found some hairs. Shakily, the Pyro descended towards the floor and examined the hairs closely. To her utmost dismay, these hairs were brown and black striped, like that of a Tabby Cat, alongside some metallic hairs which appeared to be grey. There were only two Cats that had tabby fur strewn with metallic grey patches, and Emberflame immediately ruled out Satoshi for he had been present at Gandalf's meeting. There was only one other Cat that had a pelt of the colours of those hairs and Emberflame shuddered as thoughts for him and his wellbeing churned within her mind. Pulling her gaze from the shed hairs, Emberflame went to examine outside, knowing that she will have to retreat back inside in a few moments due to the winter spell and its deteriorating effects on Fire Beings such as a Pyro. As Emberflame left for outside, the sounds of Horse's hooves on stone echoed from down the gullet of the cave and increased in loudness. The Centaur who had heard Emberflame's screams of horror, then arrived, a worried look on his face.

"Emberflame?" he called. However his eyes soon found the dead Centaurette sprawled out on the cave floor and pressed against the cave wall on a large pool of dried red liquid. Horrified, the Centaur dropped his spear he had been carrying and darted over to the Centaurette, seizing her Humanoid's body in his arms and lifting her carefully to check her injuries and her pulse. As he did that, a Fire Woman returned, but her state was almost completely altered, but it was not from being exposed to the wintery cursed air.

"Emberflame?" asked the Centaur but when he saw that the Pyro was trembling violently, her flames shuddering and her fire face in extreme fright mode as though she had seen a ghost, or something much more disturbing, concern flashed within the Centaur. However, Emberflame had managed to form words.

"W-w-we… must a-a-a-alert… G-G-Gandalf at once…" said the Pyro shakily. Then Centaur then formed a frown on his face as he held the deceased Centaurette in his arms, having finally arrived at that conclusion based on the glass-like appearance of her eyes, colour of her Humanoid skin, and the horrible injuries she had sustained on her back, both on her Humanoid and her Horse's body.

"Also send some of the other Centaurs and Fauns for I cannot carry this Centaurette away from the entrance myself," he commanded. Emberflame, after regaining her composure from examining the massacre scene outside (which was so disturbing I will not describe it, but Emberflame had also seen a few more hairs; this time, _purple-black_ ones scattered in the snow outside), nodded and flew off like a fireball while the Centaur began to make some effort in dragging the Centurette's body away from the entrance.

 **Later**

While the news about the intruder's identity continued to spread like a swarm of migrating locusts through the base with many of the inhabitants having been thrown into a panic and fearing the worst, a certain young Theropod and a Rabbit kit were skulking the shadows and running from one hiding spot to the next, avoiding detection by the patrollers such as a Moon Viscacha, two Alicanto birds and a female Curupira, indicated by her hair being bright orange for female Curupira had variuous shades of orange for their hair colour while the males' hair colour was various shades of red, as they walked and talked along, one of the Alicanto narrowly spotting Troodon as his tail disappeared behind a crate. Assuming nothing suspicious, the gold-feathered Bird resumed his talk with his friend, the Moon Rabbit and the Elf whose legs and feet resembled a cross between that of a Bird and a Humanoid with the feet turned backwards. Troodon peered out from behind the crate at the quartet as they walked on and breathed a sigh of relief. Then the Rabbit kit whispered to him to get his attention. Once Troodon shot the Rabbit a gaze, the Rabbit beckoned him with a paw wave and pointed into a hole in the wall, a hole leading to the ventilation system. Troodon quickly scurried over to the Rabbit and together, the duo entered the rectangular tube, the Rabbit placing the ventilation grate back over the hole.

The little fleet-footed Dinosaur and the Rabbit continued to scurry down the system when they heard a familiar female voice. Their ears tracing the voice's owner, the pair headed off in the direction of the vocaliser's location. Troodon and the Rabbit continued and continued until they finally met up with a familiar purple-black Fox who greeted them as though nothing had happened.

"Ah, Belladonna," said Troodon with relief, "I thought we lost you."

"Where have you been all this time?" said the Rabbit. Belladonna formed a small smile and shrugged.

"Ah, just been hiding from the prying eyes of those patrollers of that nine-tailed Kitsune couple's base," she said (in a fake-friendly and honeyed voice to disguise her true nature from Troodon and the Rabbit kit at first). Troodon and the Rabbit kit then formed small smiles on their muzzles as the former then began to speak.

"We were able to get a LOT of the evacuees to reject that fork-tailed Ferret Kushanku which almost led him into leaving the base," said the bipedal Bird-like Reptile spitefully.

"Inclosing helping some of the Harpies replicate their drawings of him in the copier room," said the Rabbit. Belladonna's smile widened into a wicked one.

"That's good, you two," she said, "I also helped things along. I'm glad that Nekomata (bleep) has been taught a lesson in making me look like an evil idiot when I'm in fact not."

Troodon and the Rabbit kit shared a fist bump and turned to face Belladonna, hopeful looks on their faces.

"Now can we have more of the chocolate cake treat that you promised us before you went into hiding?" asked the pair together before their eyes inflated into puppy-dog looks, "PLEEEEAAAASE?"

Belladonna gazed at the pair and their inflated cute eyes for a minute.

"I'm afraid it's gonna have to wait a bit, you two," she said, much to the disappointment of Troodon and the Rabbit kit and they began to practically beg her and press her, rather like two little kids pestering their parents for some fancy toy that they desired.

"Oh, PLEASE Belladonna, GOVE US some more CHOCCY CAKE," cried Troodon and with that, he began to grovel before Belladonna's front feet. The Rabbit kit did the same.

"You DID promise us that you would give us some more of that DELICIOUS treat when we freed you, didn't you?" said the pair together. Belladonna continued to gaze at the pair for another while until she turned down their grovelling again, much to the utmost despair of Troodon and the Rabbit kit for their minds were saturated with the desire to sample more of the richest… chocolatiest cake they had EVER sampled in their lives. It was then that Troodon and the Rabbit kit heard the sounds of groaning. At this, the pair stopped and began to listen. More groans emanated and they were coming from behind Belladonna and soon, Troodon and the Rabbit had traced the noises to the source. At this, and despite the urge to sample more of the cake boiling within their minds, the pair stopped grovelling and stood up to look behind Belladonna. Belladonna, at this, tipped her head to one side and followed Troodon and the Rabbit's gaze. That was then Troodon and the Rabbit kit spotted a black silhouette of a Cat-shaped form sprawled out on the floor of the ventilation tunnel in front of some sort of glow ball Belladonna had stolen to use as a torch/flashlight to help her navigate through the darkness of the ventilation system where she had spent most of her time since Troodon and company had set her free from the dungeon compartment, and that Cat figure was emitting groans. At first, Troodon and the Rabbit thought it was Kushanku but when they saw that the Cat had shiny grey patches on his body instead of the icy powder blue like what Kushanku had, they realised that it could not be Kushanku. Furthermore, the Cat's voice slightly differed from that of Kushanku's as identified by the Rabbit kit's keen hearing. As recognition took hold, Troodon and the Rabbit rushed past Belladonna and went to the Cat despite Belladonna's protests.

"Um… you two," said Belladonna but the pair was already by the side of the groaning Cat. Troodon seized the glow orb and held it near the Cat's face to get a better look at his facial features. To his horror, he realised that it was familiar and that it was not Kushanku, but one of his _brothers_. The Rabbit kit also flinched in horror.

"Nyarth!?" said the big-eared Talking Animal kit in shock. The Cat, which was in fact a Nekomata, slowly and agonisingly lifted his head and eyed Troodon and the Rabbit kit, his face twisted in immense agony, the MOST intense agony the Theropod Dinosaur and the Rabbit kit had ever seen. Troodon then went to examine Nyarth's body but when he saw what was dotting his body, he flinched and dropped the light orb. Belladonna rushed in, seized the light orb and shoved the pair away from the battered Nyarth whop was clearly in bad shape and a LOT of pain.

"Get away from him you two," demanded the Fox. Troodon shot the Fox a disbelieving look.

"What have you DONE TO HIM!?" he cried. As Troodon fired this question at Belladonna, the Rabbit kit felt his back foot land on something soft. At this, he turned and eyed what his foot had touched. Belladonna stopped, gazed at Troodon and turned and eyed Nyarth with a remorseless and icy cold glare, as cold as Jadis's winter curse ravaging Narnia aboveground.

"What have I done to him?" she said dryly and without a SINGLE sliver of sympathy as she glared at the agonised Nekomata, "I… taught him a lesson because he crashed into me while I was darting from one wall to the next to enter the next tunnel of the ventilation system, but he's not your concern…"

"What are these?" asked the Rabbit kit, one of his paws holding up some sort of bag and the other a pair of icy white balls whose metallic sheen was like that of a Wendigo's menacing eyes. Belladonna, at this, darted towards the kit, seized the two balls and shoved them back into the bag.

"Don't TOUCH THOSE!" she barked as she moved the bag away from the curious kit. Troodon looked on, having got a glimpse of the balls but then he felt familiarity prick at him. When he had been a very young Theropod, only a few months old, he had seen one of these balls accidentally left behind by a group of visiting Wolpertingers and had played with it. However, Ena his mother had taken it from him and had rebuked him.

"Please give us some more chocolate cake," begged the Rabbit kit as Belladonna hid the bag of balls away from him. Troodon then played the next scene of the memory in his kind. In that scene, Ena was explaining to him and his siblings about the ball he had found and how the Queen's servants used them to keep track of each other using special screens that picked up the transmissions of those balls, even within enclosed spaces such as a burrow or a house. As this explanation played out in his mind, as well as the Queen now being known as the Witch with her servants being her cronies, and his witnessing of the two balls in the Rabbit kit's paws just a few seconds ago, Troodon flinched violently as he deduced what the balls were and their function.

"Look, I said LATER!" shouted Belladonna in annoyance as the Rabbit kit continued to pester her for more chocolate cake, her paws clutching a sack bulging with countless spherical objects. Troodon then glared at the sack in Belladonna's paws.

"Um, Belladonna," said the Theropod nervously, pulling Belladonna's attention from the Rabbit kit to him. As this happened, Nyarth slowly raised his head and excruciatingly gazed at the Theropod and the Rabbit kit. Concern for the pair flashed within the Nekomata and he knew he had to warn them of Belladonna's true nature. However, he was too weak and in too much pain from his half-healed wounds he had sustained from his battle with Belladonna and from her foxfire torture to shout to them.

"What is it, Troodon?" asked Belladonna in a fit of annoyance. Troodon then gazed at the sack in her paws, silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. "Does that bag contain some balls that allow the Queen's servants and patrollers to keep track of each other?"

Belladonna, at this, glared at Troodon before relenting with the chocolate cake.

"Alright, I'll give you some more chocolate cake," said the Fox to which the Rabbit kit and also Troodon, his suspicion at Belladonna's sack immediately forgotten, let loose a small cheer each and sat down to prepare to receive the treat. At this, Nyarth watched on as Belladonna reached into her bushy tail and pulled out a vial, the same vial that she had used to conjure up a chocolate cake in the beginning. However, unlike that time, Belladonna had eviller intentions though Troodon and the Rabbit kit do not know it yet. Glaring at the Dinosaur and Rabbit, the Fox said, "I will only… ONLY give you this chocolate cake if you will promise me that you will carry out the task I am gonna give you WITHOUT QUESTION. Okay?"

The Rabbit kit nodded but Troodon hesitated, especially as his gaze returned to the sack of spheres held by Belladonna in one of her paws. A horrible feeling was boiling within him, especially as he arrived at a possible intention for those spheres.

"Um, Belladonna?" said the Dinosaur.

"What is it, Troodon?" asked Belladonna as she unplugged the vial's top, pulling the cork out of its mouth.

"You… you're not gonna use those ball things to alert the Queen of your location, are you?" Troodon timidly asked. Nyarth looked on in pained astonishment but what happened next threw Troodon into freezing cold water. Belladonna, at this, put down the vial and its cork and sauntered over to the Theropod Dinosaur, her face morphing from a look of annoyance to one of that deadly icy cold water. Seizing Troodon by the throat with a paw much to his astonishment and that of the Rabbit kit, Belladonna raised the Theropod off the ground and slammed him hard against the wall of the ventilation tunnel.

"YOU will DO AS I tell you and STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS or I will SLIT YA THROAT AND THROW your MANGY REPTILE BODY to the Wendigoes to eat, along with your Rabbit friend and also your Nekomata friend over there," growled the Fox in an equally chilling and threatening voice through gritted teeth that dripped saliva, "Is that clear, Theropod?"

Troodon, his claws on Belladonna's paw as it gripped his throat hard, trembled at the sudden change in Belladonna's attitude, especially as her eyes which were as deadly and as piercing as a Manticore's glare, or rather that of Jadis, drilled into him. Timidly he nodded and Belladonna released him, dropping him onto the tunnel floor. As Troodon gasped, coughed and spluttered and the Rabbit kit shuddered, Belladonna returned to her vial, picked it up and tipped it. As before, a drop of dark blue liquid appeared and with a gently shake from Belladonna, it was released into the air. Nyarth, the Rabbit kit and Troodon as he sucked in a few large lungfuls of air with his claws on his neck where Belladonna had seized him watched as the drop transformed from a liquid drip into a large beautiful crystalline plate with a cover encrusted with the purest of gems. However, this plate and its cover was much, much bigger and taller than the previous cake. After this and putting her vial of food making position away into her tail, Belladonna took hold of the diamond-like top of the cover and lifted it off the ginormous cake. A chocolatey aroma wafted through the air and immediately took hold of Troodon and the Rabbit kit's noses and they were immediately enticed by the beautifully done cake which was much larger in diameter as well as height as the last one, and was made up of three cylindrical parts stacked on top of each other in descending order of size with the largest at the base, rather like a wedding cake. Its chocolatey sponge was smothered with the sweetest and richest chocolate frosting and there were chocolate flakes on it, curled and sprinkled all over the icing, and Troodon and the Rabbit could not stop themselves from gawking greedily at the attractive confection. Nyarth's nose was also captured by the chocolatey aroma and he felt his mouth drool saliva uncontrollably. However, Belladonna had NO intentions of giving him any of the cake but she had something else in mind for him. Then seizing a small knife that had been conjured up with the cake and its plate and cover, the Fox glared at the drooling Troodon and the Rabbit kit, slammed the blade into the bottom base layer of the cake before repeating it to cut out a slice, Belladonna lifted the piece on her knife and waved it in a tempting manner before Troodon and the Rabbit's eyes.

"Here you are," said the evil Fox in a low voice, "Smells chocolatey, doesn't it?"

She then took Troodon's Dinosaur hand and plopped the slice into it.

"Now, it eat," commanded Belladonna before turning to the Rabbit, "You as well, Bunny."

The Rabbit kit, his mind warped with the desire to sample the chocolate cake, without hesitation dove into the massive cake and began to greedily stuff himself on it. Troodon gazed at the slice of cake in his hands while Nyarth looked on helplessly, obviously too weak and in pain to beg the Dinosaur youngster to not eat it. Troodon then turned his gaze to Belladonna.

"As much as I like this cake, if you want us to do something stupid and deadly which could land us in trouble with Mr Gandalf, I would rather not eat it," he murmured. Belladonna, at this, shoved her muzzle into the Dinosaur's face and bellowed, "EAT IT!" and to reinforce her message, she gave the Dinosaur a jolt of her foxfire, plunging Troodon into a brief few seconds of excruciating agony, making him flinch. Troodon, timidly gazing at Belladonna as her icy cold gaze bore into him and then at the Rabbit as he greedily ate more of the cake, then turned his gaze to the cake slice in his hands. Nervously, he began to eat it but the moment his teeth sank into the delectable slice and his tongue being smothered in a sweet-tasting blanket the moment the cake made contact, Troodon began to comply. Nyarth could only watch on as Troodon, after finishing the cake slice much to Belladonna's smile, then went on to gorge himself on the rest of the cake with the Rabbit kit with pieces of cake scattered all over the ventilation floor, chocolate icing smeared all over their mushes and the wall, and their cheeks stuffed with huge lumps of cake. While the Dinosaur and the Rabbit ate, Belladonna went over to Nyarth and took her vial of food-making potion out of her tail fur once again.

"I've got something for you as well, Nekomata (bleep)," growled the Fox as she unplugged the vial of its cork and turned it upside down. Nyarth weakly watched as a drop formed on the lip of the bottle and launched downward. The drip then splashed onto the floor and from it, another plate materialised but it was a bit different from the plate that held the cake. Belladonna glared at Nyarth as the plate and its cover formed from the magic drip.

"I want you to eat it without question, Cat-Face," growled the Fox in a low and deadly voice, "otherwise you'll get another dose of my foxfire again and this time, it'll be nonstop and you'll likely DIE a slow and PAINFUL DEATH."

Nyarth flinched and whimpered timidly. Then Belladonna took hold of the top the moment the drip had finished conjuring up the plate, and removed it. Nyarth looked down at what was revealed but the moment his eyes settled on it, he flinched in disgust. The product Belladonna had synthesised for him was not at all attractive and as beautiful as the chocolate cake she had conjured for Troodon and the Rabbit, both of who were gorging themselves on the cake nearby. Instead, it was an apple, and that apple was UTTERLY rotten, disgusting and vile. Belladonna then glared wickedly at the Nekomata as he shuddered at the rancid appearance of the rotting fruit.

"I've warned you, Cat-Face," said the Fox nonchalantly, "If you don't eat that apple, I'm gonna subject you to more excoriating torture of my foxfire to the point of DEATH. Now EAT IT!"

Nyarth, his repulsed gaze on the rotting fruit set before him and Belladonna's threatening glare and not wanting to face more torture from the evil Fox's foxfire, reluctantly complied (I bet you are grossed out by this. I certainly am).

A little while later, Troodon and the Rabbit kit had finished eating the ENTIRE chocolate cake but due to eating so much of the confection, they felt overfull and bloated, even more so than they had when they received their first cake from Belladonna. The Fox, seeing that the pair had finished their 'treat', then came by as the plate, the cover and the remaining pieces of cake dissolved into a metallic blue powder.

"Right, let's get moving before any of those security members of that nine-tailed Kitsune show up," said the Fox. At this, Troodon and the Rabbit both groaned and begged Belladonna for a rest but Belladonna raised a paw and with all her might slapped the two of them across the faces as hard as she could to get them to comply. Jolted by the pain of the slaps, the Rabbit and the Theropod bolted to their feet. After this, Belladonna handed Troodon the bag of beacon balls.

"I want you two to help me distribute these devices around the based," she commanded, "From now on, YOU are my slaves and YOU will DO AS I SAY WITHOUT HESITATION or QUESTION. Is that CLEAR?"

Troodon and the Rabbit kit, at this, gazed at the Fox as she hardened her threatening glare.

"I said IS THAT CLEAR?" she demanded in a louder voice. The pair, fear consuming them nodded to Belladonna's satisfaction. Belladonna then ordered the two to move out, but not before seizing Nyarth who was now in a worse state than before, this time with a severe stomach ache from eating that HORRIBLE apple.

"Now if you don't comply, you two," continued Belladonna as she threw Nyarth over her back such that his face smacked against the wall, to which she did not care, "You WILL face an EXTREMELY SLOW and PAINFUL death… of HIGHLY ROTTEN FOOD!"

At this, Troodon and the Rabbit kit, stuffed though they were, flinched and let loose timid whimpers but then they followed Belladonna as she barked at them to move out.

Troodon and the Rabbit kit were beginning to regret helping Belladonna escape the dungeon compartment as well as disobey Kyukon and the others' orders to stay out of the dungeon compartment in the first place but it was all too late now.

There were more, and worse, things to come.


	58. Chapter 57

**Chapter 57- this is not good**

 **Sometime later**

After Emberflame and the Centaur had reported the mini massacre scene at the entrance to the cave and the tunnel where Nyarth's hair had been found, the Pyro was back at the horrific site with Kyukon, Bursyamo, Kairyu and a number of other creatures, some of them having come to investigate the scene. However, it did not take long for the investigators to draw conclusions on how Hocico and his team, including the Centaurette whom Emberflame had found first, had died. Kyukon, Bursyamo, Emberflame and Kairyu stood waiting not too far away from the site when one of the Curupira helpers, a large male named Cedrus who was also the leader of the forest-guarding Elf-like Humanoids whose feet resembled Human feet turned backwards, turned up, a serious look on his face. His face was deathly pale and he looked nauseated. His hair was a VERY vivid red and he wore a necklace decorated with flower, fruit and leaf-shaped crystalline adornments made from a rare crystal exclusive to Narnia and came in a variety of colours (but thankfully was not harvested from any of the deposits where villages and towns were forcibly destroyed by Jadis and her cronies for access to those precious materials, for Cedrus, his mate and their tribe of Curupira were fiercely against the Witch, apart from a few Curupira who sadly defected to the wicked Snow Beast's side under her charms and a 'better life' from the immense poverty and starvation she had thrown over Narnia with her winter curse). These adornments showed his rank as the leader of the Curpira tribe that assisted Gandalf and Kyukon and Cedrus also carried a staff also decorated with a colourful crystalline flower and a golden Lion adornment on the topmost tip, similar to the one Kushanku and his siblings had, to show his loyalty to the Great Lion.

"They seem to have been gruesomely killed and… and…" said the lead Curupira, his face slightly twisted into one of nausea for he was struggling to fight the urge to throw up for he did not want to describe what had happened next to the victims, which was why he trailed off. Though Cedrus had a very strong stomach, the sight outside the entrance left by Belladonna and her wicked comrades was too much for him, as was the scene of the Massacre Evet in the Arena of Death (which the Curupira themselves had named 'the lake of blood and snow' due to all the bloodshed within the icy arena). Bursyamo stepped forward and helped the Curupira patriarch into the base.

"Take it easy, buddy," said the lead Basan as he then lead Cedrus away. Then a Cockatrice who was one of Kairyu's underlings for Kairyu was also in charge of the band of other Dragon-like creatures such as the Cockatrices, the Wyverns and the Pterosaurs besides the Talking Dragons came in with a few shards of plate and cups. Accompanying him were two Wyverns and they had been doing some chemical tests on the bread they had found scattered in the snow.

"And based on our investigation of the remains of Hocico and his group's snacks," said the Cockatrice, "it turns out that they had been poisoned before being savagely attacked and killed," the Chicken-like Wyvern then turned his gaze in the direction of the deceased Centaurette's body as some Centaurs wrapped it in a body blanket, before lifting the body onto a large trolley designed to carry deceased bodies to be carried off for burial.

"Have you identified the toxic contaminants, Scratch?" asked Kyukon. Scratch the Cockatrice, at this, formed a dark look on his scaly Chicken-like face.

"We have, yes. We have compared it to the samples of the contaminants we had found in the other poisoned food that had caused the mysterious food-related symptoms in the afflicted individuals who had consumed them such as Nanu's apple and that salmon that would have been lethal to Ahhuayo had he consumed it, and have brought with us so that we did not have to return inside to fetch them," said the Cockatrice, "and those poisons are a match even though they may have had a different effect on Hocico and his team when they had consumed the snacks and the drinks, so it is clear that they had been poisoned by the same sort of substance we had found in those foods. Then once the consumers had taken in the poison, their defences were lowered so that the attacker could easily overpower them and kill them."

When Scratch mentioned the poisons being a match to the food samples he and his group had brought with them, Kairyu shuddered, remembering spotting the Nekomata resembling Kushanku injecting something into Alexandrite's peachberry cake slice, forcing him to take action to prevent her from becoming another victim of mysterious food poisoning, or worse similar to Nanu the Wolf and very nearly, Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl.

Kyukon then stood up, turned round with her nine elegant tails sweeping behind her and walked a few four-footed steps to ponder over the pieces of the puzzle as they clicked together. Then after a few seconds, she turned back to Scratch and the others, a fierce glare on her face.

"This is _definitely_ the work of Belladonna all right, without a doubt," she said in a confirmatory growl, "and I believe she may have killed off those guards so that she can meet with her comrades… her TRUE comrades, that is… and reveal our base's location."

Scratch, the two Wyverns, Bursyamo and Kairyu, as well as Emberflame as she helped some Centaurs bring in one of the bodies wrapped up in another of the special body blankets, looked back at the nine-tailed Fox with dread. Then Kyukon commanded, "Call the other investigators back in as well as the collectors of the deceased guards so that they can be buried with a funeral carried out. We're gonna organise an emergency meeting to discuss this and then we're gonna reveal our emergency plans to the evacuees. I've a bad feeling about the next and likely imminent, stage in Belladonna's plans regarding us and our base."

At this, Bursyamo and the others nodded obediently and went to call in the others in the team outside. Emberflame hovered near Kyukon with a troubled look on her fire face, especially as she gazed at a young female Capelobo as she sobbed hard over one of the bodies wrapped in one of the body blankets as two Dragons carried it and placed it into the special trolley. This Capelobo was Hocico's daughter and she was weeping over the death of her father. As she sobbed with her Humanoid-like hands over her Anteater's eyes, several Fauns, a Centaur and a Dragon came over to her to comfort her over her loss. Emberflame shuddered with her flames shaking as a thought for a certain Nekomata came to mind.

"Nyarth is still missing, Kyukon," murmured the Fire Woman, "And I believe he could be in you-know-who's clutches…"

"Look, Gandalf and I have established search parties for Nyarth," said Kyukon. However, worry for the Nekomata pricked at the Fox as well and she hoped that Nyarth was alright. However, she maintained her composure. "Let's just clear this scene, seal the entrance and then focus on the next task, okay?"

Emberflame nodded and left to help with the clear-up of the scene with Bursyamo and the others following, leaving Kyukon to gaze after them with immense worry.

This was NOT going to be good at all.

 **Meanwhile**

Kushanku sat on his bed in the medical room. He was now fully free of the sedative and was well enough to get up and walk around and Belle and her team kept checking on him to ensure that his health was recovering. As he went to take another walk around the room under Belle and some Fairies' watch, Alexandrite looked on with Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Desdemona, Cyril, Link, Paddy and Molayne. Also present were Nanu, Chicory, Tesseract, Fluffy-Cotton (one of Faline the Rabbit's kits and who was still severely guilty over her involvement on Belladonna's release and the subsequent troubles that followed), Snowwing the Skvader kit, Crystal the Parrot chick, Dahlia the Jackalope kit, and Bombacio the lamb and one of Snowwing and company's new friends. Not too far away, Trotterhoof, Rubyfeather (Crystal's mother), Mensa (Snowwing's mother), Shadewing and, Ahhuayo, Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way stood with Gandalf as he talked with them sternly.

"Kyukon and I have organised an emergency discussion with you and all the other evacuees in the main compartment where I showed you a clip if Jadis's propaganda ad for the Massacre Event," said the Fox.

"What are you planning to do?" asked Shadewing nervously. Gandalf, at this, turned round and walked a few steps. "Well, based on the fact that one of that wicked White Witch monster's comrades has finally found our base…" he then turned round and faced Shadewing and company again, "I feel that its secrecy is about to be uncovered, and that is bad… ABSOLUTELY bad…"

Shivers coursed through Shadewing and the others again and Shadewing, Rubyfeather and Mensa felt another wave of guilt over taking in Belladonna wash over them.

"I'm sorry, you lot," said Gandalf sadly, "But it's true. The damage has been done, and it's not just the serious trouble Belladonna had landed so many of us in with her evil sorcery skills she had acquired under that dumb, savage non-talking Beast of a Witch's training…"

And with that, he turned his gaze to Kushanku as Alexandrite and the others tried to apologise to him again and again for treating him badly to emphasize his point. Shadewing and the others followed Gandalf's gaze and said nothing as the Kitsune paused.

"One of which is shapeshifting into the forms of other creatures such as Kushanku over there," resumed Gandalf, "Apparently, out of all the forms she had taken, it had been him she has been masquerading the most. Due to that wicked Nogitsune's manipulation with that…"

Trotterhoof then walked over and tearfully and guiltily gazed at Kushanku as he talked with Alexandrite and the others.

"A LOT of you had fallen for that Nogitsune's deceptions and drew conclusions that Kushanku was the troublemaker when it was in fact it was Belladonna that was behind all these incidences," continued Gandalf sternly, "and I'm unsurprised that even his closest friends like Alexandrite, Satoshi, Nyarth, Sandstorm and Akira had fallen for her deceptions since I'm a seasoned expert, a VERY seasoned one that is… in how some of my and Kyukon's offspring who had joined the Witch's side and thus became Nogitsune had trained in the forbidden branches of dark sorcery such as illusion creation and shapeshifting…"

"You mentioned how one of the last Kings of Narnia or his sons had been seduced by some of the Nogitsune who took on the appearance attractive human females to seduce them and lure them into a trap, didn't you?" said Trotterhoof. Gandalf turned his gaze to the Pig with an agreeing look.

"That is absolutely true, my Pig friend," said he, "some of the Nogitsune, possibly including Belladonna, are partly responsible for the downfall of Narnia's last kings and queens before Jadis waged war on our land, captured it and locked it in the Eternal Winter we are familiar with today. Anyway, that aside," he turned his gaze back to Kushanku and company, "due to the serious damage Belladonna (whom I have organised an emergency search for) has done by masquerading as him such as everyone seeing him as a brutal troublemaker and worse, I doubt his trust in you lot is going to be repaired that easily…"

Trotterhoof and the others continued gazing at Kushanku as he continued to talk with Alexandrite and the others and shuddered. Not only will they have to deal with the damage in Kushanku's trust in them, but also receiving his forgiveness as well. What Belladonna had done was UTTERLY diabolical and devilish. However, Gandalf had hoped that Kushanku will forgive those that had treated him badly and falsely accusing him as being behind the troubles that had happened at Belladonna's paws, as well as rebuild his trust in them.

While Gandalf and company continued to gaze at Kushanku and the others, Alexandrite continued to lament over her guilt of treatment of Kushanku with Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira.

"We were supposed to be his friends and siblings," murmured the colourful female Nekomata tearfully, "but we had doubted our trust in him and assumed him to be a murderer, a slanderer and even worse, one of Jadis's cronies…"

"A LOT of us had, Alex," said Satoshi sadly, "All because of that filthy Fox Belladonna."

"I guess she got what she wanted," added Sandstorm with a growl, "A ripped-apart family when we were supposed to stick together."

As the Cheetah cub spoke, Kushanku flashed his siblings and Alexandrite a saddened glare and turned his face away. Alexandrite then turned to Kushanku and began to beg for his forgiveness.

"Kushanku, can you forgive us for how we treated you the past few days?" asked Alexandrite. Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira also begged Kushanku for the same thing. However, the Nekomata kept his face turned away from them and did not reply.

"Kushanku, listen," said Alexandrite, her voice breaking, "It was that (bleep) Belladonna who had sewn the discord amongst us and divided us from you…" ten anger and rage coursed through the Nekomata against Belladonna, "Oooh, if that (bleep) were here now, I'm GONNA…" then a slew of highly vitriolic and graphic words, the MOST vitriolic and graphic set of words she had EVER concocted in her life, exploded from her mouth against Belladonna like an acidic volcano. These words were SO caustic that Trotterhoof actually stepped forward to scold Alexandrite but Thundersparx stepped in and shook his head and told him to let Alexandrite flare her temper, to which the Pig reluctantly obeyed. Then after spotting the most caustic insult under the Narnian sun against Belladonna flew from her mouth like a glob of highly caustic venom, Alexandrite turned to face Molayne, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Padparadscha, Crystal, Snowwing, Nanu, Dahlia and Bombacio and said, "Who's with me, eh?"

Glances were exchanged throughout the little group until Nanu finally spoke.

"Seriously Alexandrite," said the young Wolf, "I think you're asking for serious trouble upon yourself. If you mess with Belladonna, the result could be a HORRIFYING death."

Alexandrite, at this, flinched but Nanu went on. "I'm sorry but it's true. I've got a glimpse of that wicked Fox's violent nature. When one of the young Trolls provoked her and called her an offensive name, she practically put him through some EXTREMELY agonising torture and then very gorily killed him in the slowest and most agonising way."

Horror tore through the group and Kushanku at the back actually flinched.

"You're joking!" retorted Desdemona, the Griffin chick also eager to sink her beak and front foot claws into Belladonna's flesh as payback for her discord and damage. Then Obsidian's voice entered the conversation.

"Nanu is right you lot," said the Wampus cat, pulling the attention of the youngsters to her as she walked in. "Attempting to get revenge on Belladonna is a BAD idea. We're gonna have to leave it to Aslan to deal with it."

"But… b-b-b-but," began Alexandrite but Obsidian cut her off firmly. "Look, let's go along with Gandalf's plan. He's told us that we're to meet in the main hall compartment where Gandalf had showed us the propaganda ads of Jadis shortly after our first arrival."

Alexandrite and the others with her all nodded. Then Alexandrite flashed Kushanku a sad look and said, "And because of what Belladonna had done, we're no longer friends with that Fox but I also think Kushanku and us are also no longer friends because of her…"

"No longer friends because of that filthy Fox?" came Kushanku's voice. At this, Alexandrite and the others turned and faced the Nekomata as he gazed tearfully at them.

"C'mon, we're still friends and siblings aren't we?" said Kushanku, "Sorry I looked away. I was still very upset at you for treating me unfairly…"

At this, Alexandrite and the others raced over to Kushanku and gathered around his bed, before breaking down into tears. Trotterhoof also joined the group.

"Kushanku, do you forgive us?" cried Alexandrite.

"We're so sorry to have shunned you," said Trotterhoof, "as well as accuse you of being the cause behind all the trouble because of Belladonna…"

"I-I-I thought you weren't gonna do that so fast," said Molayne with surprise at Kushanku's quick willingness to forgive. Kushanku breathed a sigh and managed a small smile.

"Well, someone once told me, Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Amberpaw, Gingerfur and Sandstorm, when we were young, that it is important to forgive someone if you find that they are innocent after all," said the Nekomata, "It was when things were going missing all over Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town and a group of young Trolls were blamed for it. I certainly accused them of stealing our animal figures and treated them unfairly but when it was found that they were truly innocent and that the REAL culprit was a band of misbehaving Beavers, Ordinary Foxes and an Elf, I made up with them…"

"Yeah but that incident is a tiny sapling of an evil thorny tree with toxic fruit compared to the trouble Belladonna has caused us," said Molayne, "Furthermore, that Troll gang considered leaving the village when everyone turned against them. They did not consider throwing themselves out into a freezing blizzard or drown themselves in water…" the Dog flinched when he received a glare from Obsidian and apologised if he had caused her any offense for her attempted drowning in the aquarium tanks over the guilt of losing her family to Krampus. In the background, Shadewing and the others were flooded with surprise at how quick Kushanku was to forgiving Alexandrite and the others while Gandalf wore a small smile.

"But it wasn't your fault that you guys were deceived by Belladonna," said Kushanku.

"What are you talking about?" said Trotterhoof with a disagreeing frown, "We fell for the deceptions and shunned you. You can't tell us we're innocent because we've been as bad as her to some degree."

"And don't forget," put in Desdemona, "We treated you badly too."

The other around the Griffin nodded in agreement. Then Gandalf walked in.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you have all made up," said the nine-tailed Kitsune, "I was hoping that you would," his gaze then focussed on Kushanku, "and I'm glad you've recovered from your depressive state and the trauma of the recent incident as well. As for your trust in Alexandrite and your closest friends and family, that may take time to rebuild. But that aside since you haven't heard of our plans I'm gonna mention them to you now. We're to meet in the main hall compartment in a given time as soon as I have had an emergency discussion with my highest ranking helpers and Kyukon…"

"Is Nyarth alright?" asked Satoshi.

"Man, we forgot all about him," said Padparadscha with a paw slap to her forehead. Gandalf hardened his gaze.

"My search parties are out looking for him and Belladonna as well as Troodon and Fluffy-Cotton's still-missing brother," the nine-tailed Fox said. However, as he said this, worry and dread for the three pricked at him, especially with Belladonna still on the loose. However, pushing those thoughts aside, Gandalf continued. "But in the meantime, just focus on preparing for the meeting, okay?"

Kushanku and the others nodded obediently.

"Glad you guys pulled me from the brink of leaping out into that lethally freezing blizzard where I would have frozen to death," said Kushanku with a relieved sigh. At this, he was pulled into a group hug by Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Paddy (Padparadscha), Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia. Though taken by surprise at first, Kushanku relished the reunion. Then Cyril, Desdemona, Link, Molayne and Trotterhoof leaned in to give Kushanku a group hug as well. Gandalf smiled at the reunion as did Shadewing and the others with them for they were glad to see that the bond between Kushanku and the others was beginning to repair itself. However, that joy was immediately cast aside when the sounds of footsteps and a fiery whoosh reached the group's ears.

"Gandalf," called a voice, Emberflame's. At this, Gandalf turned and faced the Fire Woman as she stopped to a hover. Accompanying her were Cedrus the Curupira chief and Bursyamo.

"We have been examining Hocico and his group's murder site and have found evidence of purple-black fur scattered in the snow outside, in addition to some of Nyarth's," said Emberflame frantically, "as well as the same contaminants in the snacks and I believe also the drinks as well."

"Belladonna has DEFINITELY been dancing around in that area after she had killed the guards," said Bursyamo with a sarcastic use of the word 'dance', "and we believe she may have been visited by some of her REAL comrades…"

"Okay, thanks for the report," said Gandalf before Bursyamo could finish, "Sorry to cut you off so abruptly but we need to set to establishing our emergency plans. Can you lot call the other higher ranking helpers to the meeting room please?"

Emberflame, Bursyamo and Cedrus nodded and rushed off. Gandalf followed but not before issuing everyone in the medical room a reminder of the emergency meeting's location.

"Remember, folks, we're to meet in the hall compartment as soon as we have reached a decision during our discussion," said the Kitsune and with that, he was off. As Gandalf left, Satoshi looked on timidly and began to shudder.

"Did I just hear that right?" he said, "Nyarth's hair AND Belladonna's hair found in the same area?"

"Oh NO!" cried Trotterhoof with his face buried in his front trotters.

"Don't tell us Nyarth has…" began Obsidian but the six-legged Mountain Lion-like Cat trailed off, not wanting to imagine the consequences of Nyarth facing Belladonna's true nature. However, Thundersparx retained his composure and told everyone to prepare for the meeting, which they did and they prepared to leave for the main hall compartment.

 **Meanwhile**

Troodon and the Rabbit kit were in a bad state of affairs. They were still overfull from devouring that MASSSIVE chocolate cake and were feeling very ill. Furthermore, they had just been forced by Belladonna into planting the first beacon balls in a few compartments of the base including the crop growing area, all under the occupants' noses, and this deed added volatile fuel to the fire of the pair's immense guilt. In addition, seeing Nyarth in a tortured, nauseated state was not helping either. Troodon and the Rabbit kit wanted to get the Nekomata to the medical room fast for it was clear that Belladonna had forced him into eating a LETHALLY poisonous apple but they knew they couldn't because Belladonna had solemnly warned them that she would send them down an incredibly and excruciatingly slow path to death if they ever blew their cover. Worse, Belladonna would go along with planting the beacon balls herself with or without their 'help' anyway but she wanted to make the most of the two kids' so-called help before implementing that idea. Even worse, Belladonna had forced the pair into watching her terrorise the occupants with frightening illusions or wind up in serious accidents involving serious injuries to her pleasure, scenes that the Rabbit and Troodon did not lime one bit at all and each time their relatives and friends (REAL friends, that is), were involved, they would cry in anguish.

Belladonna, Troodon, a very sickly Nyarth and the Rabbit kit hid in the mouth of the ventilation leading to the forest compartment and spied on Truffula and a small group of Elephants, Archaeobirds and Dinosaurs as the Tanuki gave them a lesson in growing orchards and fruit trees, some of her students already knew were able to do for they had grown indoor fruit trees before, much like Dahlia's family did back in Green Leaf Village. Amongst the Dinos was Ena, Troodon's mother, and Troodon's siblings, and they were interested in farming and growing fruit trees and crops. When his eyes found his mother and family, Troodon's eyes formed tears and sent them running down his cheeks as he watched them with Belladonna whose face was laced with a scheming look of the most sadistic kind. While Truffula was talking with her students about orchards and fruit trees with Ena volunteering to ascend a ladder erected against one of the fruit trees with her to pick fruit, a sickening idea entered the Nogitsune's head. Troodon gazed at Ena and his siblings tearfully and wished he was back by their side but Belladonna wouldn't let him anywhere near that opportunity. But what the Fox ordered him to do next sent shivers down his spine.

"I want you to sneak up on that ladder while your mother is still on it and knock it down so that she can have a VERY nasty and injurious fall," said Belladonna in a low but harsh and threatening voice. At this, Troodon shot her a "WHAT!?" look and the Rabbit kit flinched. Behind the trio and with the bag of beacon balls, Nyarth was weakly twitching; his health deteriorating agonisingly for the immensely toxic and mangy apple had taken effect. However, Belladonna kept the Rabbit kit and Troodon's attention on causing trouble. Troodon then began to object.

"But… she's my mother," he whispered back, "I can't injure her like that!"

Belladonna, in response, sent a small but EXTREMELY painful wave of foxfire coursing through Troodon to get him to comply. The Theropod youngster writhed and convulsed slightly like a fish and screwed his face with his eyes tight shut and teeth gritted from the immense pain.

"Do as I say, Lizard-face," spat the Fox threateningly, "Or it'll be a _disembowelment_ next time."

At this, Troodon, severely intimidated by this threat, obeyed and reluctantly went along. While Truffula was too busy talking with her students on the ladder on the safety of picking fruit from the trees with Ena demonstrating how ladders were to be used by small and lightweight creatures only, under her supervision, and the group of students, consisting of T-Rexes, Archaeobirds, Elephants, Stegosaurs, Sauropods, Cerotopsids and Theropods watching and listening intently to Truffula as she spoke, Troodon quietly sneaked out of the mouth of the ventilation tunnel, darted between the bushes and avoiding a Crocodile gardener as he harvested some seeds from the plants, as well as the rousing the attention of Truffula's students, and then dived into a bush just near the ladder. There, Troodon peered out, shivering with nervousness. He could not believe what he was about to do to his own mother and he regretted it deeply. Timidly, he gazed at Belladonna who glared at him threateningly to go along with it. Next to Belladonna, the Rabbit kit looked on nervously. Seeing no other choice, and fearing the safety of the students, Troodon made sure that all eyes in the area were either on Truffula or were focussed on the tasks, before proceeding to do perhaps the most EVILLEST thing he had ever done. As soon as the opportunity came, the Theropoid, tears streaming down his cheeks, darted from his hiding place, surged towards the ladder and tackled as hard as he could in to the ladder's leg. The ladder shifted a good bit much to the startle of Ena as she was picking an apple and to Truffula and the student's horror. Then what happened next sent a wave of HORROR tearing through the student group and the bystanders, including the Crocodile. As soon as Troodon had bashed as hard as he could into the ladder, Belladonna's eyes flared a sinister orange colour and she focussed on a cluster of leaves and the fruit directly in front of Ena. As Ena struggled to regain her balance, she found herself face to face with an immensely DEMONIC face on the fruit and the cluster of leaves before her. At this, the adult female Theropod let loose a piercing scream and drew back but because the ladder had been knocked aside by Troodon, the adult Theropod suddenly lost her balance and fell off the ladder. Screams of horror erupted from various Dinosaur species as well as Elephant trumpets; Archaeobird squawks and screams from a Tanuki as they watched a small bipedal Lizard tumble from the high branch and towards earth. As this happened, Troodon darted back into the ventilation tunnel mouth with guilt-saturated eyes on the scene, especially when he heard the sickening thud of a body against something hard. As Troodon shakily and tearfully retreated into the tunnel with Belladonna and the Rabbit kit, Belladonna then let loose a quiet but sadistic laughter as she watched the students, surrounding bystanders and Truffula as they rushed to the spot where Ena was, many of them shouting Ena's name and the anguished wails of baby Theropods, which were heart-wrenchingly Troodon's own brothers and sisters, and relished the whole scene in the most sickening way possible. This was the final nail in the coffin for Troodon regarding his friendship, or rather a PSEUDO friendship with Belladonna. Then Belladonna ordered the Rabbit kit and Troodon to back away from the mouth of the tunnel and replaced the grate before any of the bystanders could spot them.

"What are you DOING, Belladonna?" wailed Troodon tearfully and in anguish at what he had done… to his own MOTHER, and as Belladonna continued to snicker at the harrowing scene like a mad-Fox, "I thought you were our FRIEND!"

In reply to this, Belladonna shot the little Theropod a demonic and threatening glare, sending icy chills down the bipedal Lizard's spine and making the Rabbit kit shudder violently. The look was practically a carbon-copy duplicate of that of Jadis.

"That's the thing with us Kitsune, Troodon," retorted the evil Nogitsune in a Witch-like voice, "We're _extremely_ sly tricksters… with the potential to deceive and whip up chaos and confusion… as well as sew discord even amongst friends, relationships and marriages of the sturdiest kind."

Troodon and the Rabbit kit shuddered all the more as Belladonna then towered over them. "And some of us have been training in shapeshifting and illusion casting to do just that, with me being one of them," the look on Belladonna's face then morphed to one of smugness and her voice tone taking on an immensely distasteful and showboating flavour, "and you'd be pleased to know I'm actually one of Her Majesty's best, top students, and I'd like to thank you for taking me in and allowing me into the secret base."

Troodon and the Rabbit kit swallowed hard as Belladonna hardened her immensely smug glare, "And before you know it, Her Majesty will be on her way here to destroy it and capture Gandalf and Kyukon and everyone else in this soon-to-be-revealed hiding place, and I can't wait for my friends, REAL friends back home to have some little playmates, meals and toys to be occupied with."

Troodon and the Rabbit kit shuddered violently, especially as they remembered the vile nature of the Witch and her comrades.

"You're… MAD!" spat Troodon in disgust despite the immense fear he now harboured for the Fox. Belladonna, in response, raised a paw and swiped it across Troodon's face, carving three claw marks just under his left eye. Troodon let loose a pained gasp and grasped his face with his clawed, three-fingered hands. The Rabbit kit also let loose a small shriek and shot Belladonna a frightened look.

"We still have plenty of beacon balls to plant up and down the base," said the Fox as Troodon gazed at his three-fingered hands, one or two red drops running down them for his scratch had begun to bleed, "And I'm gonna need your help in the job," she took hold of the bag and the weakening Nyarth and walked along, "Now come along or I'll SAVAGELY CLAW YA INTO A BLOODY PULP!"

Troodon and the Rabbit kit, shaking, followed along but not before the former heard Truffula's voice through the metal bars of the grate closing off the ventilation tunnel's mouth to the forest compartment.

"She's alive but she's unconscious," said the Tanuki or Raccoon Dog's voice, "Let's get her to the medical compartment ASAP but DON'T move her too much for I'm suspecting a spinal injury."

This added MORE flammable fuel to the fires of Troodon's guilt and he began to shudder and break down. However, Belladonna's barking voice pulled him out of that road and he was forced to suppress his feelings and run along. Tearfully, he left after the Fox and the Rabbit kit.

Then as the three disappeared back into the ventilation system, something happened. The base of Belladonna's tail became engulfed in a sinister purple light and from that purple light; a bush-like lump grew, glowing in that purple light. This bush continued to grow and grow until finally, it was the same length as the tail. This done, the purple light was engulfed by the new bush of purple-black fur that was identical to the one already present.

Belladonna had just passed the two-tailed mark and now she was a two-tailed Fox.


	59. Chapter 58

**Chapter 58- dire and worsening situations**

 **Sometime later**

Word had spread throughout the base and had called for everyone for the emergency meeting in the main hall compartment for Gandalf had finally reached a decision in his discussion with the highest ranking helpers and had wanted to convey his plans to everyone in the base including the lower ranked helpers who were the subordinates to the leaders such as Bursyamo and Cedrus, and now many of the corridors were flooded with various different creatures as they all made their way to the meeting hall which was large enough to hold most of them. The patients in the medical room were also carried. However, a few of them with serious injuries such as Ena the Theropod remained behind and will have the plans explained to them by one of the higher ranked helpers. Ena had been admitted to the compartment with a spinal injury caused by the most recent incident of which Belladonna and Troodon had been behind, and those two along with the Rabbit kit and Nyarth were still missing, and Belladonna, being the sly and devilishly crafty Nogitsune that she was, still managed to keep out of the search parties' eyes and ears, and there was immense worry for Troodon, Rabbit kit and Nyarth still boiling within some of the evacuees, especially their relatives such as Satoshi, Kushanku, Akira and Sandstorm and also Fluffy-Cotton the Rabbit, her mother Faline and their relatives, and Troodon's brothers and sisters who, with Ena now in the medical compartment with that severe back injury, were being led by the oldest brother and son of Ena who was a young adult, and his girlfriend, a female Theropod of another evacuated Theropod family not related to Troodon's one. as everyone travelled like rows of traffic of vehicles in our world down the corridors towards the main hall compartment where they were first properly introduced to Gandalf and his helpers shortly after arriving in the base, a few of the creatures were especially saturated with worry.

Shadewing walked along with Milky Way, Obsidian, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa. Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia had decided to accompany Kushanku and the others as they walked under the supervision of Emberflame and Thundersparx somewhere else in the crowd. As they walked along, Shadewing was still saturated with boiling guilt.

"I cannot believe that we're the cause of this HUMONGOUS mess, folks," said the Bat in a splintered voice as the threat of entering a sobbing fit yet again crouched within him, ready to jump out at any moment, "I heard that Blaze, Brina and Cumulonimbus hadn't been fired from their positions but had been commanded to help in the collection of the seeds of various plants and a healthy sample of the various Narnia-exclusive species of insects into a special transportable vault to take to safety, along with every book in the library that is an original copy of Gandalf and company's works on various subjects such as Narnia's history…"

"Are you meaning to say that we could be evacuating this base?" asked Quill worriedly.

"It would seem so," said Obsidian unsurprised, "If this base's secrecy reaches the White Witch and her cronies' eyes and ears because of that feral Fox Belladonna, they will stop at nothing in rushing to Shuddering Woods and raiding it…"

"I'd hate to think of moving out of here," said Rubyfeather as she walked alongside Mensa, "I mean, it's supposed to be a safe haven from the Witch's tyranny and her Eternal Winter spell over Narnia as well as a preparation point for our Exodus to Archenland…"

"Not anymore it isn't," said Milky Way, "which is why Gandalf wants us to meet in the hall right now, so let's go."

The others nodded in agreement and continued their walk to the hall with everyone else. However, the traffic of Talking Beasts and magical creatures in which Shadewing and company were travelling was being watched. In the mouth of another ventilation system tunnel leading to the corridor, Belladonna, Troodon and the Rabbit kit were gazing at the plethoric variety of creatures as they walked by. A few more beacon balls had been planted between now and the incident of Ena as these three continued to make their way around the base with the sack of more beacon balls still to plant and a still-weakening Nyarth.

"They're heading for the hall, you two," said Belladonna in a nonchalant voice, "It seems like they have been alerted to what's going on and the threat."

Troodon and the Rabbit kit, but especially the former, were still very upset over working with the evil Fox whom they thought was their friend to begin with, in her schemes, as well as the incidents such as that with Ena at which Troodon was still weeping over.

"What are you planning to do?" asked the Rabbit kit. Belladonna, at this, shot the little lagomorph an evil glare.

"We're gonna stall them for time so that they can be captured by Her Majesty's raiders," she said, "but we'll cross that frozen river when we come to it. Now let's resume planting these remaining beacon balls about the base."

However, as she said this, a familiar shape caught her attention so the Nogitsune, a two-tailed one now, snapped her attention from the Rabbit kit and Troodon to the form. The Rabbit kit and Troodon, at this followed Belladonna's gaze and picked out a small group of familiar creatures, which were a Bat, a Hedgehog, a red Parrot, a Skvader, a charcoal black Wampus Cat with vivid orange-red markings slashing through her pelt, a Pig and a Pegasus with sparkling aqua blue and silver strewn through her fur, mane, tail and feathered wings. At this, Belladonna's mouth formed into a rancorous teeth-bearing and gritting scowl.

"What is it, Belladonna?" asked Troodon. Belladonna turned to the two-legged Lizard and the Rabbit kit.

"I want you two to do something for me…" said the two-tailed Fox.

Shadewing, Milky Way, Obsidian, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa continued walking along and talking.

"And I sure hope Troodon and the missing Rabbit kit are found along with Nyarth and that Fox as well…" said Trotterhoof hopefully when suddenly, Mensa spotted something out the corner of her eye and in one of the lesser corridors joining this one. At this, the Skvader snapped her gaze and rushed over to investigate, prompting the other six to shoot curious gazes after her.

"Mensa?" asked Obsidian and with that, she and the other five began to follow the Skvader as she broke away from the main traffic and disappeared a short distance down the lesser corridor. Mensa continued until she stopped dead. Shadewing, Milky Way, Obsidian, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog and Trotterhoof appeared and saw Mensa gaze at something, her Rabbit's face lazed with surprise.

"What is it, Mensa?" asked Shadewing but then his eyes, and the eyes of the other five, found something that was rooting the Skvader to the spot. At this, they flinched in shock. Standing before the seven were a familiar pair of young animals. One was a young Rabbit-like creature but then Mensa saw that it did not have the Bird-like feathered wings and tail characteristic of a Skvader, or the antlers that signified a Jackalope. Neither was the creature a Wolpertinger for there were was a small group of those amongst the evacuees, all of who were against the Witch and were loyal to Aslan, and the creature wasn't a simple Hare either for Hares and Jackrabbits were both larger and had longer feet and ears. Even the kits of those two Lagomorphs (which also included the Talking Pikas) were larger than Rabbit kits of the same age and grew faster, so this creature was clearly a Rabbit kit. Standing next to the Rabbit kit was a Reptile, a bipedal Lizard with a featherless Archaeobird-like body, and based on its small size, a young one. It took a moment for Shadewing's group to register what was standing before them but then Rubyfeather felt familiarity prick at them.

"Troodon?" she said to the Theropod as Quill also identified the Rabbit kit as being the missing son of Faline. Then relief flowed through the other five.

"Oh, you're alright," said Trotterhoof and he went to hug them but then Milky Way stepped in and stopped the Pig.

"Wait, look at the facial expressions of the two kids," said the Pegasus. At this, Trotterhoof took a minute to carry out Milky Way's suggestion and when he saw that the looks on the Theropod and Rabbit's faces were saturated with shame and terror, their bodies quivering, he gazed at the pair.

"Troodon, little Rabbit kit, what's wrong?" asked the Pig. The pair did not answer and continued to weep and shudder before the seven adult Talking Beasts. Then Obsidian examined the body language of the Theropod and Rabbit. However, behind Shadewing's group, a third form, this time a purple-black Canid, materialised into visibility.

"I believe they have something to say," said Obsidian but when she saw something behind Shadewing, Milky Way, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa, the six-legged Big Cat froze in horror. Shadewing, Milky Way, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa, alarmed by Obsidian's sudden change of behaviour, turned and followed the Wampus Cat's astonished gaze. Then suddenly, the purple-black form, a two-tailed Fox, jumped in and shot Obsidian a demonic, spiteful glare.

"You should have _drowned_ yourself in those tanks when you grieved over the guilt of luring your family to Krampus as a cub, you six-legged Cat-faced dung beetle," snarled the Fox and before Obsidian could identify her; one of the Fox's paws shot out at her and the paw and the Fox's eyes flared aqua blue. Then an aqua blue aura was projected on to the Wampus Cat from the Fox and the paw and the six-legged Cat was levitated off the ground. Shadewing, Milky Way, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa all jumped back about a metre and screamed as Obsidian was then mercilessly slammed HARD into the wall behind the two-tailed Fox. Troodon and the Rabbit kit also let loose petrified screams as they watched Obsidian, knocked out cold from the impact against the wall, then fell limply at the foot of the wall. Shadewing, Milky Way, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa immediately rushed over to Obsidian and gathered around her limp body, shouting her name as the Fox, Belladonna, stood by the petrified Troodon and the Rabbit kit and smirked wickedly. Then she prepared for action as Milky Way and Shadewing whirled round and bellowed, "What have you DONE TO HER!?" only to stop when familiarity flared up within them, especially when Milky Way spotted the two bushes emanating from Belladonna's behind. Then Ahhuayo's words when he had talked about a certain Fox shortly after he had joined her and the others in Trotterhoof's group before finding Gandalf's base echoed in her mind:

… _she was a female Kitsune who is almost 200 years old and due to sprout her second tail soon as Kitsune always grow another tail every 100 years,_ _is already an expert in shapeshifting and illusion creating, and has purple-black fur…_

However, the moment Milky Way's mind had locked onto the identity of the Fox's description; Belladonna reared on her hind legs and flared her claws to the fright of Shadewing, Milky Way, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa.

"Time to DEAL WITH YOU SIX (disgusting description) as a thank-you for taking me IN and ALSO BETRAYIN' the TRUE GODDESS of THE HIGHLANDS!" hissed the Fox evilly and sadistically as her face, her devilish toothy smile dripping saliva profusely, morphed into a demonic Canid-looking one as she had her shapeshifting powers take over. Beside her, Troodon and the Rabbit kit let loose petrified screams…

 **Sometime later**

The crowd continued to flow by; currently unaware of what had happened to a certain group of seven animals. Down that same corridor leading to the main one in which one of the traffics travelled, a certain group of Harpies under the supervision of Alphard the Satyr and three Centaurs, one of them being Colress the elderly individual as indicated by silver strewn through his Humanoid's hair and his Horse's pelt, were walking towards the traffic of the crowd ahead of the tunnel, having been called to join the meeting as well. They had just been to clean a lavatory compartment and Lana, Hala, Suiren and company were glad to have been given a break from that dirty job for a while for they loathed cleaning toilets (which were rather different to our world's lavatories since Talking Beasts and half-Humanoid creatures like Centaurs also utilised them). As the Harpies walked along, guilt was still boiling within them, especially as their drawings and their copies (which had been confiscated by Plasmabolt, a Lightning Pyro, and then burned by some of the Phoenixes and Dragons using their fire under Kyukon's command) flashed within their minds.

"I cannot believe we would go that far with slandering that Nekomata," said Lana as she walked along with her boyfriend Hala and sister Suiren, "I still highly doubt he would forgive us after what we had put him through."

Ahead of the group Alphard lead the way. However, the Satyr was in for a horrific shock. Then Colress shot Lana a stern look.

"Well don't be surprised if Kushanku and his closest family and friends refuse to forgive you, Lana," said the aging Centaur, "What you have done was COMPLETELY beyond-malicious."

"I think you already know that we're as insidious and as stupid as that Fox Belladonna when we drove Kushanku to breaking point with those slanderous drawings," said Hala with genuine confession and guilt, before his worried gaze examined the corridor as though looking for her, "Wherever she could be…"

As he spoke, a Satyr's voice exploded in front of them.

"CENTAURS!" cried Alphard. At this, Colress and the other two Centaurs bolted to attention and rushed over to the bipedal Goat. Alarm and worry at Alphard and the Centaur's sudden change in behaviour tearing through the Harpies, Lana, Suiren and Hala exchanged glances with themselves and their comrades, spread their Bird's feathered wings and took off. As the Bird-People group hovered in the air, Colress barked at Alphard to get help ASAP. The Satyr nodded and darted off to find some medical members. Then one of the other Centaurs, a female, turned and saw Lana and her group hover in the air.

"What are you lot doing up there? Descend back to the ground will you!" she ordered. At this, the eyes of one of the other Harpies, Morgana, happened to land on what had alarmed Alphard and the three Centaurs but the moment her eyes spotted it, a piercing scream erupted from her mouth which was covered by her shaking Humanoid's hands. Behind her, Hala, Suiren, Lana and the other Harpies flinched with Suiren almost fainting, forcing the Harpy group to comply with the Centaurette's order to land. Then the Centaurette and the other Centaur rushed in and screened off the horrific scene, which consisted of Shadewing, Milky Way, Obsidian, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa, all of who were either motionless or were barely conscious with some of them bearing serious injuries and lying in pools of red, with their Horse's bodies and their hands.

"Avert your eyes from the scene, you lot," said the Centaurette as Colress set to administering first medical aid to the beaten and bloodied seven creatures. As she said this, she covered Lana's eyes and blocked off Hala's attempts to peer over her Horse's body. However, due to how horrific the sight was with his stomach writhing from the injuries of the seven new casualties, he complied and hid behind the Centaurette's Horse's body. However, worry for the seven injured creatures, especially for Shadewing, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa for they were close family members of a few certain individuals they knew churned in the Harpies.

"Are… are they gonna die?" murmured Lana shakily, her eyes threatening to send tears running down her face. The Centaurette began to calm and comfort her.

"Just leave it to the medical experts, Lana," she said in a soothing voice as the sounds of hoof, talon and feet striking stone reached the group's ears, signalling Alphard's return with a medical team.

 **In the main hall compartment**

The main hall compartment, the exact same compartment where the evacuees were shown the lies of Jadis's propaganda ads, was packed full of a plethoric variety of Talking Beasts and magical creatures. In roughly the middle of the room, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm sat with Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne. Thundersparx and Emberflame had left to see in the other evacuees so the group of thirteen youngsters were currently by themselves with an adult Wolpertinger, a male buck named Sidney to watch over them until Trotterhoof, Rubyfeather, Quill, Mensa, Shadewing, Obsidian and Milky Way turned up. However, something was off.

"That's strange," said Alexandrite as she examined the surrounding creatures, "Where are Mr Trotterhoof and the others with him."

"Including our mothers," said Snowwing as he and Crystal opened their wings to examine the crowd from above.

"Don't fly too far, you two," said Sidney firmly, his Jackrabbit's ears twitching and his gaze flickering to a few other Wolpertingers, younger ones, to ensure that they were present. As Crystal and Snowwing hovered in the air and searched for any sign of Trotterhoof and the others amongst the incoming flows of various Animals and Magical Beasts into the large hall, the flying creatures such as the Flying Birds, Bats, Pterosaurs as well as magical creatures like Harpies, Pegasi and Alicorns (horned Pegasi), Griffins and the rest, perching onto the wall and ceiling rails and platforms designed specifically for them so that they were not crushed against the other land creatures on the ground, though some of the flying creatures chose to remain on the ground to look after the young ones. However, to their dismay, the Parrot and Skvader kids could not pick out any of those seven individuals and worry was beginning to well within them for they wanted their mothers, Rubyfeather and Mensa to be with them. Disappointed, Crystal and Snowwing returned to Kushanku and company.

"We can't see them anywhere," said Snowwing. Then two of the Wolpertinger kits, a brother and sister named Koga and Janine, walked in. unlike the Witch's Wolpetingers who were very ugly, the Wolpertingers who had not fallen for the Witch's side were not ugly and resembled Skvaders, only they were larger, chubbier and had antlers like a Jackalope and fangs like a Sabre-Toothed Cat. However, these Wolpertingers were used their fangs to break open tough fruit like coconuts and ate the meat of dumb animals, not the meat of Talking Beasts like how Jadis's Wolpetingers did. Furthermore, most of these Wolpertingers had been part of an outlaw rebel group against Jadis and often worked to pinch food from patrol scout groups to distribute it to the starving Narnians. They had also worked with some of the rebels who had actually lived in the heart of Jadis's corrupt kingdom who had snaffled food from the castle to give to the outlaw groups to distribute to the desperate Narnians. The outlaws knew that stealing was wrong, but they did not have any other choice since Jadis's laws regarding food offerings were so unfair and corrupt such that it had left countless Narnians starving so it was no surprise that some had resorted to snaffling food from the castle or the patrol groups, often right under their noses, which they had to remain since being caught was punishable by an extremely painful death or petrification by Jadis's wand. Amongst this thieving group were a few Drop Bears who absolutely did not agree with Jadis's teachings and had helped in the food distribution, their method being dropping out of the trees before passing Narnians but rather than viciously attacking them, they gave them a box or package before hastily ascending up the tree to avoid rousing suspicion from their so-called 'comrades', while Wolpertingers simply flew to various villages and towns with their looted food and distributed that food directly to the villagers and towners under the pretence that they were checking on those areas. This network of food snaffling from the greedy and gluttonous Witch and her cronies who wasted so much of it in their banquets by gorging themselves on large amounts of it and throwing it up all again to consume more and repeat the process, and giving to the starving Narnians was indeed a daring act and there had always been a fear that the group would be found out and caught, resulting in reduced food amounts to the desperate Narnians and possibly an even greater punishment and oppression upon them from the Witch. Koga then tipped his head to one side and twitched his ears.

"Maybe they're still to arrive?" said he. Kushanku and the others just gazed at the two Wolpertinger siblings and said nothing, worry clearly gripping them. However, something horrible was about to take the crowd by surprise.

In an air vent tunnel in the ceiling above the hall, Belladonna glared maliciously down at the gathering crowd. Beside her were Troodon and the Rabbit kit who were clearly shaking and traumatised from Belladonna's most recent bloodthirsty incident. When the evil two-tailed Fox had attacked Shadewing, Milky Way, Obsidian, Rubyfeather, Quill the Hedgehog, Trotterhoof and Mensa in demonic Werewolf form, she had mortally wounded Rubyfeather, Mensa, Trotterhoof and Shadewing, knocked Milky Way unconscious and envenomed her with a deadly poison to send the Pegasus down an extremely slow and painful road to death, and had severely wounded and petrified Quill into a catatonic state, similar to Ahhuayo but with an injury added. Now those seven were being hurriedly carried off to the medical compartment for emergency treatment which will involve the fire flower cordial since that cordial was the only potion capable of treating mortal injuries and saving casualties with such from the brink of death. However, due to how severe Trotterhoof, Rubyfeather, Shadewing and Mensa's injuries were and the amount of blood they had lost, saving them from death seemed bleakly slim. However, Obsidian, Milky Way and Quill may still be saved for the fire flower cordial can cure practically any injury and ailment ranging from serious injuries to stomach upsets and poisoning. However, it cannot cure mentally inflicted injuries or revive someone who had already passed away, so the admission of Trotterhoof, Rubyfeather, Shadewing and Mensa had the greatest priority. Belladonna was still sickeningly relishing the bloody sight after she had attacked those seven creatures while Troodon and the Rabbit kit had been severely traumatised far more so than Ena's incident, and Nyarth had also been affected, hearing the extreme cries of agony from familiar individuals having ignited terror within him for some of them were some of his adopted aunts and uncles. When she saw the traumatised looks on Troodon and the Rabbit kit's face, the Fox glared at them.

"Why are you two so upset over my incident with those seven worms?" said the evil Nogitsune without a sliver of remorse whatsoever, "You know I like doing stuff like that. And besides that," an utterly devilish and evil smirk formed under her muzzle and she released a titter, "seein' that lousy Bat, Bird-Rabbit, Parrot and Pig, especially that traitorous Pig for he had been one of the few to abandon Her Majesty after she had given them a better life when Soran had won the Fighting League and had thrown the offer back into our true Queen's face, in that MASSIVE puddle of blood…"

"Pl-pl-please," stuttered Troodon as his stomach with was still stuffed with an excess amount of the chocolate cake he and the Rabbit kit ad devoured greedily earlier, "You're making me feel sick from that incident…"

"Well, you're gonna have to put up with it," said Belladonna nonchalantly, before her attention turned to the crowd below through the steel-like metal bars, her eyes landing on a certain group of young animals, "and besides that, I'm gonna plan another incident that will involve…" then an extremely graphic description poured out of the Nogitsune's mouth as she described what she would like to do to those creatures of her choice. This description was so graphic that Troodon and the Rabbit kit both flinched, felt their stomachs, stuffed with their load from the enchanted chocolate cake lurch and flee to somewhere to throw up. Belladonna just flashed the pair an unsympathetic and nonchalant look before resuming her plan, her glare maliciously focussed on a selection of young creatures in the crowd of her choice…

Meanwhile, back in the crowd, Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne continued to fret for Rubyfeather, Quill, Trotterhoof, Shadewing, Mensa, Obsidian and Milky Way and search for them desperately while Koga and Janine continued to help their younger siblings in the nearby Wolpertinger family to settle down. The others were chatting and releasing various animal noises into the air of the large compartment and flooding it with their noise, rather like the gathering of a crowd at a concert in our world, as they chatted and wondered what Gandalf and Kyukon were planning to do now that they were becoming in imminent danger of being found by the Witch and seized. There was certainly nervousness and even terror in the eyes of most of them, particularly those that had been traumatised by either the Witch herself (such as Dashiell and Amberpaw from the loss of Honeycomb, and were amongst the crowd under the supervision of a Centaur), the aquatic creatures such as the Merfolk in their legged land form who carried their aquatic creature friends, such as the Dolphins in tanks and were also present for they had been kidnapped the by Witch and almost turned into slaves or meat by her and her wicked crowd of feral monsters, and also Thundersparx, Ahhuayo and Nanu for the former had spent 10 years examining the lifestyle of the Witch and her cronies with Obsidian and Milky Way before meeting Trotterhoof and his group before their daring escape, while the latter two had actually been a part of the Witch's crowd until they had rebelled, with one of them having witnessed the gory massacre in the Massacre Event with a certain Fox which left him severely traumatised and was fearing for his new friends and their safety. Fear and terror certainly was saturating the majority of the gathered creatures and the helpers were trying to calm them down.

Suddenly, a metallic thud sent a shockwave coughing through the crowd, making them stop talking and flinch and flash to awareness.

"What was that?" said one of the Bats perched on a shelf on the wall with some other Bats and a few Harpies as she clutched her pup against her breast. Terrified gazes, including those from the helpers, darted this way and that trying to find the source of the sound. Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne also shuddered as they examined the hall ceiling.

"That sounded like the thud of a metal cane used for opening wooden crates," said Satoshi. None of the others replied and continued examining their surroundings with widened eyes. Nearby, Koga, Janine and their family were quivering, their eyes also examining the ceiling.

"It came from above us," said one of the Wolpertingers. At this, Kushanku flashed the winged and fanged Jackalope-like creatures a worried look. It was then that a black form appeared from the ceiling and swooped down through the hall compartment air, screeching and heading straight for a certain spot in the crowd. It was a massive beast, and resembled a giant black Bat-Harpy that served under Jadis, and its eyes bulged grotesquely out of its skull, like the eyes of Gollum, the Black Dwarf leader who was deceased and in those eyes was SHEER bloodlust. Its mouth was armed with razor-sharp teeth and the rest of its face resembled a Sluagh with its lesion-like, bone-white decaying skin. Its black Bat-like wings swept out like a Shadow's cloak and its feet were armed with lethal Bird-like talons. The moment the crowds' eyes spotted the terrifying beast, screams erupted from them and sent them into a frenzied panic. Around Kushanku and company, the crowd began to move and rush away as they also saw the beast swoop down on them, leaving the Nekomata and company standing exposed as they flashed curious and confused glances at the terrified and retreating crowd around them.

"What's going on?" asked Kushanku as he, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne continued to flash confused glances this way and that. Then one of the adult Wolpertingers who was the father of Koga and Janine, his Rabbit's eyes gazing in terror at something heading straight for the group of thirteen kids.

"Kushanku, the rest of you, look OUUT!" screamed the antlered Bird-Rabbit with Sabre-toothed Cat-like fangs in terror as everyone else around him including Koga and Janine, let loose screams and backed away, chairs being seized and dragged along to make movement easier resulting in a gap being opened around Kushanku and company and isolating them. No sooner than these words had left the Wolpertinger's mouth than when Kushanku and his group turned and saw an enormous black Bat-like creature swoop down at them. Utterly alarmed with some of them releasing terrified screams, the thirteen kids began to scarper. Kushanku twisted his tails and took off while Crystal, Snowwing, Cyril, Link and Desdemona immediately opened their feathered wings and lofted into flight. Dahlia, Padparadscha and Molayne also darted off like frightened deer but Akira, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Alexandrite were too slow to react. Then before the quartet could flee after the others, they were seized by the demonic Bat-like creature in its wings and restrained, much to their terror. Then the evil Bat creature released a screech so loud that it shook the entire volume of air above the hall compartment and forced hands, paws, wings, hooves and fins to clasp onto ears to protect their eardrums from the assault of the scream. It was basically like a Banshee and it also caused materials made of a glass-like material to shatter to the startle of some of the crowd members. Then as soon as the creature stopped screaming, Link the Peryton fawn prepared to launch himself at the beast to bash it in the face to release Alexandrite and the other three held captive in the beast's wings but Snowwing and Crystal flew to the front of him to block his path, fearing for his safety especially since the beast was savage and extremely dangerous. Reluctantly, Link pushed aside the urge to attack the creature. Then the beast creature became enveloped in a red light and began to shapeshift, all the while holding onto Akira, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Alexandrite as it changed form. Horror tore through the crowd.

"WHAT THE…!?" barked one, a Dog (not Molayne).

"The thing's a SHAPESHIFTER!?" said a Curupira. Kushanku, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Paddy, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne said nothing and continued to look on in utter astonishment as did Emberflame and Thundersparx as they returned to the group's side but when they saw that four of them were held captive, horror ignited within them and made Thundersparx's mane spark and Emberflame's fire flash with the flames flaring larger. In addition to that, they saw the glowing red form as it continued to change shape, its face taking the form of a Canid, its wings turning into paws wrapped around Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Alexandrite and at its back end, two bushy tails formed. As the glowing red form assumed the shape of a two-tailed Canid, Kushanku shuddered. 'No, please don't be true',' thought the Nekomata in his head but it was clear that what he and the others were seeing was perfectly real. Then as the red light shell disintegrated, the form revealed itself in its true shape and identity; a female purple-black Fox and that Fox sported two tails and was fiercely holding Alexandrite, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira hostage with one of the claws flared like a Cat's and her face which was full of the purest bloodlust and insanity no different from that of Jadis or a feral Wendigo with her mouth baring teeth and dripping saliva as though starving, piercing the crowd. It was the most frightening look Kushanku and the others had ever seen and Kushanku remembered a Rabbit having such a look when it tried to make off with Lwaxana the Kappa's necklace, and Padparadscha had a memory of the Kushanku-like Nekomata also bearing that same glare when it tried to mow her down while escaping the kitchen after the soup incident. Amongst the crowd, Nanu and Ahhuayo shuddered violently, as did Thundersparx, some of the Kitsune who were present and a few others who had got a glimpse of the evil Fox, now a two-tailed Nogitsune, during her bloodthirsty adventures when she went out with some of Jadis's cronies on patrol or food-collecting trips. If Nyaonix the Bakeneko had been here, he'd have been utterly horrified to see this Fox as well.

Then after the registration of the Fox's identity, a few of the crowd members surged forward with a Satyr wielding a chair, Koga and Janine flaring their vicious fangs and Desdemona, Link and Cyril threatening to charge at the Fox, who was Belladonna, as she kept a fierce grip on her four hostages. At the very edge of the crowd, one of the Kitsune, Tuvok, shuddered and darted off down a corridor to find the discussion room while the others stayed to watch the drama unfold. Then as a few of the crowd members, such as the Satyr with the chair, Desdemona, Link and Cyril, Koga and Janine, and Padparadscha, the instinct to save her sister and Kushanku's three siblings took hold, were about to surge forward, Belladonna let loose a screech, seized Alexandrite and shoved her claws dangerous close to her neck where the vital vessels ran.

"STAY BACK you BUNCH OF (disgusting profane word of the vilest kind possible that I do NOT want to show)," screamed the deranged two-tailed Fox as Alexandrite whimpered timidly in her forelimbs with Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm, "Or these four's throats are SLIT!"

This forced Padparadscha and the others to halt their approach but Padparadscha continued to glare volcanically at the Fox, especially as she threatened her sister, the only surviving biological family member she had left, and began to tremble violently. This was further fuelled when Belladonna flashed her a sadistic glare as if to say, "Yup, and I can't WAIT to see you stand over your sister's dead body as well."

Paddy then gritted her teeth, flared her colourful fur out and prepared to telekinetically seize a chair nearby to hurl at Belladonna but Thundersparx intervened.

"Don't Paddy," said the Raiju, restraining Paddy, "Belladonna WILL kill your sister and her other three hostages."

Paddy reluctantly complied and backed away, her volcanic glare on Belladonna as she continued to threaten to slit Alexandrite's throat as well as Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira's. then the evil Nogitsune continued to stand there, her insane and bloodlust-saturated glare focussed on the crowd as she continued to hold Akira, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Alexandrite who were terrified and whimpering, in her forelimbs.

 **Meanwhile, back at Jadis's castle**

Jadis's cronies continued to carry on with their daily business of leaving for patrol, the corrupt food collection and slave-driving as well as returning for the meals. Amongst these tasks was searching for Gandalf's base and at the moment it STILL has not been found and Jadis's temper was becoming more and more volatile. Near the throne room, Palpatine the Drop Bear had just returned from a hard day of patrolling with a Killer Ghoul, a Nukekubi, a few Trolls and Ogres, and a couple of Slender-Men, one of who was a male due to his massive size for male Slender-Men were taller than the females. As the Drop Bear flopped onto a table and rubbed his demonic Bear-like face tiredly, an Ushi-Oni, a Yokai species resembling a Minotaur except with a Spider's body replacing a Humanoid's, came in.

"Paplatine, you've been on patrol all day nonstop," said the ugly Bull-faced creature when he saw the extremely tired Drop Bear, "It's time you took a break."

"Maybe I'll retreat to my chambers and get some shuteye for a while," said Paplatine as he stifled a yawn, "I'm sure Her Majesty wouldn't mind…"

"Wouldn't mind?" said one of the Slender-Men behind the Drop Bear, the female based on her shorter height than the male in a frustrated tone. Because Slender-Men were faceless, they expressed their emotions through body language and voice tone, "Her Majesty had been sending us on longer and longer patrols just to hunt down that Kitsune and his mate's base, and the unfruitful results are sending her over the edge…"

"I sure hope it's found soon," moaned Palpatine as he continued to rub his face, "I think the rest of us are as frustrated and as irritable as Her Majesty…"

"I couldn't agree with you more, my Drop Bear friend," said the Ushi-Oni with a Spider-leg on the Drop Bear's shoulder for Ushi-Oni did not have arms, "We have all had enough of waiting and searching for those two nine-tailed Foxes' base with no results…"

Just as the Bull-faced Spider creature spoke, a highly ecstatic Shadow wail entered the castle, catching the attention of everyone present including Jadis. At this, the female Slender-Man shook her faceless head.

"That's Pazuzu," she said, "and it sounds like he's high in the snowy sky."

"Well that must mean he has some bearin' good news," said Palpatine, his mood lifted and his tiredness swept aside. Then with that the Drop Bear left. The others followed close behind, hope for the long awaited good news welling within them.

Within moments, Jadis' castle was filled with the variety of mostly demonic and horrifying creatures of every sort, their variety of equally evil sounds flooding the air above them. Before them, Jadis walked towards an incoming Shadow who was indeed Pazuzu, as he glided ecstatically towards the Witch. His companions, among them the adolescent Slender-Man had left to spread word to the other cronies of Jadis. Then the long-awaited news exploded from the Head Shadow's mouth.

"Gandalf and Kyukon's base has FINALLY been found," hollered Pazuzu as he glided towards Jadis, "It's FINALLY been found after ALL this time. It's no longer HIDDEN!"

As he slowed before JKadis and bowed to her respectfully, an explosive cheer erupted from the horrific crowd.

"FINALLY!" said the lead Banshee named Púca.

"We've been searching for who-knows-how long," said Malefor the former Head Manticore. Then after rising to face Jadis, Pazuzu prepared to spill the good news.

"Gandalf and Kyukon's underground base is under Shuddering Woods," said the Shadow, "your top sorcery student Belladonna has discovered its location."

Amazed glances were exchanged throughout the crowd while awed murmurs also emanated from some of them.

"Belladonna ought to be handsomely awarded for finding that so-well hidden construction," said Palpatine with a wicked toothy smile on his face.

"That's excellent news, Pazuzu, EXCELLENT NEWS INDEED, and EXACTLY what I would like to her," said the Witch, her icy face morphing into a demonic smiley look, "Now all we gotta do is set up an army to plunder that base, capture the two nine-tailed Kitsune and everyone else within and destroy everything in the base, amongst them all records of Narnia's true history, references to that smelly Lion, and the Golden Age Prophecy…"

Just then a young Slender-Man showed up and handed Jadis a flat, crystalline screen device.

"Here's the beacon ball locator screen, Your Highness," said the black and white suited faceless monster, "Belladonna should have distributed many, if not all, the beacon balls we had given her around the base to make it and its location visible on those screens. We have also handed out a number of other screens to many of your other followers…"

Jadis, a demonic smirk on her bone-white face, took the locator screen and packed it into a pocket on her furry coat while the young Slender-Man left. Then turning to the crowd of gathered horrible monsters and creature imaginable, the Witch called, "EVERYONE, GET YOUR WEAPONS, ROPES AND YOUR SLEDS and PREPARE TO SET A DESTINATION FOR THE SHUDDERING WOODS while I GET MY SLEIGH READY!"

An uproarious cheer erupted volcanically from the crowd of horrible creatures and before long, the castle hall began to clear as the crowd began to disperse like a toxic black smoke cloud. As the crowd was in the process of leaving, Pazuzu gazed at the Witch.

"What are you gonna do to Belladonna when we meet her at Shuddering Woods, Your Majesty?" asked the head Shadow, "How will she be rewarded?"

"Oh, VERY handsomely, Pazuzu," replied the Witch, "But that's for me to know and for you to find out but if you want to know the gist of it, I might make her into an EXTREMELY POWERFUL nine-tailed Kitsune and promote her to second-in-command under my rule…"

A wide smile formed on Pazuzu's demonic face but then he pushed that thought aside and flew off to gather his Shadow underlings while the Witch herself left to find her sleigh.

.


	60. Chapter 59

**Chapter 59- Kushanku's fight with Belladonna begins**

 **Back in the hall compartment in Gandalf's base**

Belladonna continued to hold Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi hostage in here forelimbs, her bloodlust-saturated glare scouring over the crowd like a lethal magical beam from an evil witch's wand and sending perishing chills equivalent to such beam down their spines and through their skins and making them flinch, some of the youngsters even hiding behind the adults' bodies or in their arms, wings or forelimbs, whatever they had depending on what species of Talking Beast or Magical Creature they were. Furthermore, none of them dared approach the derange Nogitsune for fear of the four's lives for Belladonna had vowed to slit the quartet's throats if they did. Paddy (Padparadscha) tried her luck but Belladonna howled at her that her sister Alexandrite and Kushanku's remaining three siblings including Sandstorm who was the only adopted Cheetah family member Kushanku had left were dead if she took another step closer. Forced to comply and with Thundersparx's orders, Paddy obeyed but her fearful eyes were glued to the petrified Alexandrite as well as Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm as they shuddered in Belladonna's forelimbs, one of Belladonna's paws armed with razor-sharp claws elongated into lethal cutting spikes by her shapeshifting powers hovering dangerously close to Alexandrite's jugular and carotid area in the neck, poised to slash. Then Desdemona and Link tried to approach.

"I MEAN it, these four WILL die if you take ONE STEP NEAR!" shouted Belladonna, forcing the young Griffin and Peryton to comply and stay with the crowd like Paddy. Then soon, the crowd realised that they were in a standoff and a dilemma. Since no-one was willing to step forward to confront Belladonna without her acting on her threat and slitting her victims' throats which would add four more casualties (or rather, murdered individuals) to Belladonna's list, no-one moved. However, Belladonna already had in mind to kill the four Cats whether the crowd stood there or not and she wanted to build up tension first before finally giving them the element of horror once that tension was built high enough. Then Emberflame shot a horrified and worried gaze at Thundersparx, especially as Belladonna's muzzle widened into a demonic and sadistic sneer.

"Seriously, Thunder," said the Pyro, the fear for Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi's lives coursing through her fiery body making her flames shudder all the more, "I can tell that psychopath of a Fox is gonna kill Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi regardless of whether we intervene or not. Shall I try and gently talk to and reason with her?"

Thundersparx returned Emberflame's worried gaze with a worried look of his own. After witnessing Belladonna's antics time and time again with Obsidian and Milky Way for the ten years the trio went into hiding since Thundersparx's father had won the Massacre Event that year and had betrayed Ferntail and Frosty and company's hiding place to the Witch leading to their slaughter with Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira becoming orphans as tiny baby kits, and seeing the gruesome and sadistic torture she often put her victims through (regardless of whether they were Talking Beasts or non-Talking Beasts), reasoning with Belladonna? That seemed impossible. However, before Emberflame could make that move, Belladonna's insanity-saturated eyes travelled to Kushanku and locked eyes with his. At that moment, her mouth widened all the more and before long, Belladonna bore a toothy sneering smile.

"Well, Kushanku," crooned the two-tailed purple-black Fox wickedly as she continued to keep a hold of Alexandrite, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, who were still whimpering and shuddering in her paws, "I'm surprised you're still alive after everyone rejected you and assumed you to be one of Her Majesty's followers who was behind all the trouble that had happened over the past weeks."

Kushanku, at this, just continued to glare at Belladonna and said nothing. Belladonna continued to issue malicious taunts towards him.

"I'd have thought you'd have taken your own life in that blizzard outside by now," she continued. At this, Padparadscha began to tremble with fury again. She was NOT going to have this deranged Fox taunt Kushanku while holding her sister and the latter's three siblings hostage and wanted to telekinetically seize a chair again to hurl at the Fox to wipe the scornful look off her face but she knew she couldn't do that for that would enrage the Fox and thus add fuel to the fire. Not to mention the possibility of Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi getting bloodily slaughtered in the process at the claws f that deranged psychopath of a two-tailed Fox. Reluctantly and seething in silence, Alexandrite's younger sister restrained herself and kept quiet.

"I'd have thought you'd have passed away, just like how that lousy Wampus Cat worm with the orange-red markings slashing through her black pelt would have drowned herself in that tank over the guilt of losing her family to Krampus during a hunting trip…" continued Belladonna and when she saw the outraged looks flash on some of the crowd members, especially Thundersparx and also the sea creatures, such as Coralfin, an Ichthyosaur, "when I told her how stupid she was in luring her own family to die…"

The moment these words came out of Belladonna's muzzle, Tesseract, who stood in the crowd opposite to Kushanku's location, flinched in hot rage.

"Wait a minute; YOU were definitely the one who pushed Obsidian over the edge under the guise of one of Mr Bursyamo's Basan underlings," snarled the Unicorn, "NOT one of the REAL Basan Hens."

However, Belladonna ignored the young Unicorn and kept her attention on the Nekomata and the brother of Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi and the still-missing Nyarth. Tesseract continued to tremble violently and wanted to charge at Belladonna and skewer the two-tailed Nogitsune through the back with his single icicle-like horn but some of the Elephants and Chicory (a Sauropod) restrained him for they did not want any further jeopardy to Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi's lives thrown into the storm. Tesseract reluctantly obeyed and watched on as Belladonna continued to taunt Kushanku.

"And didn't you and your three cute quad siblings cheat death twice when your parents were still alive, Kushie?" crooned Belladonna in a honeyed, mock-sympathetic voice. At this, Satoshi and Akira flashed Belladonna a sour look as she began to talk about Frosty and Ferntail. "Wasn't your mother, when she was still pregnant with you, almost chosen to enter the Fighting League when Her Majesty chosen your family only for one of your other family members to be selected instead? Then after you were born, were you almost slaughtered when Her Majesty sent a group to destroy that group of lousy Lion-believers after Lightningflash revealed their location to her?"

This sent hurt coursing through Thundersparx when Belladonna mentioned his father and his betrayal of Frosty and Ferntail and the others to the Witch. Kushanku, at this, formed a scowl on his face. However, to everyone's surprise, he kept his composure.

"Look, if you think it's funny to mock Mr Thundersparx's father's betrayal of Mother and Father and their group to the Witch, as well as hit a nerve of Mr Thundersparx himself," he flashed Thundersparx a look as he said this, "you've got another thing coming. Now please, let Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi go."

He stretched out a paw to the Fox but Belladonna refused and kept a firm grip on the four Cats, her elongated claws inched closer to Alexandrite's neck, the vital area and poised to slit. Just then a familiar purple-black Wolf pup appeared between Tesseract, Chicory and a young Stegosaur. Belladonna's insanity-stuffed field of glare picked out Nanu's shape and the moment it did, her eyes travelled to Nanu's location and locked eyes with the Wolf pup.

"Well… if it isn't Nanu," crooned Belladonna in a mock-surprised voice, "That… REBELLIOUS WOLF who refused to fully obey orders, perform poorly in our training classes and eventually turned against Her Majesty by calling her a White Witch maggot in that freezer storage compartment… not to mention escape death when yours truly gave him a BEAUTIFUL apple during the tea party with that smelly equally-traitorous Ahuizotl which almost killed him…"

As she said this, Ahhuayo also made himself visible as Nasnu began to tremble with rage.

"Not only that, I'mON ASLAN'S SIDE NOW!" he blurted out with his eyes screwed tight shut. Belladonna flinched, especially at hearing Nanu's audacity to mention the highly Forbidden Name (according to the Witch's corrupt rules anyway). Nanu swept on, his volcanic glare on the Fox.

"I'm NOT afraid of ya, Belladonna," snarled the young Wolf pup, a paw pointing dead centre at Belladonna's face, "Now RELEASE THOSE THREE NEKOMATA and that CHEETAH or I'LL MAUL YA!"

Belladonna, at this, finally snapped.

"YOU will NOT be the one to FIGHT ME, Dog-face. THAT Nekomata will. YOU…" she turned to Kushanku with Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi still in her clutches. Kushanku flinched as Belladonna continued, "YOU and I… will FIGHT… ONE-ON-ONE… just YOU AND ME! Now COME out of the crowd THIS MINUTE!"

Kushanku, at this, flashed Emberflame and Thundersparx a frightened gaze while Snowwing, Dahlia, Crystal, Molayne, Paddy, Link, Desdemona, Cyril and also Nanu and Tesseract and many of the others in the crowd, uttered worried whimpers, especially for Kushanku's life. Kushanku then turned back to Belladonna and took a few steps from the crowd into the clearing. Belladonna kept her demonic and rancour-flooded glare on the Nekomata.

"Ever since we've metduring your little trip to this base," hissed the Fox with the purest acid of hatred as her eyes remained glued to the Nekomata she detested the most, "I've always wanted to disembowel and dismember you from the start, especially for attacking me while I was in Eagle Beast form," Snowwing, at this, flinched and shot Belladonna a furious glare. Koga then looked on worried.

"That Nekmomata's not gonna stand a chance against that psycho-Dog," he whispered to Janine and the others to which they responded with silent worried gazes. Kushanku continued carefully pacing towards Belladonna as she continued to threaten to slit Alexandrite's throat and hold the other three, his siblings excluding the missing Nyarth, hostage.

"Come on or your little friend and your three little siblings, the only close family you have left, will be my NEXT LIVE MEALS," growled Belladonna threateningly, sending a massive wave of revulsion tearing through the crowd. Ahhayo especially felt his stomach lurch and Janine actually flew off to throw up somewhere for her nausea had reached critical. Emberflame trembled.

"That Fox sure is SICK IN THE HEAD!" the Pyro hissed under her breath, her flames shuddering in revulsion. Then as soon as Kushanku was a good distance away from the crowd edge, he began to gently approach Belladonna and reason with her.

"Please, let those four Cats go," he said, his instinct to launch himself at the Fox and save his friend and siblings threatening to erupt. In the crowd, Ahhuayo turned to Tesseract and Chicory.

"I can't believe how calm he is," the Ahuizotl said. Then Lwaxana the Kappa nearby came in, a worried look on her face.

"Well, since I can no longer stand that Wendigo of a Fox," she said in a low voice, "I'd have launched at her and killed her there and then but then again if I were in Kushanku's place, I might get Alexandrite and the other three killed…"

Just then, Belladonna's growl pulled the Kappa's attention back to the scene, so Lwaxana turned and faced it to see what would happen next.

"Please, Belladonna, don't do this," continued to Kushanku as he tried to get the Fox to spare the lives of Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi, "Killing is NEVER a good thing. You'll just cause harm to yourself besides the many hearts you tear in two in the process."

He hoped that he might bring up some sympathy and care out of Belladonna. However, to Kushanku's dismay, there was none. Any care the two-tailed Fox had was absent; as bare as a snowy clearing aboveground was of any colour or greenery from flowers, grass or tree seedlings. Belladonna then formed an EXTREMELY sadistic smirk.

"It has always been MY PASSION ever since I was a young cub," she crooned in a Witch-like voice, "So is torture and causing EXTREME pain. Ever since I started experimenting torture and causing agony on dumb birds, their suffering has been like the FINEST TURKISH DELIGHT or ANY OTHER TREAT to my ears."

Kushanku flinched, as did the others in the crowd. It was clear that Belladonna had no sense of love, sympathy or remorse whatsoever. The only thing she was full of to the core was sadism, evil, and every other word I could take all day to list. Then what Belladonna said next sent Kushanku's nerves into a violent shudder and the stomachs of many of the crowd members, including Nanu's, into a nausea-inducing jolt.

"The suffering is especially melodious in Talking Beasts," continued the beyond-insane Fox, "such as when Itortured and slaughtered that (bleep) Redfox when he got the position as headmaster of that young Talking Beast school (that was before I and some other Kitsune met Her Majesty, the TRUE Goddess of the highlands, and before she came and conquered Narnia), and when I had consumed his carcass, it had been UTTERLY DEEEELICIOUS! Since then, I have been killing and eating more and more Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures up until now…"

Several more of the crowd members darted off to throw up somewhere, with Nanu amongst them, and many of the others uttered horrified cries at Belladonna's guiltless and merciless confessions at her so-called 'hobbies', as well as her vileness. Belladonna was not just sneaky but she was a bloodthirsty, coldblooded murderer and a cannibal as well, and Kushanku could feel that as he felt his own stomach flinch and threaten to eject its contents. Then after taking a moment to relish the horrified reactions of the crowd, Belladonna turned to Kushanu and changed her facial expression from sadistic to rancorous and furious, as well as the desperation to get her claws into the Nekomata she detested the most. 

"And I HOPE to make these four (that is, Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi), into such meals as well," the Fox said, "But ENOUGH OF THIS PALAVER! It's time to FIGHT! If I win, these four will be KILLED and EATEN IN FRONT OF THESE LOWLY WORMS, and SO WILL YOU!"

Then after this, an evil, maniacal cackle escaped Belladonna's mouth and echoed throughout the hall compartment, bringing every nerve in the crowd to a frightened shudder, and many of the kids, especially the babies such as Citron and Eureka the Otters and even Amberpaw who stood with Dashiell, began to wail and cry, frightened by the beyond-evil Fox's laughter. Kushanku flinched violently. Then to add topping to her evil, highly toxic chocolate cake, Belladonna finished with an announcement to the crowd.

"And in addition to that, this base is no longer a secret. Her Majesty and the rest of my true friends finally know where you lot are hiding and sooner or later, this area will be invaded and destroyed while YOU lot will be captured along with Gandalf and Kyukon and taken back to the Witch's castle as prisoners and trophies of our triumph!" she cried at the top of her voice for all to hear, "You lot have been careless, worms, and I can't WAIT to see what Her Majesty has planned for you for the rest of your lives if you're chosen to live!"

This sent the crowd into a frenzied, despairing wail and the aquatic creatures began to tremble violently. Many of them had been badly traumatised by the Witch and/or her cronies and they did not want to face her and her crowd of evil monsters again. Guinan the Faun girl and the others were weeping and Dashiell and Amberpaw were wailing. Then Nanu called to Kushanku.

"You HAVE to fight her," said the Wolf, "She CANNOT BE REASONED WITH! she's TOO PSYCHOTIC," then turning to Belladonna, the Wolf, his face morphing into one of pure hatred, bellowed, "I hope you LOSE TO HIM, you two-tailed dog-faced Wendigo! You're honestly no better than that White Witch MONSTER!"

"QUIET! SHUT UP!" screeched Belladonna like a Werewolf, frightening Nanu into silence. Then returning her rancorous glare to Kushanku, she said, "Now let's get this over with!"

Kushanku, seeing no other choice, then prepared to fight the two-tailed Nogitsune.

"Kushanku," said Thundersparx, pulling the Nekomata kit's attention to him, "This is not a practice sparring session. It is a very real battle."

"And it will be a battle for your friend and siblings' life," put in Emberflame. Thundersparx then hardened his glare.

"And based on that Wendigo of a Fox's insanity and her trickery and bloodthirsty methods in combat which I have witnessed with Obsidian and Milky Way during our ten-year spying on her and her comrades and their Mistress the White Witch," the Raiju continued, "such as when she slaughtered a rebellious Sasquatch, I'm predicting a VERY BRUTAL and difficult fight, so prepare for some potentially VERY brutal and dirty tricks from that two-tailed psycho-Fox."

Kushanku, at this, flinched and turned to face Belladonna. The Nekomata then went to approach her and as he did, Belladonna tossed aside Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi before conjuring a set of thorny binds to tie the four Cat's paws and feet together to prevent them from interfering (with Alexandrite, Satoshi and Akira's paws behind their backs), and then taking a bottle of a strange magic substance hidden in the fur of one of her tails, the bottle resembling a flask similar to the type we used in our chemistry labs in our world. Belladonna then unplugged the flask like bottle, tipped it and emptied its contents into one of her paws. A smoky black substance fell into Belladonna's other paw and as soon as she had a paw-ful of the stuff, Belladonna packed the bottle away into her tail and tossed the ash-like substance into the air straight above her. Kushanku and the crowd flinched as the black smoky substance ascended into the air before flattening and then forming into a ring which then radiated circularly from its centre and descended towards the floor. The smoky ring grew wider in diameter until it was at its widest and after this, the solid ring, a smoky trail rising from behind it settled onto the floor just in front of the crowd. The crowd backed away as the ring then slammed into the floor in a cloudy ring and formed a solid ring between them and Belladonna and Kushanku as well as the four hostages, enclosing the latter. The ring resembled a solid pencil line drawn on a sheet of paper. However, there appeared to be nothing above the ring. That is until Tesseract went to touch it with a hoof but the moment his hoof made contact with whatever had formed by the ashy ring, a massive sparky explosion sent an extremely painful jolt through the Unicorn's leg so he jumped back with a neigh of pain. Emberflame then examined the bubble of an invisible barrier as Dahlia also touched it only to be painfully shocked by it as well, the bubble fizzling before returning to invisibility.

"It's a magical force-field formed from that Incluser ash," she said. Thundersparx then flashed the Pyro a dark look. Incluser ash was a magical force field generating substance Jadis's cronies, and sometimes creatures not on Jadis's side as well such as Kitsune, Nekomata, Bakeneko and Sphinxes and a few other creatures, carried and used to create a virtually impenetrable force field bubble around their prisoners while out in the field to prevent those prisoners from escaping. The invisible force field generated by the ash, called the Incluser barrier, caused an extremely painful shock when touched and if any inanimate object was thrown at it, even telekinetically; it would just simply rebound like a ball from a wall. The barrier was similar to the force fields generated by the magical crystalline generators in the dungeon compartment's cells, used to seal prisoners in those cells, but the shock of Incluser barriers was far more painful, and the barriers themselves only lasted a few hours, and could not be turned on or off unlike the force fields generated by the crystalline force field generators like those in the dungeon compartment. However, next to none of Gandalf's helpers and the evacuees had a supply of Incluser ash on them for the ingredients used to make the ash were rare and difficult to find and harvest, much like the fire-flower cordial's main ingredient, the fire flower which was notoriously difficult to germinate and grow, and certainly obtain since it grew on the Narnian sun which was guarded carefully by the Rainbow Serpent who would ONLY allow a select few visitors to the glowing orb and its ecosystems of highly unique and delicate flora and fauna. And though Incluser barriers lasted a few hours and were virtually impenetrable, they can be destroyed through certain magical energy blasts which were one of their bigger weaknesses. Sadly, none of the crowd members present, not even the Pyros like Emberflame or Raiju such as Thundersparx, had that enough power to destroy the bubble formed by Belladonna's Incluser ash, so Kushanku, along with Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi were trapped with the deranged two-tailed Nogitsune inside the bubble which will last a few hours, and Emberflame and Thundersparx knew that very well and could do nothing but stand or hover outside the bubble and watch the events inside with the others in the crowd.


	61. Chapter 60

**Chapter 60- a savage and brutal one-on-one battle**

After the Incluser barrier was formed so that the crowd was barred from interfering, and with Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi bound in thorny binds, Belladonna began to circle with Kushanku like a pair of wolves, their eyes locked intently. As they circled with Kushanku walking on all fours, his white head hair spiked out slightly, Belladonna began to issue the Nekomata with more sneering taunts.

"Let this be a HIGHLY BRUTAL BATTLE to the DEATH, Cat-Face," crooned the Fox wickedly and rancorously as she continued to circle with Kushanku, "I've wanted to do this with you EVER SINCE WE'VE MET!"

Shivers travelled through the crowd and Paddy examined the look in Belladonna's eyes and shuddered. She could clearly see the boiling concoction of the most caustic hatred, spite and malice she had ever seen in them, and it was clear that Belladonna had always had that for Kushanku ever since the pair met. Near Paddy, Snowwing, Crystal, Dahlia, Cyril, Link, Desdemona and Molayne also shuddered.

"I think this battle is _definitely_ gonna be brutal like she said," murmured the last mentioned in the line before raising a paw to his face to hide it, "I can't look. Is it gonna be savage?"

"Without a doubt, Molayne," said Paddy with certainty. Kushanku and Belladonna continued to circle, growls emanating from Belladonna's throat and exiting through her gritted teeth while Kushanku's emitted a fierce cat hiss. Then finally, Belladonna explosive lunged at Kushanku with an extremely loud Fox cry raised a paw and with all her might swiped Kushanku across the face with it, knocking Kushanku down to the floor and into a short tumble to the crowd's horrified gasp. Kushanku scrambled to his hind feet, charged at Belladonna and tried to launch a kick attack to the Fox's face but the two-tailed Nogitsune seized his foot in her paw and yanked it towards the floor, causing Kushanku to lose balance and fall down. Then Belladonna went to bite Kushanku's head but Kushanku hastily dodged and sent the Fox's jaws ramming into the stone floor, making her taste dust and gasp and splutter to spit the vile taste from her mouth. The crowd unleashed another horrified gasp and Thundersparx flinched. Kushanku continued to roll as Belladonna began to launch a series of clawed swipes at the Nekomata in hopes of inflicting him with a nasty scratch on him only to miss.

"Kushanku, mind the INCLUSER BARRIER!" bellowed Lana from the ceiling as she saw the Nekomata roll dangerously close to the solid pencil-like ring, "MIND THE INCLUSER BARRIER!"

Kushanku continued to roll towards the boundary marked by the barrier and avoided another claw slash from Belladonna and immediately tried to rise to his hind feet but his paw accidentally touched the barrier bubble, causing a sparky ripple on the invisible force field resulting in severe pain coursing through that paw. At this, Kushanku let loose a pained Cat screech and grasped his paw as Belladonna lunged at him and charged like a bull into his stomach hoping to knock him into the barrier and cause him even GREATER pain but Kushanku managed to manipulate the direction of his stumble and fall parallel to the solid pencil-like barrier, precariously close to the invisible bubble. As Belladonna prepared to lunge at Kushanku again, Alexandrite managed to rise to her feet and, despite having both pairs of paws bound by the thorny binds, managed to jump hastily towards the two-tailed Fox from behind. Satoshi and Akira also rose to their feet and followed Alexandrite while Sandstorm chose another direction and hopped towards Belladonna on his hind feet from the side, using his long tail as a balance.

Belladonna then sprouted a pair of Deer or Jackalope or Wolpertinger-like antlers from her head using her shapeshifting powers (the antlers sprouting and growing in a red light mould from her head and appearing from that mould) and proceeded to attempt to gore Kushanku with them to the horror of the crowd when suddenly, she felt something tackle her HARD in the side and knock her into the Incluser barrier, an electrified spark exploding at the point of impact and sending an EXTREMELY painful jolt trough her side. However, Belladonna was too consumed with bloodlust and insanity to stop and scream in agony from the shock of the force field. As this happened, Kushanku backed away and scrabbled to his feet while the crowd on the other side of the bubble screamed and also backed away as though they feared of being drawn into the fray, especially as Sandstorm, his face saturated with the most VOLCANIC wrath he had ever had in his life with his teeth gritted and saliva dripping, got down on all fours again and proceeded to ram into Belladonna again to knock her into the Incluser barrier a second time while Alexandrite, Akira and Satoshi charged Belladonna from the hindquarters and began to attack her with kicks and tackles despite the thorns of their binds digging into their ankles and wrists. The crowd, especially Tesseract, Nanu, Ahhuayo and Chicory who were amongst the spectators closest to the fight, let loose horrified gasps as Alexandrite then jumped onto Belladonna's back, throw her bound arms over the Nogitsune's head like a noose and began to squeeze the Fox's neck with all her might to try and strangle her, while Satoshi proceeded to use the thorny binds on his wrists to stab Belladonna as hard as he could in the hips while Akira leaped at the Nogitsune's two tails and sank her teeth into one of them to the point of drawing blood. Belladonna staggered under the weight of Alexandrite as she tightened the noose of her bound paws around her neck and also bit her ears and screaming from the agony caused by Akira and Alexandrite's bite attacks and Satoshi's thorn attack on her hip and stumbled away from the Incluser barrier while Sandstorm leaped onto Belladonna and proceeded to sink his teeth into her shoulder the moment she tripped, nearly crushing Satoshi under her weight only for him to dive out of the way. This bought Kushanku enough time to scrabble away from the Incluser barrier and rise to his feet but when he saw who was attacking Belladonna, immense flabbergast and horror tore through him. In the crowd outside the Incluser bubble, Paddy began to issue fiery cheers at the four as they continued to strangle and bite Belladonna mercilessly for she wanted to see the Nogitsune in a battered and bloodied state in revenge for the trouble she had caused.

"Go for it, you four!" she bellowed, "BITE HER INTO SUBMISSION!"

Some of the other members of the crowd including Lana, Suiren, Morgana, Hala and their friends also issued cheers at Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi as they continued to mercilessly bite and strangle the Fox, her antlers flashing to a red light and fading from the agony caused by her four attackers. Then finally Belladonna snapped. When her lungs' screams for air reached critical as Alexandrite's arms tightened all the more to cut off her breathing, the Nogitsune's eyes flared open and flashed a demonic red of rage. Then to the crowd's horror, and that of Kushanku, Belladonna let loose a Fox screech. She first sank her teeth as hard as she could into Alexandrite's arm despite the thorny binds cutting into her face, making Alexandrite slacken her grip around her neck before finally bolting like a wild horse to thrust Alexandrite off her back. Alexandrite was violently flung off the Nogitsune's back where she crashed near a fallen chair. Then Belladonna charged at the fallen Nekomata and reared on her hind legs, elongated her claws using her shapeshifting powers and without hesitation, slashed them right over Alexandrite's torso the moment she struggled to her feet. The crowd screamed loudly as Alexandrite was thrown by the force into the air where she landed on her front a good distance away near the barrier formed by the Incluser bubble. Then Belladonna whirled wildly round and also proceeded to slash Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm as the trio tried charging her to pounce on her again with her elongated claws. The two siblings of Kushanku and the adopted Cheetah brother were then flung aside where they crashed near some fallen chairs in the clearing to the horror of the crowd, especially Emberflame, Thundersparx, Padparadscha, Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia and also Molayne, Cyril, Link and Desdemona who screamed their names. Kushanku looked on at his four wounded comrades as they lay in their fronts, their faces twisted in EXTREME agony as though they were under the torturous effects of Belladonna's foxfire but then the Nekomata noticed something mortifying spreading out from under the four's bodies. It was red and it was spreading out from under Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi's torsos as the four lay fronts down on the floor. Then Belladonna, her bite marks bleeding and the urge to gasp for air caused by Alexandrite's throttling of her shortly overcome, and her elongated claws splashed with red, proceeded to scorn the agony of the four.

"Serves you four (bleeps) RIGHT," she crooned sadistically, her evil grin dripping with saliva, "and when this is over, YOU FOUR will be next, but I doubt I'll need to slay you anyway. I'll just let you bleed out from the wounds I have given you."

The moment these words exited Belladonna's mouth and travelled to his ears, Kushanku felt the realisation crash upon him like the crack of a Raiju's lighting flash, and the same was replicated on the members of the crowd, especially Paddy and company. The moment it dawned upon them, anguish tore through Paddy and the rest. Paddy then let loose an EXTREMELY loud cat scream of agony as her eyes remained glued to the badly wounded Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi as they struggled in agony, the pools of red growing more beneath them.

"ALEXANDRITE… SATOSHI… AKIRA… SANDSTORM… ALEXANDRIIIIIIITE!" screamed the Nekomata at the top of her voice, her eyes oozing tears and with that, she began to break down in a MASSIVE torrent of tears and screams while Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Molayne, Cyril, Link and Desdemona also let loose wails. Thundersparx and Emberflame also trembled, the former's eyes also forming tears. When Belladonna saw the anguish on Paddy and the other's faces and heard their screams of despair for the wounded four, she formed a demonic, sadistic smile on her muzzle and let loose a maniacal cackle as she relished the breaking hearts of the group. The rest of the crowd also looked on in despair at the wounded Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi and also shuddered, fearing for their lives and since the Incluser bubble was in the way, purposely set up by Belladonna to prevent any interference, those medically trained could not rush in to treat the severely wounded quarter.

Kushanku also examined the mortifying scene, his eyes darting from Alexandrite to Sandstorm and then from him to Akira and Satoshi as they struggled in their expanding pools of blood, and then to Padparadscha and the others as they continued to let loose wails of anguish and then to Belladonna as she laughed manically in relish of the scene, he stood there as still as a statue, stunned by the scene at first. However, something inside him had snapped for this was the last and FINAL leaf. Instead of breaking down in tears and despair for Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi's lives similar to Paddy and the others, something else began to boil within Kushanku. The Nekomata's face then morphed into a look of fury, but it was not just any fury, but apoplectic fury. His paws began to tremble violently and his white head hair began to spike out, and his teeth began to gnash. Under his grey fur, the skin flared to a dangerous shade of red. As Kushanku's fury began to boil dangerously, Belladonna sauntered back towards the Nekomata, her face laced with triumphant sadism.

"Now, back to dealing with some unfinished business…" she crooned mockingly but that mockery was immediately vanquished when she saw Kushanku's trembling as well as the furious look on his face. The crowd also looked on curiously.

"What's happening to Kushanku?" asked Tesseract. Then one of the Fauns who was an expert on Nekomata and Bakeneko biology and behaviour was about to reply when suddenly, an extremely loud screech exploded from Kushanku, making the crowd flinch harshly and Belladonna jump into the air in surprise. The Nekomata had entered a terrifying state. All his fur, especially his white head hair, was spiked out as though he was being electrocuted, and his claws had flared out. But what were most terrifying were his eyes, and they were blood red-orange, as red-orange as Emberflame's fire and Obsidian's red-orange marking strewing her basalt black pelt that glowed whenever the Wampus Cat got angry. Kushanku's EXTREME anger had reached explosive boiling point and it had been ignited by Belladonna's evil deed in mortally wounding Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi, four of his closest friends and family, and this state was called _fury mode_. Whenever individuals particularly close to a Nekomata or Bakeneko was in mortal danger, especially a mate and kits, that Nekomata or Bakeneko would explode into this state in which their fur would spike out, their eyes would flash red and their claws would be flared, ready to savagely attack the threat. Kushanku's father Frosty had been in this state when the pack of Wolves and Manticores mercilessly raided and slaughtered the hidden den of Aslan and Golden Age Prophecy believers so that his mate Ferntail could escape with Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira when they were still tiny baby kits resembling the kittens of Ordinary Cats, and since a Nekomata or Bakeneko's fury mode made those Magical Cats so dangerous, a few proverbs such as one that went something like this, 'it is better to face the wrath of an enraged momma bear than the wrath of an enraged Nekomata or Bakeneko' had even been invented based on the most dangerous behavioural trait of the Nekomata or Bakeneko species for once one entered fury mode, practically all bets were off.

Belladonna continued to look on horrified at Kushanku as his wrath consumed him like an explosion of fire in the form of the fury mode and before she could point a paw at what was happening to him, Kushanku had snapped his fiery orange-red glare of fire at her and the moment he did that, he released another EXTREMELY loud screech directly into the Fox's face, sending her flying and crashing into some chairs and almost the Incluser bubble. Outside the bubble, the crowd had also covered their ears from the assaulting cat screech. Paddy had also threatened to enter fury mode over Belladonna's injuring of Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira but then she realised that she would not be able to lunge at Belladonna due to the Incluser bubble so she restrained herself and calmed down, but her eyes had flashed a fiery orange-red, like those of Kushanku and she began to watch the next stage of the battle between him and the Nogitsune, her fur also spiked out and her claws flared. Fury mode was controllable by a Nekomata or a Bakeneko when they realise that they are stuck but they also remained poised to attack when the opportunity arose. Belladonna then struggled to her feet as Kushanku, self-control of his fury mode restraining him from entering into a rampage but still making his eyes glow orange red, went to check on Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira as they continued to struggle, their movements getting weaker as more blood was lost when he saw that Akira had a waist belt pouch (similar to our world's fanny pack or bum bag) attached. Quickly unzipping the pouch, Kushanku began to desperately rummage through the supplies Akira had for any potions and managed to pull out a vial of red liquid, fire-flower cordial and the only potion capable of healing wounds this severe and life-threatening when he heard an enraged Nogitsune scream. At this, the Nekomata snapped his red-orange glare of wrath and saw Belladonna, her eyes also a fiery red for Nogitsune had a similar mode when angry, charge at him and transform in a red light flash to a demonic Wolpertinger with oversized antlers aiming for him. At this, Kushanku placed the fire-flower cordial vial in Akira's bound paws behind her back and dived to one side to avoid getting gored by the antlers wielded by the shapeshifting Fox, and furiously resumed the battle, a MASSIVE cat screech exploding from his mouth, and the reason why a Nekomata or a Bakeneko in fury mode was EXTREMELY dangerous began to show itself as Kushanku launched at the demonic Wolpertinger form of Belladonna and began to savagely claw her. Feeling the vial in her bound paws and remembering that she had a waist belt pouch full of medical potions with her; Akira began to struggle to take the vial in her forked tail, the only part of her that was not bound. As soon as she had the vial in her tail branches and realising that she, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Alexandrite were running out of time for death was not too far away, Akira quickly and weakly unplugged the vial with her bound paws…

Belladonna, further enraged by the sudden turn of events, then shot an orange light eyed glare at a chair, enclosing it in an orange aura and then transformed it into an illusory demonic monster to frighten Kushanku but Kushanku, completely unfazed by the highly realistic monster, lunged at Belladonna and swiped her HARD across the face and knocked her out of the air. The illusion shell on the chair cast by Belladonna then faded as the Nogitsune in Wolpertinger form crashed hard onto the floor and forcing her to transform, via a shape-changing red light enclosing her, back into her usual purple-black Fox form with two tails. However, Belladonna rolled onto her feet, dodged another swipe attack from Kushanku and countered with her own paw swipe, knocking Kushanku onto his back. Belladonna, an enraged Fox screech exploding from her muzzle, then pounced onto Kushanku and the two began to roll, locked in a struggle as the two tried to slash and bite at each other, the crowd looking on in horror. As this happened, Akira had managed to weakly drop a drip of fire-flower cordial into her mouth from her vial held by her two tails and the moment the red drip disappeared down her throat, the Nekomata felt her strength suddenly seep back. The life-threatening claw marks inflicted on her front by Belladonna then began to heal and no more blood left her body but she knew that she had to rush to Alexandrite, Satoshi and Sandstorm's side for they did not have much time left and Alexandrite had already slipped into unconsciousness, her body having lost so much blood while Satoshi and Sandstorm's movements were weakening to the worry of the crowd and within seconds, they will be following Alexandrite as well. When they saw Akira's movements get stronger, Emberflame and Thundersparx drew in a surprised gasp as did Paddy and the others, hope also welling within them. Then Nanu signalled to Akira that her brother, adopted Cheetah brother and Alexandrite were passing away when Akira tried to release the binds holding her paws and feet, to which Akira abandoned the idea of freeing herself first and rushed over to the other three dying Cats with her fire flower cordial kept firmly in her tail branches, starting with Alexandrite who was now precariously close to the brink of death…

Unaware that Akira had managed to heal herself of the fatal wound inflicted on her by Belladonna, Belladonna and Kushanku continued their savage fight. Kushanku had managed to throw Belladonna off of him when she tried to bite his neck and had launched himself at her, a MASSIVE cat screech exploding like a volcanic eruption from his mouth. Everything happened in slow motion as the fury mode Nekomata and apoplectic two-tailed Nogitsune, both reared up on their hind legs, their minds both warped with pure VOLCANIC WRATH such that the majority of rational thought was eclipsed, proceeded to claw and slash each other, screeches exploding from their mouths and their eyes blazing orange-red, like the orange-red of a Phoenix in its firebird form, and their claws fully flared, and spittle flying from their mouths. The crowd watched on as Kushanku tried to score his claws across Belladonna's face only for Belladonna to block it and retaliated with a claw slash of her own, aiming for Kushanku's throat only for the Nekomata to dodge by arching his head back, making the claws miss the skin by inches. Belladonna then gave Kushanku a hefty shove to the chest, nearly making the Nekomata lose balance and fall over but Kushanku managed to hold his balance and raise a paw, its claws fully flared, and bring it down at Belladonna's face as Belladonna lunged at him again. This time the claws made contact and inflicted a set of claw marks right across the Nogitsune's face. The Nogitsune flung her head in the direction of the paw swipe and screeched loudly but then she retaliated with a claw swipe of her own, slashing Kushanku right across the face and inflicting him with a set of claw marks. Kushanku screeched in extreme agony as his face was flung in the direction of Belladonna's claw swipe. After this, Belladonna lunged forward and head-butted Kushanku square in the chest, knocking him down before transforming into a rabid Squirrel with overgrown fangs and charging at him. Kushanku, his face bleeding from Belladonna's claw strike and his eyes still blazing red-orange, saw the red-eyed Squirrel, its face bleeding from the claw marks Kushanku had inflicted on her when she was in her usual Fox form, charge towards him, a maniacal screech exploding from its fanged mouth and launch itself into the air at him.

The crowd screamed in horror as the Squirrel-form Belladonna pounced onto Kushanku and began to mercilessly sink her fangs into his flesh, sending Kushanku into a frenzied screeching fit of pure agony. By this time, Akira had managed to pluck Alexandrite from the brink of death with her fire-flower cordial and, with the precious vial clutched in her tail branches, had hastily jumped due to her feet still bound in her thorny binds, over to see to Satoshi and Sandstorm who were by now in the grips of unconsciousness. Unless Akira applied the fire-flower cordial to them, this would be the last time they fell asleep. Kushanku, bite marks bleeding on his arms and chest, continued to scream and writhe in agony as Belladonna scurried onto his head and proceeded to sink her fangs into his scalp but Kushanku seized the Squirrel by the tail and flung her into the air. The moment Belladonna fell back towards him, Kushanku slashed his claws over the Squirrel's back, sending the Squirrel who in a flash of red light transformed back into a two-tailed Fox, crashing and tumbling to a stop on the floor, her back now bleeding from a new set of claw marks. Kushanku then charged at the Fox and raised his claws to slash her but Belladonna reared up and seized the Nekomata in her forelimbs, much to the horrified screams of the crowd. By this time, Akira had managed to pull Sandstorm and Satoshi from the brink of death and the moment the two brothers were healed of their fatal injuries by the fire-flower cordial, the pair rushed for the safety pf the chair pile with Alexandrite and Akira so that they could undo the thorny binds holding their paws and feet together, for they knew it was too dangerous to try and attack Belladonna this time for her mind had become completely warped with pure rage. Paddy and the others formed massive smiles of joy at seeing the four alive and well again before her attention was pulled back to Belladonna and Kushanku as Belladonna, the latter locked and struggling in her forelimbs, launched like a spring a few metres into the air and then brutally crash-landed with Kushanku under her, to the crowd's flinching. Then Belladonna leaped off of Kushanku as the Nekomata struggled to stand up. However, he felt that his left leg was unresponsive. Horror flaring within him, Kushankiu flashed a red-eyed gaze of astonishment at his left leg and saw that it was kinked. The crowd saw it too and soon, it dawned upon them.

"Belladonna's fractured his LEFT LEG!" cried Guinan, her Humanoid's hands on her cheeks and her eyes wide, "That Psycho-Fox's BROKEN HIS LEFT LEG!"

Horrified murmurs rolled through the crowd and Kushanku was hopping on the unbroken leg he had left, the right one. Behind the chair heap, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira continued to struggle to untie the thorny binds but had realised that they were impenetrable for these binds had been magically conjured and had been specifically conjured to be just that. Hit with the realisation that they will not be able to free themselves and help Kushanku, the quartet decided to remain behind the safety of the chairs and watch the continuing battle between him and Belladonna. In addition, they did not want to reveal to Belladonna that they had had been rescued from the brink of death which would prompt her to fatally wound them again, but when they saw that Kushanku had been injured with a broken leg, horror tore through them. However, Kushanku, despite the agony exploding from his broken leg and still consumed with fury mode, continued his savage battle with Belladonna. Belladonna threw a paw up and flashed her red eyes in an orange light and within a split-second, a FAR MORE demonic and frightening illusory version of herself was cast right in front of Kushanku's face, making him stop dead and release a short screech of fright, for he was taken by surprise this time. Then a split-second later, a purple-black streak broke through the illusion, which faded in an evil sparkle, and pounced onto the Nekomata with a MASSIVE Fox scream.

The crowd watched on as Belladonna and Kushanku rolled in a blur of purple-black, grey, metallic powder blue and white, the pair struggling, biting and slashing each other more than ever. The two continued to violently roll until finally, Belladonna flung Kushanku with her back legs into the air as hard as she could, sending Kushanku flying back-first into the Incluser barrier, resulting in a massive electricity-like explosive sound and the invisible bubble rippling as the Nekomata smashed into it and crashed onto the floor, before the force field resumed its uniform transparent barrier again. The crowd cried and flinched as this whole thing happened, and Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira also flinched. Alexandrite let loose a scream of horror but Sandstorm wrapped his long tail around her lower face and closed off her mouth for her scream could alert Belladonna. Belladonna, her eyes flaring red and her entire body and faced slashed with bleeding scratches with blood dripping from them as well as bald patches where Kushanku had torn out her fur, then tiredly limped over to the collapsed Kushanku, his body also smothered with blood, bleeding scratches and bald patches, his white head hair a mess as he struggled to stand up. The crowd looked on as Kushanku shakily rose to his feet and then proceeded to shakily rise to his hind legs; standing only on his right leg for his left one was badly injured. Both the fighters were severely exhausted but they did NOT care one bit. The only thing they cared about was killing each other, and the crowd could still see that in their red-orange eyes. Then Kushanku, his eyes still orange-red from the fury mode still consuming, glared daggers with Belladonna who glared back rancorously with her own red eyes, indicating that he still wanted to fight her more after what she had done to Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira, and on Belladonna's side, her rancour for the Nekomata.

As Kushanku hopped over to the Fox who bared her teeth, flared her claws and puffed out her fur, her two tails becoming like elongated urchins, Nanu behind Belladonna then climbed onto a Stag's back and onto his antlers with his permission since he was too short for Kushanku to see him at ground level. The moment the young Wolf was on the Stag's antlers, he managed to subtly get Kushanku's attention without also drawing Belladonna's with a paw wave. Kushanku, at this, eyed Nanu with his red-orange eyes, his fury mode under control. The moment the Wolf managed to get the fury mode-gripped Nekomata's attention, he began to quickly spin his tail and point his paw to it. Kushanku, at this, tipped his head to one side as he was confused by the message. Then Belladonna began to limp towards him, a hiss filtering through her teeth, indicating that she was going to pounce onto the Nekomata again. Paddy and the others looked on worriedly.

"What's Nanu doing?" asked Molayne. Then Lana, seeing that Nanu's attempt to deliver the message was putting Kushanku in mortal danger, then swooped towards the Wolf and seized him from the Stag's antlers before lifting him into the air and holding him at a forward angle while she hovered, Nanu still spinning his tail, to help reinforce his message. Kushanku gazed at the Harpy and the young Wolf and tried to decipher their message. Satoshi went to help but Sandstorm stopped him for Belladonna was dangerously close by. However, Kushanku had already felt the meaning of Lana and Nanu's message dawn upon him. Belladonna accelerated her approach towards Kushanku and with a heaving of her back legs, launched herself at the Nekomata, her mouth gaping at its widest so that every tooth was on display and her clawed paws outstretched in front as she attempted to pounce on him to slash and bite him further but she only struck then air and landed flat on the floor. Belladonna then rolled onto her feet and began to shoot red-eyed glares this way and that when suddenly, a clawed Cat's paw speedily swung in and slashed her right over the side of the head. Belladonna let loose of cry and swung her head as the swipe struck but then she found herself face to face with an apoplectic fury mode Nekomata who was hovering in the air, his tail branches spinning and his fiery red-orange eyes piercing her like those of an enraged Pyro. Emberflame and the others looked on in amazement as Belladonna, outraged at being outsmarted then proceeded to try and leap at Kushanku but the Nekomata only hovered high into the air, sending Belladonna crashing headfirst into the Incluser barrier and causing a painful sparky shock. However Belladonna was too consumed with wrath to care about the pain caused by the contact with the barrier and whirled round to face the hovering Kushanku again. But as Belladonna launched herself at the hovering Nekomata once again, Kushanku spun round and struck the Fox HARD in the face with his spinning tails. The crowd winced as Belladonna crashed onto the floor. Then Kushanku hovered lower, spun round and whacked Belladonna across the face with his spinning tails again the moment she tried to stand up, knocking her down again and causing her a good deal of pain. The crowd watched on as Kushanku twisted and struck the Fox again and again with his spinning tails, again and again and inflicting Belladonna with repeated pain each and every time. Her cheeks became badly bruised and bloodied and her nose began to run blood but still Kushanku continued his relentless series of tail-spinning strikes on the Fox on one cheek and then the next.

Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira watched on with no sympathy for Belladonna as Kushanku continued striking her again and again with his spinning tails before finally resorting to vicious slaps across the face, striking the Nogitsune one cheek to the next while hovering in the air. Belladonna's head was thrown one side to the next as Kushanku's paws hit her again and again. Then after flaring the claws of one of his paws, Kushanku slashed Belladonna across the face and knocked her down before launching himself at her with an EXTREMELY loud Cat screech. The crowd watched on and cheered for Kushanku as he proceeded to maul her like a savage Wolf. He bit, clawed and slashed the Fox as well as tore out more of her fur, bit on her ear and sank his teeth as hard as he could into one of her tails, a Kitsune and Nogitsune's pride, causing Belladonna to scream in extreme agony. Some of the crowd then began to jeer at the Fox.

"I hope THAT makes you feel the PAIN you have put us through, you DISGUSSTING NOGITSUNE!" screeched Padparadscha as she watched Kushanku continued to savagely bite her tails and draw blood. Then after flying off of Belladonna and knocking her down again with a twist so that huis spinning tails could strike her face, Kushanku, his eyes flaring red-orange and his face bloodied with patches of missing fur, seized Belladonna, ascended as high as he could into the air, being wary of the Incluser bubble's height and the moment he felt it's painful shock, he stopped spinning his tail branches and deliberately dropped like a stone towards the ground with Belladonna directly under him. The crowd flinched as Kushanku slammed HARD into the ground, crushing Belladonna between himself and the floor and making Belladonna scream in EXTREME agony. The impact of the move had badly damaged Belladonna's shoulder and as Kushanku hovered off of her, the Nogitsune was struggling to stand up. Her face was twisted in agony and she was VERY blooded. Then Kushanku, without a hint of mercy or sympathy in his orange-red eyes, seized the Fox by the scruff with one paw and flared the caws of his other paw and hovered them dangerously close to Belladonna's jugular area in the neck.

"Surrender or DIE, two-tailed TOXIC NIGHTSHADE FOX!" snarled the Nekomata as he threatened to slit Belladonna's throat. Belladonna, now in extreme agony with so many injuries, began to beg Kushanku to stop but Kushanku wanted to slay the Fox regardless. However, he could not bring himself to kill her despite some of the crowd's urging. Then when he made his choice and sure that Belladonna would indeed surrender, he withdrew his claws, spat into her face and flung the battered and bloodied Belladonna back onto the floor, causing her to scream in agony as she landed. Then flying over to Satoshi, Sandstorm, Alexandrite and Akira, his eyes fading from red-orange to their usual colour as his fury mode subsided; he was met with a hug from his three siblings and friend, the crowd cheering.

However, Belladonna was not done with him yet. Seeing that she had been outsmarted and despite being severely bloodied and battered with a damaged shoulder from Kushanku's drop with her onto the floor, the EVIL Nogitsune, her eyes flaring red again, turned to Kushanku. Nanu saw the Fox eye him.

"Kushanku, look out! Belladonna's…" began the Wolf but before he could finish and to the horror of the crowd and also Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira, Belladonna flashed her eyes aqua blue and projected the aura onto Kushanku, surrounding him in an aqua blue aura and telekinetically withdrawing him away from the quartet to their horror. This done, Belladonna then fired a jolt of white fire-electricity at her paw, the one with the unbroken shoulder, at Kushanku and trapped him in a bolt, causing Kushanku to scream and writhe in agony, the most EXTREME agony he had ever experienced in his life. The crowd screamed in horror as Belladonna continued to torture Kushanku with her Foxfire. Then telekinetically levitating the terrified and agonised Nekomatra close to her Belladonna glared at him directly in his eyes, now their normal colour for his fury mode had faded, mercilessly.

"HOWN DARE YOU SUBJECT ME TO EXTREME PAIN AND OUTSMART ME YOU (censored)!" she bellowed and with that, she elongated the claws of her paw using her shapeshifting powers and rammed them into Kushanku's back, making the Nekomata go rigid with sheer agony. Kushanku's name exploded from some of the crowd members especially his closest friends and family as Belladonna withdrew her claws and threw Kushanku, now severely injured to one side to leave him to bleed to death like how she had left Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira earlier. Then Sandstorm finally snapped. As Belladonna launched into a maniacal laughter, the Cheetah cub hopped over to the Nogitsune for his paws were still bound by the thorny binds and despite the thorns digging into his paws and Satoshi, Akira and Alexandrite's calls for him to return to their side. As soon as he was near the cachinnating Fox and despite the danger that he might get himself killed, Sandstorm bellowed, "ENOUGH, you two-tailed RAT!" and with that, he raised his bound front paws and with all his might, slammed them hard onto Belladonna's damaged shoulder. Belladonna let loose an agonised scream as Sandstorm's paws struck her shoulder and as she fell onto her side on the floor. Then Alexandrite, Satoshi and Akira rushed in. Alexandrite and Satoshi stabbed Belladonna with the thorns binding their wrists to cause her more pain while Akira administered fire-flower cordial to Kushanku, saving him from bleeding out. Alexandrite and Satoshi continued to beat Belladonna with their thorny binds mercilessly until a loud Fox screech flooded the hall compartment, signalling his arrival. Then a blast of golden-yellow fire-lightning appeared and zapped into the Incluser barrier, making it fizzle for a split second and then shatter, rendering the force field non-existent meaning access to Belladonna and the others with her was unblocked. The crowd all screamed and backed away from the source of the foxfire and soon enough a pair of magnificent ivory and metallic yellow Foxes with a fan of equally magnificent nine tails spread out behind them like a Peacock's train feathers, were revealed. To the crowd's relief and also that of Kushanku, Alexandrite, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm, it were Gandalf and Kyukon and their onyx eyes were glaring fiercely at Belladonna. Tuvok, who had been the one to fetch the pair and their group of higher ranking helpers, was also present.

Belladonna, realising she had been caught and that she had no chance against the pair of 900 year old Kitsune due to their immense power and experience, then tried to make her gateway by shapeshifting into a demonic Raven and taking flight despite her damaged shoulder causing her agony. However, Ahhuayo seized an arrow and a bow from a nearby Centaurette, saying, "Excuse me, Ma'am," before nocking the arrow onto the bow and then pulling the bow's string and the arrow's tail with his tail-hand, his front hands carefully aiming the arrow's tip at the Raven. The moment he was sure that the arrow would hit, Ahhuayo released the bowstring and the arrow's tail and sent the arrow careening towards the Raven. However, the Raven dodged and continued flying on. Then Crystal the Parrot took action. Seizing a bow and arrow of her own, the Parrot chick launched herself into the air, nocked the arrow into the bow with her talons and immediately fired the arrow at the escaping Raven. This time the arrow hit and it struck Belladonna in the back. Belladonna, the sharp pain exploding from her back where the arrow had pierced her, let loose a scream of agony, transformed back into her Fox form and plummeted towards the floor, the arrow lodged in her back. However, before she could hit the ground, an aqua blue aura enclosed her and broke her fall. Gandalf had caught her with his telekinesis indicated by his glowing blue eyes and the moment he had Belladonna, the arrow still in her back and her body severely bloodied and battered from her brutal fight with Kushanku, in his mental grasp, he flared one of his paws with yellow-orange electric fire.

"Everybody, DUCK AND BACK AWAY!" shouted the male Kitsune. The crowd nearest to him, seeing what Gandalf was about to do, immediately obeyed. The flying creatures above immediately evacuated the perches and shelves while Thundersparx, Koga and Janine's father and an adult Harpy seized Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Alexandrite and Sandstorm and took them to safety. The moment everyone was within a safe distance, Gandalf glared at Belladonna one last time. His eyes which glowed with the blue aura of his telekinesis and from the imminent use of his foxfire then began to ooze tears and the nine-tailed father of the entire Kitsune species trembled at what he was about to do, something he would NEVER normally do except in life-threatening situations or if an individual was far too dangerous to be sought to by usual means, the latter he was often most reluctant. And Belladonna was one such individual and since she could not be reasoned with and was far too evil, seeing no other choice, Gandalf tearfully shot his flaming paw forward and fired a beam of yellow-orange foxfire at Belladonna. The crowd flinched and cowered with Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Alexandrite huddling close to Paddy, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Molayne, Cyril, Link and Desdemona, the band of friends and siblings united and made up at last except for one which they were yet to realise, as they huddled with Thundersparx and Emberflame and a few others as the beam of powerful foxfire, its most powerful due to the level of age and experience of its user, blasted Belladonna. All that was heard of Belladonna's bloodthirsty and sadistic voice was an agonised scream but it was only for a few seconds. Finally, everything went silent as Gandalf withdrew his foxfire beam. All that was left of Belladonna now was a blackened, lifeless carcass of a two-tailed Nogistune as it crashed onto the floor, smoked and charred and the eyes glassy and empty of life.

Belladonna, along with her unspeakable wickedness and sadism, had finally been vanquished. At the same time, Troodon, the Rabbit kit and Nyarth had been found in the air vent where they had been hiding all along by some Ravens, REAL ones, and had been seized and rushed to the medical room.


	62. Chapter 61

**Chapter 61- the damage has been done, problems for Troodon**

As soon as everything had pretty much calmed down and Belladonna's blackened body had been seized for cremation for Gandalf did not want to give the evil Nogitsune a proper burial, the casualties had been taken to the medical compartment and because they did not have time to recover and return to full health as Gandalf knew, fire-flower cordial had been administered to most of the patients rather than the other potions, such as the Fracture-Fix Potion, to speed up recovery at Gandalf's command though the casualties with more minor injuries such as cuts had refused the cordial in order to preserve it, instead insisting to the medical carers to give the cordial to the casualties with more major injuries, such as broken bones or severe stab wounds. Thus, the cordial had been directed to the casualties with those major injuries. Kushanku was glad to have the potion given to him for his broken leg rather than the revolting tasting Fracture-Fix Potion after hearing what Cyril had to go through when his wing was broken by Belladonna who had taken on the Nekomata's form to land him in trouble with the soup incident in the kitchen. Due to the number of casualties with the major injuries quite a bit of the super-precious red cordial had been used but thankfully, the medical plant farmers had managed to synthesize more of the magical potion from most of the rest of the fire flowers in the crop compartment while the remaining flowers had been transplanted into pots with the other plants to be taken on the evacuation. But despite the amount of fire-flower cordial being used, the casualties with the major injuries and poisoning, including Nyarth (who had been very close to the brink of death as a result of eating the extremely toxic and mangy apple as forced by Belladonna), Trotterhoof, Obsidian and Milky Way, were restored to health quickly, though some had not been as fortunate due to the immense severity of their injuries. Troodon and the Rabbit kit, however, were not given any of the cordial since they did not have any emergency or life-threatening injuries or conditions though they still had the chocolate cake addiction, something the fire-flower cordial was not able to heal for the addiction was more psychological than physical, meaning the two will require intensive therapy to overcome the last remnant left on them by the toxic Nogitsune but that may have to wait. Now that the base's secret was out and the Witch and her cronies were likely on their way, it was time to implement the emergency plans…

 **A little while later**

While the medical compartment was busy with frantic relatives of the casualties, Gandalf looked on sombrely. He knew that the evacuees were now in grave danger thanks to Belladonna and her insidious guise and wicked efforts. He had managed to deliver his emergency plans to the evacuees and the helpers and had made his decision: to send them on the Great Exodus to the southern country of Archenland as soon as possible while he and the rest of the inhabitants will flee elsewhere with the ultra-precious and invaluable possessions such as their books, the flora and fauna exclusive to Narnia and the aquatic creatures rescued from the Witch during the construction of the base. It was indeed devastating for Gandalf and company. They had worked EVER so hard for decades to build this highly complex base which was supposed to be a secret hiding place from the Witch and her cronies as well as a refuge for the evacuees from which they will leave for their Exodus to Archenland in a few years (with the exception of some species such as the Okuri-Inu, who were supposed to depart earlier due to their reproduction and fertility problems caused by their lack of exposure to the natural day-night cycle above ground). But that had been dashed and cut short because of the insidious and evil Belladonna, and it was so devastating that Gandalf and Kyukon had begun to weep severely. They rarely wept like this, except when some of their offspring, among them Belladonna had left them to join the Witch alongside a number of other Narnians of various species which had grieved the parents of the Kitsune species greatly. But the loss of the base's secrecy was just as devastating and as grieving as that event, and the event of the Witch taking over Narnia and locking it in the Eternal Winter, along with a HIGHLY corrupt dictatorial system involving that curse and the unfair laws and the Massacre Event, and Gandalf knew he had to get everyone to safety soon because once the Witch and her company enter the base, nothing will stop them from destroying it and capturing everyone inside. Because of this, a massive mist of panic and despair was enveloping the evacuees like a thick blizzard. Kids were wailing and individuals who had been traumatised were petrified. They did not want to see the Witch and her army of horrifying monsters again, and they certainly did not want to get involved in the slaughter like that in the Arena of Death during the three Massacre Events that had happened since the Witch's capture of Narnia in her fist of iron-solid ice marking the beginning of the Age of Winter. Things certainly were in utter turmoil at the moment. Belladonna had indeed endangered them all, and to add more salt to the wound, especially for Ena and Faline and their families and the relatives of the kids involved, Troodon and the other kids including Fluffy-Cotton, Webby the Platypus and Cloudhorn the Alicorn, who had been involved in Belladonna's release from the dungeon compartment had also played a part in this life-threatening endangerment of everyone else's lives, so they were mostly shunned by most of the other evacuees and shown no sympathy, and it was likely that forgiveness was a long way away for these kids. Even their own families fiercely shunned them because of what they had done with Ena even disowning Troodon and barring him from ever stepping near her or his siblings and cousins again, much to Troodon's heartbreak.

While Gandalf looked on tearfully, his emotions threatened to explode like an over-flooded reservoir through a dam, Kyukon had just finished speaking with a few of the medical carers, among them Belle, a Mermaid in her legged land form, about the health of Trotterhoof, Shadewing, Obsidian, Milky Way, Mensa, Rubyfeather and Quill. However, the faces of the Mermaids and Mermen, the Fauns, Fairies, Elves and medical Tengu were sombre, as Tesseract, Bombacio and Chicory could see from a short distance. However, the conversation was too low for the trio to hear but Chicory managed to read the lips of Kyukon and Belle as they spoke for she was very good at lip-reading and was able to read the movements of various creatures including Canids such as the Kitsune, and Humanoids and part-Humanoids like the Merfolk. When she deciphered what Belle was saying regarding the health of the seven victims, she turned to the Unicorn and the Sheep.

"Well, Mr Trotterhoof, Mr Shadewing, Miss Obsidian, Miss Milky Way and Mr Quill have been saved from death in the nick of time," the Sauropod said before her face fell, "But Mrs Rubyfeather and Mrs Mensa had not been as fortunate. Apparently, they had…"

At this, horrified and saddened looks came upon the faces of Tesseract and Bombacio.

"Are you meaning to say they have…" baaed the latter worriedly. Chicory was about to reply when suddenly, movement pulled the Sauropod youngster's attention back to the talkers. It was Cedrus, the patriarch of the Curupira tribe and one of Gandalf's higher ranking helpers, an Alicanto, a Troll and a few Fairies and they had a sack on them. Then as Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio examined closer, they realised that the Fairies and the Alicanto were holding some strange looking spheres while the lead Curupira had the sack's mouth open, exposing more of the spheres inside.

"Kyukon," said the lead Curupira, "We found this bag of beacon balls in the air vent where Nyarth, Troodon and Faline's missing son had been found. What do you suggest we do with them?"

"Excuse me just a minute," Kyukon politely told Belle and her group and turned to Cedrus and his group, her onyx eyes on the beacon balls. At this, she ordered Cedrus and the group to hand them to her.

"I'll destroy these," said she as soon as Cedrus and the group had handed over the sack of the balls. Then Kyukon left to deal with the beacon balls. Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio walked in.

"What are those spheres?" asked Tesseract.

"They're beacon balls," said Cedrus in a low and serious voice, "They're special magical locator objects that emit a signal that is detected on locator screens. Jadis and her cronies, especially the patrollers and the Secret Police, use them to keep track of each other's locations during their missions up and down Narnia. Unfortunately, according to Troodon and the Rabbit kit, a few of those balls have already been planted by them and Belladonna and will have alerted Jadis of the base's location since the signals emitted by the balls are able to travel even through solid matter such as earth. Even though a few of them had been planted, it's still enough to land us in serious danger of being found by the Witch and her army of Dark Sprites, Horrors, Goblins and the rest of them, seized and the base destroyed. That is why Gandalf wants to implement his pans ASAP."

Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio shuddered violently. They did not want to come face to face with those HORRIBLE creatures, and Tesseract hated to admit it but some of them, most especially the Goblin species such as the Boggle and the Pig-faced Goblins, the variety of Hags including the Tenome and the Common Hag, the demonic plant-like creatures with three toothed 'petals' around their mouths called 'Triffid-Mouths' who were armed with a long whip-like stinger that snaked out of their mouth and was used in lashing at their victims' face and injecting poison, the Slender-Men and the Xenojaws, often gave the young Unicorn nightmares for days. And Tesseract remembered that Jadis had a variety of other lone-working monsters working on her side as well. Those monsters often terrorised any Narnian that had ventured alone into the wilderness where they were most vulnerable, and he had been one of them.

When he had been a younger foal, barely a few months old based on his golden coat (Unicorns, when recently born, had golden fur instead of silvery white seen in older foals, adolescents and adults, and that golden fur is slowly replaced by the silvery white as the Unicorn grew) and had just learned to walk and gallop, he had been stalked by a Slender-Man when he got separated from his mother and the Unicorn herd in a blizzard at night while they were migrating and searching for somewhere else to live after their home was destroyed by a band of Boggles and Pig-faced Goblins for a rich deposit of precious stones and metals, all 'fossils' of deceased underground gem and metal plants native to the underground nations of Bism and surrounding under-earth countries that dwelt deep within the bowels of Narnia's earth. And Tesseract's herd's home had been above this deposit, hence the herd's forcing into wandering nomads by the Boggles and the Pig-faced Goblins. The Slender-Man had severely terrified Tesseract and had traumatised him, following wherever he went and appearing one place to the next, appearing to phase and teleport between those locations wherever the foal looked, and the Unicorn still remembered the bone-white faceless Humanoid beast with long, lanky limbs and a black suit, but what chilled the Horned Horse to the bone most was the faceless stare of the creature, and it had tormented him for a good few days. Then shortly after escaping the Slender-Man and then a patrol of Boggles, Werewolves, Common Hags and Triffid-Mouths, whom Tesseract, despite his desperation, daren't seek help from due to the terrifying, hideous appearance of the monsters, Tesseract had had a disturbing encounter with Krampus, the Father Christmas counterfeit creature resembling a bipedal Goat creature with lanky clawed fingers, massive horns and Goat's hooves. Tesseract had often described Krampus as being like an oversized Faun or Satyr, both who had Goat-like features with the latter being more goat-like than the former, who was able to summon a dark blizzard wherever he went, most of the time for Krampus sometimes dropped the blizzard to make himself appear more like Father Christmas to unwary victims like how he had appeared to Kushanku and four of Faline's Rabbit kits during their journey to Gandalf's base. Tesseract had almost been captured and possibly eaten or killed by the giant Goat-like creatures but he had managed to fight back, with one of the larger toy minions being run through with his horn, which only had been a short cone but damaging enough to inflict injury on the toy minion, and escape. After that, Tesseract had a close and chilling encounter with another horrifying lone creature, a bipedal demonic Cat. Tesseract remembered the Cat ghost as having jet black fur, upside down U-shaped white eyes with large black pupils; white hands ending in massive talons similar to Krampus's claws, and a sneering mouth stretching from cheek to cheek, that mouth being full to the lips with massive sharp rotting yellow-white teeth and fangs, and the creature walked on its hind legs like a Nekomata and its similar, single unbranched tailed cousin, the Bakeneko. In fact, Tesseract had dubbed the creature as Krampus's Bakeneko due to its resemblance to one and its magical abilities such as distorting itself and making itself appear scarier, and it had chased Tesseract through the dark, blizzardy forest until he eventually found himself in a village where he was taken in by some Archaeobirds who had found him hiding behind their shack. From that night on, Tesseract had never seen his herd or his family again but he had been grateful to the Archaeobird family who had taken him under their wings. However, that period of time had also been one of the most traumatic times of his life and he had never ventured out into the snow alone again, and the upcoming Exodus was making the Unicorn's nerves shudder violently as he feared separation from the crowd. Shivering, Tesseract left with Chicory and Bombacio, flinching when they heard a blast of foxfire explode down the corridor. The trio snapped their attention in the direction of the sound and saw a golden yellow flash. Kyukon had utilised her foxfire and had destroyed the bag of beacon balls with it.

Back in the medical compartment, Kushanku was locked with Alexandrite, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne, Link, Dahlia and also Nyarth who was restored to full health. He had been plucked from the brink of death by the administration of the fire-flower cordial just in time which had purged his system from the vile poison from Belladonna's disgusting apple he had been forced to eat under the threat of more torture from her foxfire. If the administration had occurred any later, Nyarth would have succumbed to the poison and thus become another of Belladonna's fatalities, and Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm would have had to deal with two lost brothers, this time with one of Kushanku's biological siblings. Shadewing, Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Quill and Obsidian had also been plucked from death in time when Belladonna had mortally wounded them. However, the two other seven casualties, Rubyfeather and Mensa, the mothers of Crystal and Snowwing respectively, had not been so fortunate. During their transport to the medical compartment, the pair had succumbed to their fatal injuries. The two's bodies were now wrapped in special cloths, ready for burial, and Crystal and Snowwing, tears running down their cheeks in massive torrents, were receiving condolences from their friends. Then Kushanku and company joined in the group hug to offer their condolences to the pair as they also wept. Their weeping made Sandstorm's gut wrench. This was horribly familiar. The Cheetah cub flinched and shuddered as images of a familiar Cheetah cub flashed in his mind, including how he died, and Alexandrite and Paddy (Padparadscha) also had memories of their mother and brother and how their brother had died from an illness and their mother meeting a similar demise, resulting in the sisters becoming orphans. Now two more young Talking Beasts had just become orphans as well, having lost both their parents now.

Before Mensa the Skvader and Rubyfeather the Parrot had joined Dashiell and his family with Snowwing still as an egg (Skvaders, along with Perytons and Wolpertingers, were oviparous or egg-laying creatures) and Crystal as a hatchling, the mates, or husbands, of the two had passed away. Snowwing's father had died suddenly at the clutches of the Snow Siren Yuki-onna during a hunting trip similar to how Obsidian's family had met their demise at the clutches of Krampus, while Crystal's father had passed away from hypothermia due to the freezing conditions and lack of proper shelter Rubyfeather had in her hollow from them. The deaths of their husbands had forced Mensa and Rubyfeather to leave their old homes and to seek shelter in the homes of other creatures, the mothers protecting their eggs and babies from the freezing winter during their journey. Crystal had been the only chick of Rubyfeather and her husband but Snowwing had been part of a clutch of two eggs. However his sibling had died in its egg, having been frozen to death by the winter air. As a result, only Snowwing had hatched in Dashiell and Honeycomb's den shortly after the Cheetahs had taken in Mensa and her clutch of two eggs, and also shortly after Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm had been delivered by the Sylph to the Cheetahs who were taken in. It had been a heart-breaking loss and Mensa had focussed on raising Snowwing as her only son and single mother, while Crystal had been raised by Rubyfeather who had also refused to marry another male Parrot since they had support from the other members of the family including Dashiell and Honeycomb. As the Parrot chick and Skvader kit grew, they had grown very close to their mothers but now that their mothers had passed away thanks to the wicked Belladonna, it was though a massive part of them had been hacked off, rather like a Dryad tree losing a major bough to a hacking axe of one of Jadis's merciless cronies, and it was going to be a long road to recovery for the two orphaned youngsters, and thankfully they had support from a variety of other creatures who had also lost parents, including Obsidian.

While Kushanku and company continued to comfort Snowwing and Crystal over the loss of their mothers, a familiar Theropod stood nearby, his eyes streaming massive tears down his scaly cheeks as he looked on at the group hug. Troodon was envying the group for he had longed for such a union like that from Ena and his relatives, but the group of Theropods had shunned him with Ena telling him that he was no longer her son and had told him to NEVER step near the family again, and that had slashed open a wound in Troodon that was deeper than the wound in the minds of Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira inflicted on them by Dashiell. However, the rejection was based on Troodon's own actions which made the guilt within the young Theropod churn even more, especially since he had participated in endangering everyone else's lives by freeing Belladonna from the dungeon, and now he was all alone, rejected by his own family. Tearfully and not wanting to watch Kushanku and company in their group hug any longer, Troodon left for the sleeping compartment.

A little while later, Troodon arrived at the compartment and made a beeline for the chamber he slept in. Around him, various Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures were packing up their valuables and vacating the chambers, knowing they will no longer be staying here after Belladonna's actions. Troodon dodged several passing creatures, some of them shooting him disgusted scowls as though he was some repulsive Goblin, and entered the chamber where he saw Ena (who had been administered fire-flower cordial to help mend her damaged spine but due to the severity of the damage caused by the fall from the ladder as caused by Belladonna and Troodon, she had been forced to use crutches for her spinal cord had been damaged. Despite the fire-flower cordial's fantastic properties in healing a wide variety of injuries including broken bones, there were certain injuries it cannot heal such as spinal cord damage; hence why Ena was using crutches, and it cannot revive casualties that had already died either) and the other Theropod youngsters: his mother, siblings and cousins, as they packed up their belongings. However, as Troodon took a few steps near the group of bipedal Lizards, the atmosphere above them was not at all welcoming, indicated by some of the scowls of a couple of his brothers when their eyes found him while they were packing their toys into a sack. Ena's eyes also found Troodon but the moment they did, they creased into a scowl as well.

"Give me one good reason why I should allow you near us," she hissed hostilely. Her other children and nephews and nieces, however, remained silent but maintained their fierce scowls towards Troodon. Troodon timidly shuffled his feet and tried to come up with an answer.

"Tongue stuck in your mouth?" said one of his sisters, her voice, threatening, at Troodon's initial silence.

"I'm one of your siblings," Troodon timidly replied.

"Not good enough," replied the sister, "In fact, you're not one of us anymore, especially after you injured Mommy here during our lesson with Mrs Truffula on tree crop safety."

"Yes, and neither are you my son," said Ena and with that, she and her other children and nephews and nieces resumed packing their things. Nearby, another adult Theropod, Ena's brother and Troodon's uncle, also shot Troodon a bitter glare and continued helping his offspring pack their toys and family pics. Troodon then flinched with hurt when he saw one of his cousins take a black crayon and scribble out one of the Theropodlings in one of her pictures of the family, obviously Troodon when he was a tiny baby. Troodon then tried to reason with them.

"I-I-I've only come to collect my things," he timidly said, fearing that one of the Theropods would lash at him and attack him.

"You can do it after we have packed but you are NOT packing with us," snapped Ena as she placed another family picture into her sack and turned to help one of her older sons to pack his animal figures. Troodon began to shudder, his eyes threatening to spill tears.

"Look, it was not my fault," he said, "It wasn't my fault that Belladonna had hid her true colours from me and the other few kids who helped her escape. In fact we thought she was our friend…"

"There's no point in trying to excuse your way out of the mess you have made, Troodon, we aren't changing our minds in letting you back into our family," said Ena, "You have injured me and have endangered EVERYONE'S lives."

"Alongside those other foolish kids including a few of Mrs Faline's kits, such as Fluffy-Cotton who had let out that two-tailed Snake in the first place," put in one of Troodon's brothers as he helped a cousin pack two baby Theropodlings, a couple of Troodon's recently hatched cousins and wrapped in baby blankets, into a basket ready for transport. The other Theropods nodded in agreement and continued to pack.

"Just get out of here and wait outside until we've finished," snarled Ena. As she said this, one of the sisters who was one of Troodon's clutch-mates (hatched in the same clutch of eggs as him), deliberately bumped into Troodon as she walked past and sent him into a stumble which he pulled himself out of in time. After regaining his balance, Troodon continued to gaze in disbelief at his family.

"But as I've said before, we had no idea how wicked Belladonna was and we thought she was our friend," protested the Tetropod desperately, "We didn't know she was such an evil Fox, and after she showed her true colours to us, it was too late…"

"Look, you can't escape what you have to atone for, Troodon," said Ena, "And I'm surprised you're not treating the mess you've made with seriousness and guilt. You may think what you and Belladonna have done is not significant, but those of us with true feelings and who know better, know FULL WELL that it is."

With that, she barged past Troodon one her crutches, one of her crutches nearly landing on Troodon's feet, and handed her sack of belongings, with her name written on it, to a Raven outside who took it to look after it while the Theropod family packed the rest of their things from the chamber.

"B-b-but what am I supposed to do if I have no family? You're the only family I have," the Theropod continued to protest desperately, "Furthermore, if I'm not allowed anywhere near you or even anyone else, including our family friends like Mr Flintplate and his family of Stegosaurs, how am I supposed to survive on my own?"

"Oh, Troodon, clever young lad like you should know how to improvise," said Ena with a mock smile, before her distasteful scowl returned, "I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"But you will NEVER, EVER eat with us, sleep alongside us, travel with us OR play with us EVER again, so you're entirely on your own from now on, that's for sure," put in Troodon's uncle and Ena's brother to which all the siblings and cousins nodded in agreement. Troodon, dejection and despair consuming him, breathed a distraught sigh, turned and left, leaving his family to continue packing with none of them even flashing him a sliver of concern for the now-outcast Theropod. He basically felt like a Horse that had been kicked out of his own herd or a Sheep out of his own flock with no chance or ounce of hope of returning. Tears streaming down his cheeks, Troodon rushed out of the sleeping quarters.


	63. Chapter 62

**Chapter 62- Belladonna's very disturbing backstory, Troodon's problem**

Meanwhile, back in the medical compartment, Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Alexandrite, Dahlia, Desdemona, Cyril, Link, Molayne and Paddy sat around Gandalf, a question they had been itching to ask the Kitsune since Belladonna's incarceration before Troodon and the other few kids foolishly set her free. Snowwing and Crystal had left elsewhere to grieve the loss of Mensa and Rubyfeather, their respective mothers, while the rest of the group had left for the sleeping quarters to also pack their belongings. Kyukon was also elsewhere helping the assistants to pack the precious resources ready for the emergency evacuation so Gandalf was on his own.

"Why have you been so reluctant to explain to us about Belladonna and why you found her so repulsive when you met her?" asked Kushanku.

"Was she troublesome or something?" asked Satoshi.

"Did she do something horrible, or even unforgivable, like murder someone?" asked Akira.

"Whoa, one question at a time please," said Gandalf with a paw gesture telling them to stop. Finally he put his paw down and prepared to launch into an explanation.

"We had been reluctant in explaining the reasons why we wanted Belladonna incarcerated and after her escape, found and put to death," said the Kitsune in an edgy voice, clearly indicating heartbreak over what dark path the wicked Fox had taken, "and because her history was too disturbing especially for young Talking Beast and Magical Creature ears to hear but now that you lot are aware of how evil she was and had become, I feel it's time to spill the fruit and explain why Belladonna has become such a wicked Nogitsune."

Kushanku exchanged glances with the other eleven and sat down to listen to Gandalf's explanation on Belladonna's history and how she came to be the evil Nogitsune that she was. Gandalf turned his sombre onyx-eyed gaze to Satoshi and said, "Regarding your question on her being troublesome, yes she was, but the word 'troublesome' is an understatement. Belladonna has always been an extremely evil Fox, even as a young cub and before Jadis returned to conquer Narnia. She showed signs of taking pleasure in hurting creatures and torturing them until they died even as a youngster…"

Horror tore through the listeners.

"She used to love taking pleasure in hurting things even as a young cub!?" blurted out Nyarth, "That sounds scary."

"And disturbing," put in Dahlia. Gandalf nodded in agreement.

"Indeed it was," continued the nine-tailed Fox, his magnificent collection of ivory and metallic yellow tails sweeping at the air behind him like a massive fan, "In fact, it was not just Belladonna who was starting to exhibit such disturbing behaviours. A few of the other Kitsune started doing the same but Belladonna was the most disturbing of the lot. Her incredibly sadistic behaviour started off small to begin with. She used to tear off the wings of butterflies while they were still alive and watch them writhe in agony in the grass with sickening fascination which included snickering at their suffering, and also catch dumb (non-Talking) songbirds and break their wings to watch them writhe and squawk in agony for the fun of it, amongst other things she did to them that I will not talk about."

These descriptions made Kushanku and company wince and Nyarth thought he felt his stomach lurch, especially as reminders of that vile apple flashed in his mind. 'That's exactly what Belladonna is like despite her pretty appearance,' thought the Nekomata disgustedly, and he could not believe that he had been on the receiving end of that vile Nogitsune's behaviour first, and had pretty much taken most of the brunt of it. Pushing that aside, he continued to listen to Gandalf's story.

"And despite us and her parents and older siblings and everyone else punishing her time and time again to stop being so cruel to those creatures," continued Gandalf as Kushanku and the other listeners continued taking in the story intently, "She still continued to torture and abuse dumb animals, eventually moving on to larger dumb animals like livestock such as dumb chickens when we were learning to raise those birds for food and teach our offspring and the young of our helpers, often torturing them in front of even some of the younger Talking Beasts. She ABSOLUTELY refused to ditch her sadistic ways despite our stronger and stronger warnings. To make things even worse, Belladonna had even encouraged the other students, including her own brothers and sisters and our own Kitsune offspring, to participate in her sickening experiments. Thankfully many of the students and many of our own offspring found Belladonna's so-called experiments revolting and refused to get involved with her again, but the rest, amongst them a few Fauns and Satyrs and some of Belladonna's own brothers and sisters, cousins and more distant relatives, greatly enjoyed Belladonna's torture experiments, and that was how, I believe, a small group of creatures hoping to join the Witch's side when she returned took root…"

"What else did she do?" asked Molayne. Gandalf continued with his eyes closed.

"After the horrible group had been established, Belladonna and her friends began to severely mock Aslan and exalt Jadis, and had tried to encourage more and more Talking Beasts into joining them in their torture experiments, which escalated into more serious territory, and other evil activities such as stealing and bullying. Then came a point when Belladonna and company moved to even greater evils: torturing actual Talking Beasts. Not just petty bullying like hurling mocking insults or pushing and shoving, but actual torturing, injuring and traumatising. One time, that lot lured a young Cockatrice into the woods alone under the pretence that they had a surprise for him, a lie which the Cockatrice fell for it stick, bait and trap, and when he arrived, they savagely attacked him, severely injuring him and breaking his wing, and nearly killing him in the process. Another time, they injured a Cherub, noble childlike Humanoids who have feathered wings and sparkling hair and clothes and who are very wise despite their childlike personality. They're like a Bird-Harpy, but they do not have the feathered tails and talons that Bird-Harpies have, instead having legs and feet like a Human. Furthermore, Bird-Harpies often have drabber plumages and hair in contrast to the shining and sparkly feathered wings and hair of Cherubs. Both sexes have white wings like a Dove, but male Cherubs have metallic yellow underwing contour feathers in their wings and silvery hair while the females have vivid metallic electric blue underwing contours in their wings, and shining white hair…"

"Are there any of those winged Humanoids around?" asked Sandstorm. Gandalf shook his head.

"Only a small handful of them are still present, one of who is called Passiflora who is an assistant in the library," replied the Kitsune, "The rest of the Cherubs had evacuated to Archenland, but just as we were settling into our constructed base during Jadis's conquest for Narnia, we had a larger number of Cherub assistants who would have been part of our band of helpers. However, they had been frequently targeted by the Witch's cronies, apparently for their feathers and hair for the Witch's sickening desire to add sparkling feathers and hair to her outfits of pure vanity in physical appearance, so for their safety, I have sent them off to Archenland first though only a few, such as Passiflora, had decided to remain behind to help us."

"Anyway, resuming Belladonna's backstory, she had injured a Cherub, a young one, by inflicting him with a head injury with a rock. I don't know if she had in mind to kill him or not but to kill or attempt to kill an especial noble creature like a Cherub in particular, it should be regarded as a serious, grave crime, and that for us was a serious red flag, but still Belladonna refused to turn from her wicked ways. Another time, she almost stole the eggs of a mother Bird-Drake which are draconic creatures with feathers instead of scales. One species are serpentine with Bird's wings while another species resemble the six-limbed Dragons but with the feathered Bird's wings replacing the Bat's wings instead, and Belladonna almost got a young Amphithere killed…"

Kushanku and company exchanged glances and shuddered before resuming listening to Gandalf's story about Belladonna.

"… At one point she even tried to get a young Centaur killed by trying to lure him off the precipice of a small cliff to his death. Like Cherubs though to a lesser extent, Centaurs, along with Unicorns and Kitsune well on in their years, are noble creatures and it is a grave crime to murder or attempt to murder any of them, especially young ones, and then shortly, she murdered Redfox, one of her own species members, when he was chosen to be the headmaster of a young Talking Beast's school. Belladonna wanted that position very badly and we had asked the selection of candidates to write an essay on Narnia's history to see who would be best suitable for the headmaster role. Belladonna did an essay but it was all incorrect and contained insulting content towards Aslan so we excluded her from the role, but it made her extremely angry when we chose Redfox. Shortly after that happened, we reasoned with Belladonna and told her not to even think of harming Redfox and to get a grip with herself. However, as before she did not listen and lured Redfox like she had done with so many of her other victims, into some woods. Only this time she lured him into a trap by kidnapping his cubs and once he was alone in the forest searching for his lost cubs, Belladonna and her friends pounced on him and slaughtered him…" Gandalf then began to shudder and weep as the memories of the horrific scene came flooding back. Shakily, he continued the story.

"I'll NEVER forget that disturbing scene when I saw what Belladonna and her company had done. First off, some Sylphs and Dryads who had witnessed the event, came and told us that Redfox had been murdered, so we followed them to the spot and found Belladonna and her friends and… and…" the nine-tailed Kitsune began to sway as though he were about to faint, and Dahlia could see that he was flushing to a deathly pale colour under his ivory and yellow fur as the next scene in his mind played, a VERY gruesome one indeed. At this, she deduced what could have happened to Redfox, especially based on Belladonna's guiltless confessions during her savage fight when she had Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira hostage, and before her savage and imminent fight with Kushanku

"They were making a meal out of Redfox's body," said the Jackalope at which Molayne, Link, Cyril and Desdemona shot her an outraged glare. Dahlia flinched but Gandalf confirmed the horrific scene with a nod. Uneasily, he resumed the story.

"Then we decided that that's it… THAT'S IT… THAT was the final stick. That was when we decided to evict Belladonna and her gang from our community for good. We were NOT going to tolerate such DISGUSTING behaviour amongst our community ANY LONGER so we told her and her gang to pack up and leave…"

"Why didn't you put her and her gang to death there and then?" asked Kushanku. Gandalf breathed a sad sigh.

"We're Kitsune of mercy," replied the nine-tailed Fox, "and we spared their lives in the hopes that they would change their ways via eviction but we had been UTTERLY wrong. They had joined Jadis's side and then began to train in the highly forbidden branches of dark sorcery like illusion casting and shapeshifting and when Jadis returned with her army and took over Narnia, Belladonna and some of the other Nogitsune as they are now called, posed themselves as attractive humans and lured some of the members of the human royal family downhill, and through exposure to that Devil Woman," a tear oozed from Gandalf's right eye and ran down his cheek, "Belladonna had become eviller than ever. She is honestly one of the most EVIL Fox to ever walk Narnia. That is why Kyukon had ordered her incarcerated because she was extremely dangerous. All the events in the story happened when we were over seven hundred years old, which means we had been seven-tailed Kitsune at the time with two centuries still to go before becoming nine-tailed Kitsune… and before the start of Jadis's Eternal Winter…"

"We initially thought she was a nice Kitsune in need of help," said Sandstorm as regret at taking in Belladonna boiled within him and the others with him.

"That's the thing with us Kitsune, Sandstorm," replied Gandalf sombrely and sternly, "We're very cunning, even more so than Regular Talking Foxes and the hybrids between us and Kitsune, the Foxune. We may be wise, powerful and intelligent, especially after living for centuries and reaching the final and mature nine-tailed stage, but we are also wily, and sadly, the Nogitsune had used that wiliness for evil, such as tricking so many victims, such as some of the members of the Human royal family and you guys, to take advantage of you with dire consequences such as what is happening now…"

"Were you tempted by Jadis yourself too?" asked Kushanku. At this, a dark look formed on Gandalf's face.

"Yes, I was, along with Kyukon, countless times," he replied with a nod.

"What happened?" asked Molayne, "And how did she tempt you and what did she tempt you with?"

"The first time it happened was during a sea trip to visit the Merpeople Nation. Kyukon and I were two-tailed Foxes at the time so we were still fulfilling our roles in having more Kitsune cubs, and learning about the world of Narnia," replied Gandalf, "One night, when I was stargazing with a Centaur on the stern of the ship, called _Sea Breeze,_ the Centaur explaining to me how Centaurs such as himself were gifted stargazers and made prophecies based on the Stars' movements, and that the Stars were living beings, (that was when I started referring the Star People as 'the Sylphs of the Skies' sometimes, alongside the other sky-dwelling creatures such as the Moon Viscacha, Baku and other creatures who live on the Moon and are in charge of catching and distributing dreams), when the Centaur went to tend to something else on the ship's deck and I was left alone on the stern, I got a vision, and a very disturbing one. Beautifully disturbing that is since it was supposed to resemble some heavenly scenery. However, despite the beauty in the vision, I knew eventually that it was not from Aslan based on who was putting the vision in my head, and from the warnings Aslan gave me and Kyukon that we will be tempted during our learning path."

Kushanku, Satoshi, Nyarth, Akira, Sandstorm, Alexandrite, Dahlia, Desdemona, Cyril, Link, Molayne and Paddy all flinched. They wouldn't have thought that such a wise Kitsune as Gandalf would be targeted by the evil Witch. However, Gandalf and Kyukon had been only a couple of centuries old at the time, and still learning.

"Go on," said Alexandrite.

"In that vision," explained Gandalf, "appeared Jadis in the form of a beautiful, white, glittering Lioness, and she told me that she would make me and Kyukon into nine-tailed Kitsune right away, complete with all the power and strength that came with the level, if we would declare her to be the one true Goddess of Narnia, and the true Lion. Now as I said before, Aslan had told me and Kyukon that we had plenty of learning to do before we could become nine-tailed Foxes and that we should grow, learn and develop for 900 years. The nine-tailed stage of the Kitsune, with the ivory and metallic yellow fur, was the mark and crown of wisdom and experience in the Kitsune species, he told us, and if Kyukon and I ever took up the offer in becoming that stage on the spot, we would mar that status and possibly become extremely proud and boastful. Not to mention look foolish and stupid since we were still learning and we would have been plunged into a pit of misery on top of that. And Aslan had warned us that we would be tempted by the Witch shortly after he assigned us with the roles of producing Kitsune offspring and collecting records of events that happen throughout Narnia, as well as travel up and down the world to learn and gather information about it…"

"Nine tails and ivory and metallic yellow fur are often regarded as highly noble status amongst the Kitsune species aren't they?" said Paddy.

"Yes, they are," said Gandalf sternly, "They're a mark of centuries of wisdom and experience besides power and status, and it was VERY important that we grow and learn and work intensely first before reaching that milestone, as commanded by Aslan, and believe me, it had not been an easy path. Not only must we wait for hundreds of years but work hard and learn as well, which was what we did throughout our lives. If we accepted that offer from the Witch would be to take a shortcut and make a HUGE, despairing mess. Thus keeping that command and the warnings of the Lion in mind, and remembering who the REAL God, Lord, Lion and Creator of Narnia was, I upfront and blatantly refused and told the Witch to go away and to stop trying to pretend to be Aslan. However, that was not the last time I had seen of the Witch."

"You were repeatedly tempted time and time again by Jadis each time you were out of Narnia's boundaries, weren't you?" asked Link.

"Yes, over and over again," replied Gandalf, "And each and every time she would take on a different image and offer me and Kyukon that shortcut to becoming nine-tailed Foxes with all the power and status associated with it…"

Gandalf then rose to his four feet and walked a short distance, his nine tails sweeping out behind him. "And because she wouldn't appear before me and Kyukon physically whenever we were out of Narnia's boundaries, it was clear she was using very dark magic to either get into my head so to speak, or appear in reflective surfaces before me, such as mirrors or water, without having to meet me and Kyukon in person. It was similar to how Dryads and their relatives would leave their trees and travel in leafy spirit form since obviously many of them cannot move their tree bodies from their rooted spots in the earth. Based on the utterly sinister techniques the Witch used to appear before me and so many other individuals without appearing herself in person, Kyukon had referred to it as either some form of telepathy, or astral projection. To me regarding the head tricks however, I refer to her tricks as telepathic projection since she kept putting images of herself into my head…"

Kushanku and company exchanged glances and gazed back to Gandalf as he returned to them, some of them even shuddering.

"Telepathic projection?" repeated Akira curiously.

"That sounds terrifying," said Alexandrite. Gandalf nodded gently.

"It is," he said, "In fact, it's sinister enough to send shivers down even the bravest Centaur warrior, wisest Sphinx, and even the wisest Kitsune such as myself and Kyukon, and it's still terrifies me to this day. But let's not go there." Gandalf took a moment to recollect his shivering nerves. "What Jadis was up to was _extremely_ dark and absolutely NOT fit for discussion. All you need to know is she was constantly tempting not just me and Kyukon but also other creatures and the humans as well, possibly via the same telepathic or visual projective methods as well. Thankfully, many of us resisted that Devil Woman's temptations though some of them had not been so wise and ended up giving into her temptations…" Gandalf's gaze then morphed into a distasteful scowl, "Jadis is the Ultimate Temptress, kids. She is a Serpent and a Nogitsune with the slyness of both those animals, a Fiend who often disguises herself as an angel of light and even slyly puts up every definition of it in her behavioural facade of one. She is a Liar and the Mother of all lies in Narnia, as well as a Destroyer, and savage hater and of love and kindness, of Aslan, and of anything that is good. Don't EVER… EVER… underestimate how powerful she is in her temptations and her magic, kids. She is NOT to be messed with, and certainly not for a nine-tailed Kitsune like me and Kyukon to mess with either, except in dire situations but due to her immense power, Jadis can easily overpower a nine-tailed Kitsune…"

"We never liked that Snake anyway," said Sandstorm spitefully, "Especially after what she has done to us and so many other Narnians…"

"Yes, tearing apart families and groups, our freedom and even our very HEARTS by throwing loved ones into that Arena of Blood for her own sickening entertainment under the guise of a better life and freedom from her winter curse still makes us want to throw up," said Padparadscha spitefully. Then Link shuddered as the memories of seeing the violence on the magical TV back at Dashiell's place flashed in his head. Despite it being many months since the most recent Massacre Event, the images were still as fresh in his mind as they would have been if they had occurred yesterday, and the Peryton Fawn shuddered as well.

"And it seemed that the Witch has had an indescribable influence on those who fell for her side as well, hasn't she?" asked Molayne. Gandalf, a stern look on his face, nodded.

"Yes, and unfortunately, some of our own Kitsune offspring, among them Belladonna, had been some of those individuals," Gandalf then closed his onyx eyes and allowed a tear to ooze through the lids of his left eye, "and after years of training in the areas of dark sorcery under Jadis's leadership as well as the exposure to her evil followers like the Hags, and their influence, Belladonna's already twisted personality had been amplified a thousand times over. It still makes my heart writhe and thrash painfully even to this day and when Jadis eventually returned and conquered Narnia as prophesied by Aslan and the Centaur Prophets, it tore our hearts up further, but we knew we had to carry on with our work and finish the base in time for that horrific time period. Thankfully we managed to complete it in time just before the Witch came in with her evil army…"

"But it's served its purpose, anyway, until Belladonna came and ruined everything and put all of us in danger of the Witch and her cronies," said Kushanku. Gandalf slowly nodded, tears falling from his eyes in a larger trickle.

"That was the very FINAL straw for me, Kyukon and everyone else, especially the other Kitsune," said the nine-tailed Fox in an edgy voice, "That is why we wanted her hunted down and killed as soon as possible but by the time we had found her, it was already too late."

As he said this, a familiar scaly creature with a body plan somewhat similar to an Archaeaobird but without the feathers came in. However, as he entered the room, what Desdemona the Griffin said next made him flinch harshly and jolt his already oversized guilt.

"And Troodon and the other kids had participated in her wicked plans as well," put in the Griffin. Gandalf, at this, turned his glare to Troodon as he slowly trudged into the room, his eyes sending a massive stream of tears down his scaly cheeks. At the same time, Bursyamo, Cedrus the leader of the Curupira tribe and one of the last few Cherubs present, a female named Passiflora, entered the room and spotted Troodon as he flinched in the glare of the ivory and metallic yellow nine-tailed Fox.

"Yes, and I HOPE those kids such as him there learn an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT lesson from this mess as well! Their actions have jeopardised EVERYONE, including themselves," growled Gandalf in an angry but controlled voice. Troodon timidly and tearfully backed away and shuddered, expecting the nine-tailed Fox to attack him or declare him no longer a member of the evacuees. However, Gandalf did not. Over 900 years of experience had taught the Kitsune father to restrain his temper and now the fruition of that experience he had gained over such longevity was showing. Then Gandalf turned to Kushanku and company and firmly said, "Now you folks leave and pack your stuff. You've a very big trip ahead of you to prepare and we haven't got much time."

Kushanku and the others felt nodded and obediently rose to their feet and left one by one. However, as they left and were joined by the still-grieving Snowwing and Crystal, Dahlia and Cyril flashed Troodon a stink eye.

"Traitorous lizard," hissed the latter while the former hurled a glob of saliva in disgust at Troodon, but Gandalf grunted at the pair in rebuke. Flashing the Kitsune a surprised look, Cyril and Dahlia hurried out of the room after the others. After Kushanku and company had disappeared, Troodon came forward. His eyes were tearstained and a dry river of tears each ran down his cheeks. However, he still felt the agony of his family's disownment threatening to send more tears to his eyes. Sadly, he eyed Gandalf, Bursyamo, Cedrus and Passiflora.

"My family has also kicked me out of their circle, they were THAT furious with me," groaned the bipedal Lizard.

"Well, I'm not surprised, Troodon," said Bursyamo with a frown, "I'd have done the same thing to any of my underlings if ANY of them helped Belladonna in her schemes, but it would only be temporary. Then once they are TRULY sorry over what they had done and they return to me and apologise, I would welcome them back to my family with open wings."

"My son was rebellious and of course he ran away but after he ran into trouble," said Cedrus, "he realised the error of his ways and returned to me and apologised to me for being naughty."

"Same here even though none of my children had ever run away," said Passiflora, her magnificent white wings decorated with metallic electric blue feathers neatly folded behind her back. Gandalf then rose to his four feet and walked over to Troodon, a disgusted look on his face.

"And Ijust cannot BELIEVE that you and a few of the other kids have disobeyed our commands to stay out of the dungeon, and away from Belladonna but you did," said the Fox, "so now you have to pay the penalty. Not to mention the fact you foolishly allowed that Nogitsune to escape leading to subsequent mess with her evil tricks and eventual devastation that you now see."

Troodon lowered his head in genuine shame. He was indeed ashamed, and his eyes threatened to weep tears again. Then Passiflora came in.

"I think you just need some time away from your family to think about what you've done, dear little Theropod," she said in her childlike voice which was laced with firmness and sympathy, "Then maybe return to them and apologise for all the trouble you've caused."

"No, Mrs Passiflora," said Troodon, his eyes on the Cherub, "I'm disowned and out of the family and that's it. I'm no longer a part of them permanently."

At this, shock tore through Passiflora, Bursyamo, Cedrus and Gandalf and they flinched.

"You can't be serious!" growled Gandalf.

"Are you meaning to say they've kicked you out forever?" asked Bursyamo. Troodon nodded. Cedrus shot a gaze at the other three.

"I'm sure Ena didn't really mean it," said the lead Curupira.

"No, you don't understand," protested Troodon desperately, "Mother REALLY DID mean it and has told me to leave the family and never return, full stop. I'm no longer a part of them."

"But you're still a young Theropod, not even an adolescent," said Passiflora, "You're not old enough to go by yourself. What are you supposed to do without your family's protection?"

"They don't care one bit," said Troodon. Passiflora, Bursyamo, Cedrus and Gandalf exchanged glances. This was not good.

"Then I'll have a word with them," said Cedrus firmly.

"Me too," put in Passiflora. With that, the Curupira patriarch and the Cherub left the room and disappeared down the corridor in the direction of the sleeping quarters where most of the evacuees had left to pack their things. Gandalf, Troodon and Bursyamo were left.

"We can't have disownment at this time of crisis," said Bursyamo to Gandalf, "These young Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures will NEED their families for the difficult and dangerous journey ahead of them."

"Well, you look after Troodon while I check on the other evacuees and the helpers as they pack the precious resources," said Gandalf firmly, "I've just realised that my help may be needed."

Then he got up and left, but not before shooting Troodon one last stern but sympathetic gaze. Troodon breathed a sigh and said nothing as Gandalf then left down the corridor, his nine magnificent tails sweeping out behind him.


	64. Chapter 63

**Chapter 63- Cedrus tries to sort the problem and takes Troodon in**

The evacuees, or rather, soon-to-be Archenland Exodus travellers, continued to pack their stuff into bags, sacks, baskets and other containers. Pyros such as Emberflame were preparing their protective lamps that will shield them from the Witch's cold curse in the air due to its lethality to them, while baby Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures such as Eureka and Citron the Otters, were being placed into special baby baskets made of metal and lined with soft bedding to shield them from the cold as well. In one cell of the sleeping quarters, Guinan the Faun gazed for the last time at one of her most valuable possessions, the family picture of her and her relatives including her uncle and his son, Guinan's cousin, whom she had mentioned to her friends was named Tumnus and who was roughly the same age as her. However, Tumnus and his father were not with Guinan and the others in what was left of Guinan's Faun clan and their Talking Beast adoptees, alongside some of the other members. These missing members had moved to live elsewhere in Narnia since the calamity involving Belladonna casting an illusion on her wicked teddy toy to turn it into a massive demonic figure to severely frighten the woodworkers, resulting in the gruesome and very bloody chain reaction no different to the scenes in the Arena of Death and culminating in a disaster zone and the deaths of the Faun clan's patriarch and a number of other creatures including one of Guinan's older brothers, and three childhood Talking Beast friends: a young Moa, a Roadrunner and a Lightning Bird, also called an Impundulu, which was a grounded and flightless version of a Thunderbird and had electrical powers similar to one though not as powerful for they could not summon mini rainclouds. That incident was what led to the village disbanding and scattering to live elsewhere since without the Faun patriarch, they were as helpless as an Elephant herd without its lead matriarch who was often the brains of the herd and knew where the food-abundant areas were.

Guinan's older brother, the Roadrunner, the Moa and the Lightning Bird had been four of Guinan's closest friends who had often comforted her and been there for her in times of trouble, but they had died in the calamity Belladonna had brought upon the village in which they and the clan lived. Belladonna had deliberately caused the incident to entertain her sickening thrill of seeing blood splatter and other gory things, and though she had been the cause of that incident, none of Guinana's clan members had any idea that she was responsible. The Lightning Bird had been in the woodworking area helping Guinan's brother chop up firewood while the Moa had been working with some Rabbits and a Dwarf in stripping the logs of any stumps for their processing into the firewood, and they had gruesomely died in the chain reaction at Belladonna's clutches. The Roadrunner had been returning from a hunting trip and a stray piece of wood had flown from the calamity scene and had gruesomely killed him and injured several of the other members of the hunting party. There were three members, one of them being a Troll characterised by his brightly coloured hair for good Trolls possessed colourful hair of various colours, unlike the Curupira whose hair was various shades of red in the males, and orange in the females, who had been in that hunting party still present but they had been severely traumatised by the incident, and had been having some counselling sessions with some of Gandalf's helpers trained in that area to help overcome, what most of us would call in our world, post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The Troll was with Guinan and her family, packing his belongings with the other members and he was very clearly nervous about venturing outside of the base on the mighty Exodus to Archenland.

Guinan's eyes oozed massive tears and streamed down her face as she gazed at the certain Faun, the Roadrunner, the flightless Roadrunner-like electric Bird and the Kiwi-like bird who was around half her size at the time for Moas grew to be massive Birds like their extinct counterparts in our world, albeit not as big, but still as tall as the average height of a male Slender-Man. Guinan's heart contracted with agony and grief once again as she continued to grieve the loss of the four friends. She, along with the other members of the clan, had never seen who was responsible for the gory deaths of these four alongside the other fatalities including the Faun clan patriarch, but Guinan had deduced that one of the visiting cronies of Jadis who had arrived to collect the 90 percent food offering from each of the households may have been responsible. Since that incident, Guinan had developed a deep-seated grudge against ALL of Jadis's cronies and the Witch herself and had not been able to release it and move on, despite counselling from some of Gandalf's helpers and their telling her to let it go. Tearfully and sniffling, the Faun girl packed her picture into a bag before resuming collecting her other belongings. As the family of Fauns and their Talking Beast Adoptees, including the family of Moas and Impudulu and also the widowed Roadrunner whose only son had died in the incident continued to pack their things, Nyarth came by and saw Guinan sit down on her bed and weep, her sobs rocking her upper body and twisting her face and sending massive streams of tears running down her cheeks from her eyes, the sadness over the village incident overwhelming her and prompting one of the adult Moas who had been the mother of the young Moa lost in the event, to stop and talk to her, resulting in the initiation of a conversation about the woodworking area incident. Nyarth flinched. He did not want to tell Guinan that Belladonna was the one responsible for the cause of that disaster as it would cause even more grief, and Guinan and her company already had enough of that, and the fact that she still found it incredibly hilarious as shew confessed to Pazuzu and the other cronies present made his guts twist. Maybe he will tell her in time but the oldest brother of Kushanku knew that now was not the right moment. Sadly with sympathy for Guinan boiling within him, the Nekomata followed his siblings and their company into their chamber to pack with their roommates who had also slept in there.

As the packing continued, Cedrus and Passiflora had arrived in the sleeping quarters and had located Ena and the rest of Troodon's family of Theropods. Running over to them, the chief Curupira and the Cherub managed to catch their attention and before long, the two helpers of Gandalf had launched into a conversation with the bipedal Reptiles regarding Troodon and their expulsion of him from their circle permanently.

"Look, we understand how UPSET you guys are with Troodon over what he had done under Belladonna's coercion alongside Webby and the other foolish kids," said Cedrus, "We're also upset and furious with him and those lot too but that should NOT be a reason to kick him out of your circle of family."

"Certainly not with a very dangerous and _imminent_ trip coming up," put in Passiflora. The Cherub then breathed a sigh, "Look, it's understandable you're so furious with him, all of you," the childlike winged Humanoid shot her frown at the other family members as they checked the presence of their things, the younger Theropods and also the Theropodlings and eggs in the special protective baby baskets. Passiflora then turned her gaze back to Ena and continued. "It's true Troodon, and the other kids including Fluffy-Cotton, have made a _lethal_ mistake in thinking that bloodthirsty mindless brute Vampire of a Fox was a sweet, kind and even cherubic Kitsune with a personality matching even that of us Cherubs, only to realise too late that those traits were a mere illusion intentionally cast to cover up her true nature as a psychotic, sadistic, bloodthirsty, bloodlust-obsessed, devilish Wendigo."

Passiflora shook her head as guilt also gripped her.

"In fact, even _I_ thought Belladonna was such a sweet Fox the first time I saw her when she was being taken to the dungeon compartment at Kyukon's command, and I thought she had repented of her disturbing ways when she was evicted alongside the other severely misbehaving Talking Beasts," the Cherub continued, still shuddering with guilt, "but then I realised how wrong I had been. Kyukon was indeed wise to have her incarcerated."

Cedrus also nodded in agreement, for he had also been fooled by Belladonna's sweet appearance, at which the Curupira patriarch could not believe he had also fallen for that deception bait, leaves and trap (a Curupira and many other land species' equivalent saying to 'hook, line and sinker' which some semi-aquatic creatures such as the Marsh-Wiggle, Ahuizotl, Gillmen and Kappa, would sometimes use). In fact, Cedrus felt incredibly guilty and foolish and shuddered, so he put an agreeing hand on the Cherub's shoulder.

"You're not the only one, Passiflora," he said gently to which Passiflora flashed him a glance. Ena then shot the Cherub and the Curupira a glare.

"Troodon and the other kids with him including those stupid five Rabbit kittens of Faline have endangered ALL of us," growled she before rising to her feet and her crutches and hobbling off to help her brother and Troodon's uncle, named Dromaeo, as he counted the eggs and the baby Theropodlings in the baby baskets to ensure that all were present.

"But he is still one of your sons, Ena, don't you get it?" protested Cedrus as he and Passiflora followed the adult Theropod to Dromaeo as he finished counting the eggs and Theropodlings.

"Look, given the chance, I'd have throttled him REAL good myself," continued Cedrus, "But he did not know any better, and neither did the other kids who foolishly set Belladonna free. He's a young Theropod, and he's bound to make mistakes."

"And he WILL know better the next time he is baited with a scam disguised as something harmless and innocent-looking," added Passiflora. At this, Dromaeo shot the pair a stunned and scornful look.

"Oh, so you'll think he'll learn from this mess, huh?" retorted the male Theropod and Ena's brother rhetorically, "Well, I doubt it. He's NEVER learned ANYTHING since he was a young Theropod toddler."

"Yeah, he's always been a troublemaker since he started walking and running, and since Papa abandoned us," growled one of Troodon's sisters as she went past with one of the bags of belongings. Ena nodded in agreement.

"That brat has brought the mess upon himself," growled she, "So NO. He is absolutely… NOT… skipping back into our circle."

"Yes, there are OTHER families of Talking Beasts including a couple of other Theropod families he can turn to," put in Dromaeo, "So let them try and sort that _wretched_ boy out."

"But do you think turning your backs on him before an imminently dangerous journey ahead of us all is punishing him, Ena and Dromaeo, because we certainly don't," said Passiflora firmly.

"All he needs is a firm rod of discipline to his back, you two," said Cedrus, "and besides that…"

"And besides what?" snapped Ena brusquely and disgustedly, cutting Cedrus off, "That troublesome pest travelling with us on this trip to Archenland after what HE and the other KIDS have done to the rest of us in setting that furry, two-tailed _dung_ _worm_ from the dungeon against Gandalf and Kyukon's orders and allowing her to cause trouble eventually leading to our location, which was supposed to be a safe haven from the Eternal Winter aboveground for a number of years, being revealed to that bloodthirsty, power-obsessed Snow Serpent and her band of ugly and equally psychotic, bloodthirsty and HIGHLY IMMORAL slime-balls, eh?"

"Not to mention cause that incident in the crop compartment during Truffula's tree crop safety lesson in which Ena's back was badly damaged such that she is never able to walk without crutches or run again, because of him," put in Dromaeo. The uncle of Troodon then breathed a sigh. "Let's face it, Cedrus and Passiflora. WE have failed as ADULTS in bringing Troodon up and raising him to be a responsible young Theropod, especially ever since Ena's mate and my brother-in-law had abandoned us. Despite all we could do, he just would NOT behave."

"Now after what he had done including injuring me, we've had our fill of it," put in Eva, "So he's on his own from now on."

At this, Guinan and her group came by. Guinan had been listening in on the conversation for much of this time.

"Well if he's been such a troublemaker even as a young Theropod, then maybe something traumatic must have happened to him at some point, either at the clutches of that Snow Beast's cronies or perhaps abandonment by someone from his own family?" asked the Faun girl. Cedrus, at this, gently but firmly commanded Guinan to leave and to let him and Passiflora deal with this. Guinan obeyed and followed her family and their adopted Talking Beast members and left the sleeping quarters. However, one of the Impundulu flashed a concerned glance back at Troodon's family and felt concern for a certain Theropod well within him despite being angry with the Reptile for endangering everyone's lives including his own. A sigh escaping his beak, the flightless Lightning Bird left after the others.

"Look, Troodon needs watchful eyes on him, not disownment and a kicking out, especially during the imminent trip to Archenland," continued Cedrus to Ena and Dromaeo, "You'll only make things MUCH worse…"

"B-b-but we've given him chance after chance after chance for him to behave," retorted Ena, "and STILL he refuses to change. Well, now we've reached the end of our tails with that lad. His release of Belladonna despite Gandalf and Kyukon's orders and his injuring of me are the final sticks."

"So from now on, he's by himself," put in Dromaeo as he watched some of the younger Theropods including one of Troodon's older sisters take away the baskets containing the eggs and Theropodlings.

"So you're perfectly happy having Troodon travelling ALL by himself on the dangerous journey to Archenland, through that snowy and multi-branching terrain, without ANY form of family protection?" asked Passiflora, before the Cherub shuddered, "What if he strays from the group and ends up in danger? Young Narnians are EXTREMELY vulnerable to predators like that Father Christmas impersonator _Krampus…"_ the Cherub practically spat the name with pure malice and _extremely_ acidic rancour that was far more corrosive than any acidic substance that existed in the world of Narnia. This was unusual and out of character for a highly noble and childlike species of Magical Creature, and Cherubs VERY rarely, if ever, expressed such negative feelings, but the reason why they detested the snow demon Krampus was obvious besides what the doppelgänger of Father Christmas did with innocent young Narnians after posing as the real Father Christmas, who had not been seen in Narnia since Jadis, the other creature all the Cherubs also DESPISED with an extremely ACIDIC rancour, took it over and locked it in the Eternal Winter, and luring them into his fatal traps.

Some of the sleigh-driving Goat Demon's toy-based minions were a band of highly demonic dolls that resembled the real, flesh-and-blood Cherubs. These living dolls had feathered wings but unlike the wings of the real Cherubs which were a beautiful white decorated with metallic covert feathers (metallic yellow in the males, electric blue in the females), the wings of the Cherub dolls of Krampus were ragged and smeared with dirty ashy brown and black. The dolls also had ragged clothes much like the Shadows and other Spectre species, and also the Banshees and the various species of Hags; grotesquely bulbous eyes like a Boggart or some other creatures of Jadis with that trait (such as the late Gollum the Black Dwarf) which were a shining menacing white like those of a Wendigo, and an _extremely_ bloodthirsty and sadistic nature with an overinflated love of torturing their victims in the bloodiest and goriest of ways. Some of these aberrations even had the ability to throw out their tongues like a whip similar to the Triffid-Mouths while some others were armed with razor-sharp fangs and long finger claws like a Sabre-Toothed Cat or a Drop Bear. This was the biggest reason why all Cherubs DETESTED Krampus with a CAUSTIC passion, far more caustic than even Belladonna's toxic traits, and on par with the hatred they harboured for the White Witch. To add insult to injury, it was theorized that Krampus may have created these demonic Cherub-like dolls as a downright mockery of the childlike and highly noble Cherub species, possibly because these creatures were naturally loyal to Aslan; someone Krampus despised the most like the White Witch. This caustic rancour for the Father Christmas impersonator was being expressed by Passiflora just now. Pushing her extremely acidic hatred for Krampus aside, Passiflora continued.

"As I was saying, are you guys happy in leaving Troodon, who is still a young Theropod, barely even an adolescent, to travel by himself?" asked the Cherub. However, what came out of Ena's Reptilian jaws, as well as the tone lacing it, sent hot outrage tearing through the winged Humanoid and the Curupira.

"Well if Troodon DID wander into danger," said the female adult Theropod in a voice tone that was as indifferent and as frigid as the snow aboveground, "Then he's gonna have to find his own way out of it. But if he doesn't, and he ends up either gruesomely tortured and killed or eaten alive by some of Krampus's toy minions such as those dolls with the ragged, feathered wings, then that's HIS problem and not ours."

Cedrus's mouth dropped open while Passiflora flinched violently, her white and electric blue wings flapping slightly at the mentioning of her species' most detested creature in Narnia besides Jadis. Not to mention the fact that Ena just had the _audacity_ to intensively mention those abominable demon toys in front of her.

"ENA!" shouted Cedrus in utmost appal, attracting the attention of Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi as they also walked past with Alexandrite, Padparadscha, Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Molayne, and Crystal, Snowwing and Dahlia. At this, this group stopped to watch the talk between Ena, Dromaeo and Cedrus and Passiflora while the other Theropods of Troodon's family continued to check over their things and move out.

"THAT… is an EXTREMELY CRUEL… and FLABBERGASTING THING to say about your OWN SON!" yelled Cedrus in controlled anger, his appal at Ena's cold attitude towards Troodon boiling within him.

"Well I guess that tone of voice of yours, as well as WHAT YOU'VE JUST MENTIONED, says it all," said Passiflora disgustedly, her arms folded and her face creased into that expression, clearl;y offended at Ena's mentioning of the pseudo-Cherub dolls of Krampus boiling within her glare. Kushanku and the others with him exchanged glances.

"Did I just hear what came out of Mrs Ena's mouth right?" asked Alexandrite in a low voice, to which none of the others replied for the shock at Troodon's mother's choice of words had blocked their own ability to form words themselves. Flabbergast as intense as that flaring in Cedrus and Passiflora rooting them to the spot, the group continued to listen, Sandstorm especially shuddering, remembering how Dashiell had disowned him and his four adopted Nekomata siblings the other day, but this was worse… MUCH worse.

"Well, we have PLENTY of other things to be flabbergasted about, haven't we?" continued Ena without a single sliver of care, and any remorse she had in offending Passiflora seemed to be absent for she was too consumed with her fury against Troodon to even care. Cedrus and Passiflora continued to stand there, speechless gazes on Ena and Dromaeo and their uncaring attitude towards Troodon. It was clear that these two have not only disowned the young Theropod but they had also thrown away any care they had for Troodon as well, even if he did wind up in danger with possible fatal results, such as at the clutches of the wicked Krampus. As this conclusion churned in his mind, Cedrus's eyes picked up the presence of a group of forms standing nearby. At this, the Curupira turned his gaze and eyed Kushanku and the others, clearly disapproving at the group's presence and their staring at them and Ena and her family.

"Can you lot prepare for the Exodus please?" said the Curupira tribe patriarch. Passiflora also delivered a silent reinforcement to Cedrus's command with a firm face. Kushanku and the others obediently nodded, picked up their bags and left the sleeping quarter compartment. As soon as the group had gone, Cedrus and Passiflora resumed their talk with the two Theropods as they prepared to follow their offspring and Dromeao's mate.

"Listen, Ena and Dromeao, you've cared for Troodon in his egg and have raised him…" continued Cedrus in the hope that he might get Ena to change her mind but once again, Ena brusquely cut him off with her indifferent, uncaring attitude and cold answers.

"We don't wanna hear it," said the female Theropod as she hopped along on her crutches with Dromaeo supporting her. At this, Cedrus finally reached the end of his hair with the Theropod's stubbornness and refusal to listen. However, he kept his composure.

"Well, if YOU aren't gonna take him with you on the dangerous journey, then I'LL take him into my tribe," he growled, "He's gonna need some proper discipline and also protection…"

"Look, Troodon is a troublemaker, right?" snapped Ena, "He's made his nest, so he must lay in it. He's on his own from now on so now he MUST find his own way in life. Let him pay the penalty."

"There is NO WAY he is gonna return to our circle, now or EVER," added Dromaeo. Passiflora then formed an angry look on her face.

"Well, WE are NOT gonna have ANY young Talking Beast or Magical Creature travelling by THEMSELVES through hazardous terrain where every corner is likely to conceal a potential predator such as that Snow dung-heap MONSTER Krampus or wild non-talking beasts," retorted the Cherub.

"Well, one of the other families and groups can take him in but I highly doubt they will since he had also endangered THEIR lives as well as ours," snapped Ena.

"Then I rest my case," snapped Cedrus, "I will take him into my tribe and take him with us."

With that, the Cururpira walked away with Passiflora following him. At this, Ena hobbled after the pair.

"WHAT!? You wanna RAISE THAT BRAT YOURSELVES!?" shouted the female adult Theropod.

"Yes, if you WON'T," snapped Cedrus, "Listen, I have some firm ground rules I hope will correct that Theropod's troublesome behaviour, so don't you worry…"

And with that, he and Passiflora left for the entrance to the sleeping quarters. Ena began to screech after them.

"Well, you watch, he's gonna disobey EACH and EVERY ONE of them and NOT LISTEN to you!" she yelled, "HE'S BEEN LIKE THAT SINCE HE WAS A BABY THEROPOD!"

"Yes, good luck to you, Curupira, if you're DUMB enough to TAKE THAT BRAT UNDER YOUR WING!" added Dromaeo, "YOU WAIT AND SEE. You WILL REGRET taking that stupid piece of work into your group, especially if he decides to disobey and disrespect you in EVERY way possible."

"Not with what raising techniques I have in mind, he won't," snapped Cedrus. At this, Bursyamo and Troodon turned up, having waited long enough. Not too far behind them, Gandalf continued to see out the evacuees from the sleeping quarters but when he heard the argument boiling between a Curupira and some Theropods, he paused his job and walked to the entrance of the sleeping quarters.

"After all, he is STILL too young to go by himself and NEEDS someone to raise him until he's ready to leave the nest," continued Cedrus.

"Fine, but YOU don't come to us if he starts biting at your fingers," snapped Ena, "Which HE WILL WITHOUT A DOUBT, once he has GOT YOUR TRUST with his cute little eyes and false demeanour…"

"Not with what I have in mind," said Cedrus with confidence, "I know he has some good buried deep within him somewhere. All I have to do is locate it and dig it up…"

"Well, you'll NEVER succeed, Cedrus!" snapped Ena.

"What's going on?" asked Troodon as he, Bursyamo, Passiflora and Cedrus met.

"You're coming with me, young Theropod," said Cedrus in a firm and authoritative voice, "If there is ANY stuff you need to pack, you need to jump to it. Now let's go to your sleeping cell and gather your things. Come on, we don't have much time."

Troodon stood there, confused but Cedrus hardened his authoritative glare.

"And I mean NOW!" the Curupira tribe patriarch added, with a sharp point to the sleeping cells. Troodon breathed a sigh and obeyed. As he left, Cedrus followed with Passiflora stopping to talk to Bursyamo about the situation. Ena and Dromaeo looked on disgruntledly. Troodon, when his eyes picked up the forms of his mother and uncle, stopped and gazed sadly at them.

"And after this, you will be travelling with the young Cururpira boys and girls and their families, alongside me and mine, on the journey," continued Cedrus, currently unaware that Troodon had stopped to gaze at his biological family, "Where you will DO as you're TOLD, WHEN you are told, without any backchat or messing about," he then turned and saw Troodon gaze at his mother and uncle. At this, the reverse-footed Humanoid darted in, seized Troodon's three-clawed hands and dragged him along.

"Like NOW for instance, and DON'T make me have to repeat myself. If I give an order, you LISTEN and OBEY," he finished as he dragged the young little Dinosaur along, "Now hurry along to where you slept and START packing your BELONGINGS, and THAT'S FINAL!"

And with that he gave Troodon a firm shove but not too much as to push him over. Troodon gazed at the Curupira and left in the direction of the sleeping cell he stayed in. Cedrus then gazed at Ena and Dromaeo as the pair disgruntledly left after the other Theropods in the family at Bursyamo and Passiflora's command, leaving Cedrus to follow Troodon to watch over him as he packed his things. Ena, Dromaeo and the rest of Troodon's family then passed by Gandalf who shook his head disapprovingly at them and firmly told them to leave for the meeting hall, which they did. Then Gandalf left to see out the last of the evacuees once they had packed their things including Troodon who was now under Cedrus's care which he was glad for, for the nine-tailed Kitsune did NOT want ANY of the kids, even the naughtiest ones such as the ones who had participated in Belladonna's escape, like Fluffy-Cotton, Troodon and Webby, travelling by themselves on the dangerous Exodus, likely for the foreseeable future until Ena and Dromaeo changed their minds and allow Troodon back into their family. However, this was likely to be very slim for the family of Theropods were still furious with the youngster, and a few of Troodon's siblings and cousins had even began to cultivate extreme hatred for their brother/cousin and possibly plan on getting revenge on him for his actions, but that is another chapter for another time.

Everyone had a MASSIVE journey to prepare for.


	65. Chapter 64

**Chapter 64- the evacuation of the base**

 **A little while later**

Soon, ALL the inhabitants of the base, every single one of them, had packed their things and were now ready for the mighty evacuation. Many of Gandalf's helpers will be going with the evacuees and will serve as escorts for the creatures since their training in preparation for the Exodus had been severely cut short and as a result, they could not move out on their own due to severely underdeveloped survival skills. The rest of Gandalf's helpers who had packed the precious possessions such as the books containing the history records, samples of each of Narnia's endemic flora and fauna, and what was left of the fire-flowers and other hard-to-grow plants from the crop compartment, and will be evacuating to elsewhere where they will stay until the Dawn of Spring with the Winter Revolution, came based on the Golden Age Prophecy. The evacuees who were to travel south to Archenland had a variety of bags and baskets alongside lamps to carry the Pyros to protect them from the winter curse outside, a variety of metallic objects like coins which will serve as a food source for the Alicanto birds whose diet consisted almost solely of metal, and dream clouds for the Baku whose diet consisted of those clouds, all carried in special bottles and containers. More containers also contained food; organic food, for the other creatures.

Everyone had all gathered in the large meeting hall where Gandalf had killed Belladonna after her brutal fight with Kushanku earlier. Some of the guards had left to keep watch for any signs of the Witch and her cronies outside the entrances of the no-longer secret base while Gandalf and the others made the last preparations before sending everyone off to their destinations. Then as soon as everyone had gathered, Gandalf and Kyukon arrived and ascended to the stage before the crowd to issue them one final set of instructions and resources for the trip. Gandalf then called for ten Centaurs to bring out some large sacks and a group of Fairies, Griffins, Pterosaurs, Dragons, Bird-Drakes and some Elemental Birds, among them Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird, Blaze the Phoenix and Brina the Ice Roc, and the remaining Cherubs, among them Passiflora. As soon as the ten Centaurs had brought in the large sacks, Gandalf addressed the crowd.

"I know it is early for all of you to head off to Archenland but before you all depart the base, there is something we would like to distribute amongst you first," called the nine-tailed Fox to everyone before he gestured with a paw to the sacks, "Since we have not had Christmas for over thirty years and Father Christmas had been unable to come to Narnia and travel around the country to distribute his presents to us, he has dropped by and has left us with these large sacks of presents to us just before his exile form Narnia due to Jadis's winter curse, and just as we were finishing the base. We were intending to give these gifts to you in a few years' time but due to circumstances and the danger we are in, we are gonna distribute these gifts to you now, so let's celebrate Christmas together in these few final moments…"

And with that, Gandalf turned to the Fairies and company and handed to them the first gifts from the sacks.

"Distribute these gifts amongst the families and do it fast," he said firmly. The Fairies and company nodded and with that, the air above the crowd was flooded with the flapping of Insectoid, feathered and skinned wings as the Fairies and company flew over the crowd with the gifts and soon, the gift distribution had begun.

Kushanku had received a magical sword-within-a-sword which was one large blade hollowed out to contain another, smaller blade. The name of this sword was called Gladio-Captionisse, or GC for short, and had required specialist skills to forge due to its design involving the large sword to be a hollow hilt for the smaller, hidden sword. Kushanku had also received a shield with a golden Lion-faced fireball design on it, intended to be a reference to Aslan, and a pack of vials of smokescreen potions which, when deployed, would generate a massive purple-black smokescreen to blind opponents. Nyarth received for his presents a sword and a shield based on his sword-fighting skills; Satoshi received a bow, a quiver of arrows and a flail which was essentially a lightweight metal ball attached by chain to a handle designed to suit handling by paws such as from a Nekomata; Akira received a medical kit containing a diamond bottle of fire-flower cordial and a dagger; Sandstorm also got a medical kit and had received a sword designed to be carried in the mouth to allow four-footed swordfighters to utilise, and Sandstorm had a talent in that area; Crystal and Snowwing both received a set of bow and arrows as well as medical kits containing various medical potions including the fire-flower cordial; Dahlia also received a sword, a shield and a boomerang-like weapon that functioned like the boomerangs in our own world; Obsidian received four swords and a shield while Guinan received a brand new frame for her family photo as well as a medical kit, a blow tube and a set of darts for combat. These items were some of the items that were distributed amongst the crowd by Gandalf's Fairy assistants and their company, and a few of the kids received toys in addition. Some of the kids, such as Troodon, Fluffy-Cotton, Cloudhorn the Alicorn and Webby the Platypus, however, did not receive any gifts due to their naughtiness, and neither did Lana and her band of Harpies for they had been the ones responsible for almost pushing Kushanku over the edge with their obscene notes which they still genuinely regret, and Troodon was especially upset over this but Cedrus had told him that it was to be a punishment for his being naughty and helping Belladonna in endangering everyone's lives. Troodon, at first, was severely disgruntled but through Cedrus's authoritative discipline, was forced to learn to accept it. However, Cedrus did take aside some toys and planned to give them to Troodon later if he had learned to behave but he did not tell the Theropod about them. Amongst the gifts were also tent packs that the creatures will set up during the nights for it was going to be a long journey to Archenland and it may require spending a few nights during the trip, as well as warm coats to protect the evacuees from the freezing cold.

Then as soon as the sacks Gandalf and company had received from Father Christmas, the REAL Father Christmas that is before his exile from Narnia by the Witch's winter curse, were depleted, and after a quick celebration of Narnian Christmas and giving thanks to Aslan was complete, Gandalf moved on to deliver the final instructions to the crowd. The Kitsune species father also had clutched in his front paws a scroll which was a magical map of Narnia for he was going to take it with him and his group. As Gandalf prepared to open up on his final instructions, some of the evacuees began to admire their gifts. Kushanku examined his GC sword. He removed the smaller, thinner sword from its larger, broader hilt-blade, perplexed and fascinated at how it was forged.

"The Gladio-Captionisse has been cleverly forged by truly expert and skilful sword-maker hands during the Conquest Age, centuries before Jadis came," said a Tengu named Helianthus with a proud smile as she stood with a few other Tengu, the species of Humanoids known for their long, bony beak-like noses, hair resembling the feathers in the plumage of a Kiwi, Moa or Cassowary with the males sporting beards similar to those of male Dwarves (these feather-like hair came in a variety of colours, ranging from greenish to brown to white, but could also come in yellow, orange and red, but these colours were rarer. Helianthus's 'feather-hair' was yellow and orange), their protective nature of forests and close friendship with Dryads, their occasional mischievous nature, and limited magical skills such as telekinesis, and were also very skilled in weapon-less combat (known as martial arts in our world, and Tengu were VERY good at utilising Kung Fu-like moves and agility).

Helianthus continued. "As you can see, the design of the sword is intended to be one smaller one inside another, bigger one. It's intended to confound enemies…"

"How" asked Kushanku as he re-sheathed the smaller sword inside its larger, broader hilt-blade. A smile formed on Helianthus's face.

"You'll find out how," she said gently before her face morphed into a stern look, "But remember, that's a weapon… not a _toy,_ so you must use it and treat it like one _."_

Just then Gandalf's voice rang out a name, alerting the pair.

"Gandalf's calling for you," said the yellow and orange feather-haired Tengu. At this, Kushanku looked up and saw the nine-tailed ivory and metallic yellow-furred Kitsune scanning the crowd for him and shouting his name. At this, the Nekomata twisted his tails and lofted into flight. A relative of Helianthus, her father, who was widowed due to losing his wife in the previous Massacre Event, and was pledged to marry another Tengu female who will become Helianthus' stepmother looked on at Kushanku's ability to fly with his tails in fascination.

"I remember his father being able to fly with his tails like that when he was alive," he whispered. His face, along with his fiancée's, then fell.

"Frosty certainly was an excellent friend," said Helianthsus's soon-to-be stepmother sombrely, "It's certainly said that he had to sacrifice his own life to save his mate and four kits, along with the other escapees such as myself during that raid on our den thanks to that Raiju… who was _supposed_ to have been _Frosty's friend…_ but had betrayed us to the Witch after he had won one of the previous Massacre Event…"

Helianthus sadly nodded in agreement. She and her cohorts had only been very young Tengu at the time and had been too young to understand the brutality of the Witch's reign with the Decadal Massacre Event being one of them. That one ten years ago had turned a close friend of Frosty against him while the previous one had cost Helianthus and a great number of other Tengu and creatures close friends and relatives including Helianthsus's own mother, and a fiancé (husband-to-be) of an adult cousin of Helianthus. That cousin had fled to a place unknown, unable to cope with the dictatorship of the Witch any longer and Helianthus and her family had never seen her again but Helianthus had hoped that she would have settled down somewhere safe. Sadly, the young Tengu teenager resumed her attention to the stage and Gandalf as Kushanku continued flying towards him.

Kushanku flew, his forked tails spinning like a propeller, over the crowed and towards Gandalf on the stage podium. At first, the Nekomata expected the worst based on Gandalf's stern onyx-eyes piercing him but that fear was dispelled when Milky Way ascended and joined his side and said, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble."

Kushanku breathed a sigh of relief and continued flying towards Gandalf with Milky Way the Pegasus gliding on her feathered wings alongside him. As the two flew over the crowd, Lana, Suiren, Morgana, Hala and their band of Bird-Harpies looked on guiltily while Dashiell and Amberpaw just turned their gazes away from the platform without a care and began to space out despite the creatures around them telling them to focus on the platform as Kushanku and Milky Way touched down there before Gandalf. As soon as the Nekomata was before him and Milky Way had backed away, Gandalf turned his stern gaze to the crowd.

"First off, I'd like you ALL to issue this Nekomata, whom many of you had rejected and caused trouble because of Belladonna, a SINCERE and HONEST apology for almost sending him over the edge," commanded the Kitsune as Kushanku turned to the crowd. Then without hesitation, the word 'sorry' rose from the crowd as they issued the apology to the Nekomata. However, most of it was half-hearted and thus sounded like a murmur, much to Gandalf's annoyance.

"I said SINCERE!" yelled the Kitsune in a louder voice, "now raise the volume of your voices so that I know that you REALLY mean it!"

The crowd obeyed and shouted sorry together at Kushanku while some of them added how they were sorry for treating him badly because of Belladonna. Lana, Suiren, Hala, Morgana and their friends even flew up and issued their apology for their notes about him while Alexandrite, Molayne, Satoshi, Nyarth and Akira, with the help of some more Harpies who raised them up, also issued their apologies to Kushanku for shunning him and treating him badly.

"It was ALL because of that STUPID FOX, Kushanku," called Lana, hoping that she would be heard and noticed by the Nekomata. However, Kushanku was too busy focussing on the rest of the crowd and shouting, "it's okay, I accept it," and "it's alright" and the like back to them. Because of this, he did not notice the Harpies hovering and trying to get his attention. Giving up, Lana and company returned to their space in the crowd. They planned on a direct, face-to-face apology during the journey. Then after the crowd had finished apologising to Kushanku (though the majority of them still had in mind to issue the Nekomata a face-to-face apology later, such as Lana, Suiren and her group) and he had flown off the stage back to his spot where Helianthus was, Gandalf resumed his main objective of the final speech.

"And I also owe you lot my sincerest apologies for having to send you lot to Archenland FAR earlier than expected amongst other things regarding Belladonna's behaviour but we don't have time for that for that Snow Beast and her crony crowd are on their way, so the sooner we're out of here the better…" said the nine-tailed Fox firmly, before his facial expression changed to one of severity and sternness, "But before you part, here are my final, but IMPORTANT instructions. First off… you must, must, MUST… stick with the others, especially you kids…"

Troodon shuddered as he stood with Cedrus's Curupira youngsters, some of the kids shuddering in the arms of their older relatives, some of them being teenagers, while Tesseract the Unicorn felt a massive wave of nervousness come over him, and he was clearly not looking forward to the dangerous trip. Gandalf continued.

"And parents and the rest of you adults, you MUST keep an eye on your kids at ALL TIMES! Make SURE that you, as well as them, don't… DON'T… wander off. I HONESTLY cannot emphasize that enough. There are a variety of different predators, most who work for the Witch, lurking around each and EVERY corner of the snowy terrain aboveground, and those predators each have a sneaky way of luring and leading vulnerable prey away from the crowd," Gandalf began to shudder, "And one of them is using distractions and temptations to lure you away from the others so that you are vulnerable and on your own where you become an easier target. So you MUST ignore those tempters and their tools however persistent they may be, and keep a firm grip on your young 'uns. Again, I cannot emphasize that enough…"

Troodon as he stood with his new Curupira family shuddered. He clearly did not want to be in such a situation. Certainly not after his ordeal with Belladonna alongside one of Faline's sons, and what she had almost done to Nyarth made is nervousness flare up all the more. Gandalf continued to give his final instructions.

"In addition to keeping to the path and with the others," the nine-tailed Fox continued, "You MUST keep to Aslan's guidance. The Great Lion is going to serve as your guide and will use a golden fireball shaped like a Lion's face with a flaming mane around it, both during the day and during the night…"

Nyarth gazed at Kushanku, Satoshi and Akira curiously. However, he dare not ask any questions for he did not want to distract his younger siblings from Gandalf's speech, so he resumed listening to the Kitsune.

"If you wander away from Aslan's guidance," continued Gandalf, "You will surely end up in a LOT of trouble. As I've said before, the journey is fraught with all kinds of dangers, so you must follow Aslan's lead to get you safely to Archenland…"

Dashiell, who stood with Amberpaw somewhere else in the crowd, released a scoffing laugh.

"What if we have to go through rugged and dangerous terrain?" the Cheetah muttered. At this, one of the Enfields, which were Wolf-like creatures, with feathered Bird-like forelegs and Puma-like hind legs and tail, shot Dashiell a glare.

"Aslan knows best, Dashiell," said the Enfield, "He ALWAYS does… past, present and future."

"Yes," said another, a female and the mate of the first speaker, "so we must follow the Lion…"

A "Shh!" sounded nearby as Centaur silenced the talkers. The two Enfields obeyed and resumed listening to Gandalf. Dashiell continued to roll his eyes in mockery, muttering to himself. It was clear he still had a foul attitude towards the Great Lion.

As Gandalf spoke, one of the creatures called a Crocotta (a creature resembling a maned Hyena with a Badger's face and haunches like a male Deer, or Stag), raised a paw.

"What about you lot?" asked he. Gandalf gazed at the Hyena-like Talking Beast.

"I was gonna explain what we're gonna do actually, Proteles," said Gandalf before the Kitsune launched into it; "We will not be leaving for Archenland with you lot, but will instead flee to other destinations outside of Narnia where we will wait until the Winter Revolution and the Dawn of Spring comes, along with Aslan who will bring in the Great Thaw. Some of us will be heading to a hidden cave while our aquatic helpers will be returning to the Narnian Sea…"

As Gandalf said this, in one of the transport tanks, water-filled levitating transport devices especially designed to carry aquatic creatures who cannot walk on land like the Dolphins as well as protect them from the freezing temperatures aboveground (much needed for the journey), Coralfin the Ichthyosaur breathed a sigh of relief for she was looking forward to returning to the sea and escaping the Witch's tyranny and all its terrors. She had got a glimpse of the extremely bloody Massacre Event and had been severely traumatised, especially at the Witch and her cronies' love for such feral entertainment and she had hoped to NEVER, EVER encounter such violence intentionally induced to satisfy one's sickening pleasure again. The same was true for the other Ichthyosaurs, the Plesiosaurs, Mosasaurs, Dolphins, Seals, Penguins, and the Merfolk, and the rest. Gandalf continued, this time holding up the rolled-up magic Narnia map in one of his paws.

"During our separate journeys, I, alongside a few of the helpers, will be tracking your progress through the wintery terrain of Narnia on your journey south to Archenland so that you lot make it there safely," the nine-tailed Kitsune explained, "Your tents and coats have tracking devices, much like beacon balls, built in or attached to them which will show up on our map and reveal your whereabouts," as Gandalf explained these tracking devices, which were designed to give off a signal much like the beacon balls most often used by the Witch's cronies in their patrol groups to help determine each other's location on a screen map, Alexandrite examined her coat and saw a tag with a crystalline emitter. That must be one of the tracking devices Gandalf and company had installed into the coats and tents, but thankfully, the crowd will be under the watchful eye of Gandalf and company and not the Witch for these devices had been magically programmed to show up on the magic map of Narnia held by Gandalf and not to the locator screens of the Witch's cronies. Gandalf continued; a serious look on his face.

"Should trouble befall you, I will have to break off the journey, find you and intervene," said the Fox, "but hopefully, that will be unlikely, as long as you stick with Aslan's guidance and stay together at ALL times."

Most of the crowd members nodded as Gandalf finished with a very serious and emphatic instruction.

"But whatever you do, DON'T STRAY FROM HIS GUIDANCE and STICK TOGETHER AT ALL TIMES!" yelled the Fox loudly to intensify the importance of these instructions. The crowd nodded again but a few of them wore worried or scornful faces, and Dashiell was one of them who had the latter attitude. Then as soon as Gandalf had finished giving his instructions, he commanded everyone to make their way to the south-facing exits. Thankfully, during this time, the lookouts who had left to keep watch for the Witch and her cronies at the hidden exits had not returned to deliver the warning, but Gandalf knew that this opportunity in getting the evacuees and his own helpers and family off to a safe head start will not last, and he wanted to get himself and everyone moving fast before the Witch arrived.

As the crowd began to move, Kushanku took hold of Akira and Satoshi's paws while those two held paws with Nyarth, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa, Snowwing, Dahlia and some of the other Nekomata, Bakeneko, Jackalopes, Rabbits, Wolpertingers and Skvaders. Nearby, Sandstorm, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne, Nanu, Link and Tesseract were moving along with the other four-footed Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures while Crystal stuck with the other Birds and winged non-avian Talking Beasts, such as the Talking Dragons, Wyverns, Cockatrices, Lindworms (a species of two-legged Dragon-Snakes), Bird-Drakes, Wyverns, Bird-Serpents, Pterosaurs and the Bats, and also the flying Magical Creatures like the Harpies and the Sphinxes, and a Cherub who was going to journey with the crowd. With Cedrus and his family, Troodon was moving along, clearly very nervous. He tried to search through the forest of the other creatures to find his biological family led by Ena and Dromaeo, his mother and uncle respectively but could not find them. Those Theropods were not going to have him back with them anyway and he was going to travel with Cedrus's tribe. Sadly and clutching the hand of a young male Curupira based on his vivid red hair, one of Cedrus's older sons named Tsuga, with one of his three-clawed hands, the young Theropod boy moved along.

"You remember what Mr Gandalf said about sticking with us, alright, Troodon?" said Tsuga firmly. Toodon nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat.

"H-h-have you ever wandered into Yuki-onna or Krampus before?" he asked. At this, one of Tsuga's sisters, a neon orange haired Curupira girl named Keteleeria who wore a flower in her hair, stepped in.

"We have only ever seen Krampus from a distance but we certainly have had a disturbing encounter with the Snow Siren Yuki-onna," said the female Cururpira, "Tsuga and I had only been young kids at the time and that deceptively angelic Snow Beast ambushed us and killed a few of us while we were hunting game for a flock of Secretary Birds and Archaeobirds…"

Troodon flinched. "What is it with hunting parties and their encounters with these monsters, anyway?" the two-footed Lizard muttered, "First there is Miss Obsidian with the loss of her brother and parents to Krampus, a few of the Rhinos' families to Krampus's Bakeneko…"

"That's one of the dire consequences of the Witch's winter curse over our land, Troodon," said an adult female Curupira, Cedrus's wife named Deodara who was also the mother of Tsuga and Keteleeria and the matriarch of the tribe and Troodon's new family, "Now stay focussed on getting out of here and getting to Archenland. Remember, STAY with us AT ALL TIMES!"

Troodon flinched and nodded before walking with the Curupira group and clutching Tsuga's hand at all times. In the library, Truffula and the others with her had finished packing what was left of the precious books into special suitcase-like carrier boxes as well as checking the sample of each of Narnia's endemic flora and fauna held in special containers and pots.

"Right, let's get out of here, let's move, hurry!" commanded Truffula and with that, the group consisting mostly of Tanuki, Sphinxes, Centaurs, Fauns, Satyrs, Lightning Pyros (among them Plasmabolt who, unlike the Fire Pyros, were not affected by the winter curse aboveground and were able to travel safely without the need for a container) and a variety of other fantasy and our world's animal-like creatures packed the precious items and possessions and hurried down the corridors in the direction of the south-facing exits. As the last of the group members left, Truffula flashed one last glance at the library, its shelves now completely empty of books, and shuddered. Pulling her gaze away from the once-safe storage facility for the records of Narnia's history, the prophecies and information about the variety of creatures, the Tanuki followed the others.

Within a while, the south-facing exits were bleeding with streams of various creatures as they departed the underground base. Coats were wrapped around the walkers while tents were carried on the backs of some of the creatures such as the Centaurs, Horses, Donkeys and the magical counterparts of the Horses such as the Unicorns and Pegasi. Heavily expectant mothers rode on the backs of the stronger four or six-footed creatures such as the Centaurs, Unicorns, Wampus Cats, Talking Dragons and a few of the larger Dinosaurs such as the T-Rex and Ceratopsids, and also the Rhinos and the Bovines. Pyros such as Emberflame were kept in special containers and the babies and eggs were carried in the special baby carriers. Young Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures able to walk were kept within the firm grip of their older relatives and carers, and those still in the process of healing and had declined the fire flower cordial treatment were also carried. Ena was carried by a Stegasaur while the rest of her family excluding Troodon were walking alongside the plate-backed Reptile. It took a good while for the base to finally empty but by the time the last of the creatures were out, Gandalf stood with Kyukon and some of the helpers, his ivory and metallic yellow fur glistening against the snowy background. However, the nine-tailed Fox showed no admiration whatsoever towards the snowy environment for he knew who was responsible for this never-ending snowy scenery. As Gandalf stood with some of his higher-ranking helpers, some of who will be going with the evacuees to Archenland, such as Cedrus and Bursyamo and their underlings and tribe members, a Lindworm arrived with a Sphinx, a Capelobo (not Hocico for he had been killed by Belladonna), two Daytime Okuri-Inu and a Minotaur. Some of Gandalf's helpers had remained behind to check the vacancy of the base, up and down, to ensure that ALL the compartments and corridors were deserted during the departure. However the checkers had left something behind.

"Okay, Gandalf," said the Lindworm, a female, "Everybody's out and we have set up decoys to distract the Witch and her cronies and buy us time. Hopefully we'll be well away from here by the time that bunch of twisted variety of diseased, feral, psychotic monsters and their equally psychotic and deceptively beautiful Devil Woman leader turn up…"

"That's excellent, Anaconda," said Gandalf with satisfaction and gladness, "Now let's leave here while we still have the time. You join the crowd heading for Archenland."

Anaconda and her comrades obediently nodded and left to join the larger crowd. Then as soon as the large gathering was ready to disperse and leave for their destinations, Kyukon went up to Gandalf and gave him a very passionate nuzzle for she was going to lead the majority of Gandalf's group in the direction of another destination outside of Narnia, along with the precious possessions such as the books and Narnia's flora and fauna samples.

"You be safe, my brave Fox warrior," said Kyukon as she continued to nuzzle with her mate for this would possibly be the last time the pair will see each other. Gandalf nuzzled her back.

"I will, my jewel flower," the male Kitsune crooned lovingly back. Then after the couple and the Kitsune species' ancestors broke the nuzzle, some of their offspring and helpers came in, along with a few of the members of the Archenland-bound crowd like Bursyamo and Cedrus and a few of the Kitsune who had opted to go to Archenland as well. However, there was no time for a departing hug from ALL of the crowd members for they must be off as soon as possible. Some of the hugs were very tearful and a few were reluctant to break the hug but they knew they had to. Then after Blaze had finished hugging Gandalf and had joined the Phoenixes bound for Archenland, Gandalf looked on at the Archenland-bound crowd.

"Remember, stick together and follow Aslan's guidance," the nine-tailed Fox commanded. The crowd all shouted "Yes" (apart from a few such as Dashiell) back at Gandalf and nodded before finally turning round and heading off south with their escorts leading them. Then Kyukon's group left in their direction with the resources from the base, tearfully waving goodbye to Gandalf and the last of his helpers who had opted to stay with him and watch over the Archenland-bound crowd's journey on the magic Narnia map and as soon as Kyukon's group was on its way, Gandalf and company departed the now-empty base as well. Gandalf stole one last gaze at the entrance to his no-longer-secret home and left after the others.

However, just as Gandalf and company were about to begin their own journey, a crystal communicator held by one of the Minotaurs who had opted to stray with Gandalf began to flash. Kyukon's group and Gandalf's group had a crystal communicator on them so that they could speak with each other over long distances, sort of like Nanu's communicator and our Skype app in our world. At this, the Minotaur shot a stunned gaze at the communicator in his arm and called to Gandalf.

"Gandfalf, someone's calling us," said the Bull-Man and with that, he set the communicator down before the group as they gathered round.

"Kyukon's group is calling us already?" asked one of the Phoenixes who had also opted to stay behind with Gandalf, alongside a couple of Thunderbirds and three Ice Rocs (Cumulonimbus and Brina had left with the Archenland-bound crowd), in befuddlement.

"They've only just left us," said a Centaur, Perseus. Gandalf, however, wore a stern look for he knew that it was not Kyukon who was making the call. As the ellipsoidal communicator levitated from the snow and transformed into a flat, oval screen, Gandalf's assistants looked on in confusion and worry while Gandalf wore a scowl on his face. Then within moments, a familiar crystalline being with beautiful icy needles protruding from her head appeared, but don't be fooled by her beautiful appearance, especially as Gandalf's scowl morphed into a fierce glare as recognition took hold. Behind the nine-tailed Fox, his assistants hid behind Perseus, not wanting to get a glimpse of the White Witch and her feral monster assistants.

"Good morning, Gandalf," crooned the Witch, Jadis, on the oval screen. Her face was clearly saturated with triumph, smugness and sneering, and Gandalf could clearly see that in her onyx-like eyes.

"Good morning, Jadis," replied Gandalf dryly, not fazed by the Witch's attempts at intimidating him, "I believe you're using your magic to access my communicator, am I right?"

A scoff escaped Jadis's mouth.

"Huh, you sure seem to guess correctly each and every time something strange happens such as now," crooned the Witch mockingly, "I guess your SUPER-SLOOOOW 900 year journey to a nine-tailed Kitsune has finally paid off, hasn't it? I could have made you into a nine-tailed Fox upfront…"

"None of your bragging and boasting about offering me that shortcut with your devious magic, Witch," snapped Gandalf brusquely, "especially when you projected yourself into my head each time I left Narnia before you took the country for your own evil, selfish gain, to tempt me time and time again with that useless shortcut…"

A wide smirk only formed on Jadis's skeleton-white face such that her teeth showed through. Then behind the Witch, a white, faceless creature rose eerily and gave Gandalf a scornful, obscene hand gesture. Behind Gandalf, his last few helpers felt outrage tear through them at the Slender-Man's outright disrespect for the Kitsune. One of the Satyrs tried to step beside Gandalf and yell at the Slender-Man but two Centaurs and a Roc restrained him.

"But that faceless beast is giving Gandalf an EXTREMELY rude gesture," growled the Goat-Man but the Roc rebuked him.

"Let Gandalf and Perseus see to this," he commanded. At this, the Satyr obeyed, calmed down and watched on as Gandalf and Perseus continued glaring at the Witch, Gandalf completely ignoring the Slender-Man's attempts to taunt him.

"Give it up now, Kitsune," crooned the Witch sneeringly, "Your super-secret base… is no longer a secret…"

Gandalf just said nothing and maintained his glare, his eyes locked fiercely with Jadis's sneering pair on the crystalline communicator. Perseus also kept his cool and composure. Finally the Centaur spoke.

"It's been an UTTERLY disappointing revelation that you had managed to find our base, Witch," growled the Centaur in a controlled voice of rage. The rest of Gandalf's helpers looked on in awe. The Witch's wicked smile widened as a Nogitsune, a dark red one, appeared and projected a magical hologram picture of a familiar purple-black Nogitsune.

"I believe you'll have met this Kitsune and my top student of my sorcery classes, Gandalf and Centaur," crooned the Witch, "You don't need us to tell her who she is but she was the one who revealed your base's location to us. She'll have passed the second-tail age now and be a two-tailed Kitsune, but when we find her, I hope to make her into a powerful nine-tailed Kitsune straight away as a reward as well as my second-in-command of my army…"

Gandalf remained silent and glared fiercely at the hologram picture of Belladonna held up by the dark red Nogitsune. Perseus, however, flinched as the eyes of the Nogitsune in the picture appeared to glare back at him in an intimidating fashion. The look on Belladonna's face certainly was a carbon copy image of that of Jadis and Gandalf did not want to reveal to the Witch that he had put her to death with his foxfire. The Witch continued sneeringly as the Nogitsune withdrew Belladonna's picture and moved aside.

"Now that your base's secrecy has been exposed, it is time to face outright destruction. YOU and your pretty mate will be captured while everyone else you have been hosting in your little underground hotel will be taken to be dealt with," she crooned, "and as for any records you have on that filthy Big Cat, the Thawing Prophecy, and the records you and your mate have collected on Narnia's history, all that will be taken and burned. And as soon as every last shred of the records you have spent the past 900-plus years collecting since Narnia's creation has been destroyed, everyone will know that I, Jadis, am the true Goddess of the Highlands and Narnia's TRUE QUEEN…"

"You've been longing to rule Narnia ever since those extra-Narnians brought you into this world just as Aslan was creating it, Witch," Gandalf finally spoke before he rose to all fours, turned his back to the communicator screen and walked a few steps before finally turning to face Jadis, "You've also been causing a LOT of trouble for a LOT of us, including myself and Kyukon during our trips out of Narnia with your temptations and interferences since you had been kept from returning to Narnia when the Tree of Protection was planted…" Gandalf paused dramatically, "and even though you've got your wish in ruling Narnia and causing suffering to everyone including the countless hearts you have sliced into two and inflicted deep mental wounds and scars with your abhorrent Decadal Massacre Events you have established in which you force countless innocents into bloodily slaying each other like feral beasts…"

"The name for the decadal event is FIGHTING LEAGUE, Gandalf," snapped the Witch but Gandalf continued, ignoring the Witch's snappy attitude.

"You still can't get enough of your greed for gain, your vanity and your bloodlust," continued the nine-tailed Kitsune, his deadpan glare firmly glued to the Witch, "Furthermore, you behave like a spoilt brat when you can't get what you want but that's the least of your traits…"

Gandalf then glared hard right into the Witch's eyes as she glared back at him like a stubborn child. Perseus and the other looked on as Gandalf began to calmly voice the truth about Jadis.

"You're twisted, Jadis," said the Kitsune in a low, dangerous, deadly voice at which the Witch shuddered with anger at how he had just addressed her, "You're the very definition of the greatest and the _purest_ evil to EVER exist in ALL of Narnia, from the far reaches of the land disc to its sky. And think you're the most beautiful person in all of Narnia with that angelic crystalline voice, beautiful appearance and innocent demeanour that even a Cherub would envy?" Gandalf shook his head, "You're nothing of the sort… you're just a Devil Woman with evil on your mind… you're a usurper… a feral, mindless, sadistic Snow Serpent and Ice Dragon… a Destroyer and a Liar and the Mother of ALL Lies in EVERY sense of the word… and an EXTREMELY psychotic extra-Narnian from the world of Charn with a love of EVERY SORT of vanity, slaughter, suffering and _everything_ _else_ that is pure evil to the core, from top to bottom and from back to front and on top of that, you are a mocker of the Great Lion of All Lions..."

Jadis's scornful look transformed into a furious glare at the Kitsune's calm demeanour, but before she could spit a rhetorical insult at Gandalf, the nine-tailed Kitsune calmly swept on.

"And don't think your super-cooled fist of diamond-solid ice will last on the throne forever, Jadis," he continued, "It WILL eventually end with the Dawn of Spring when the Lion Above All Lions brings his radiant warmth to thaw out the country you have frozen with your winter spell…"

"Ah, that's just a PILE OF smelly (BLEEP)," snapped Jadis in a bratty voice, "That maned Puddy Tat will ASOLUTELY be NO MATCH for me, the TRUE GODDESS of ALL of Narnia if he EVER turns up. As for you, Kitsune, YOU are gonna become my ULTIMATE trophy amongst my collection of statues, alongside your MATE when we capture you. I have ALWAYS wanted to have a pair of nine-tailed Foxes amongst my collection of trophies, and now that wish is coming true…" Jadis's face and voice then morphed into a more threatening tone, "And if you EVER interfere with our plans, WE WILL DESTROY YOU, and you KNOW that EVEN a 900-year-old, nine-tailed Fox with all its power and intelligence is ABSOLUTELY no match for me because I'm FAR MORE POWERFUL THAN EVEN ASLAN, so YOU HAVE NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!"

"Then take your best shot, Jadis, because we are ABOUT to intervene," snapped Gandalf calmly but in a fiercer voice and with that, he seized the communicator and cut off the communication with Jadis, the crystalline device morphing back into a crystalline ellipsoid object. His helpers gathered round as he packed away the communicator into a bag.

"Wow you sure were calm throughout the entire time, Gandalf," said one of the Fauns.

"Let's just leave here before that Witch and her army of turn up, which is likely to be imminent based on how she had managed to contact us," said Gandalf and with that he and his helpers were off, moving at a faster pace despite the snow hindering them in an effort to put some distance between themselves and their former, soon-to-be plundered home.

 **This is actually the last chapter of 2019, so Happy New Year! :)**


	66. Chapter 65

**Chapter 65- raiding the base but stalled by decoys and a trackless departure**

 **Later**

The White Witch waited in her magnificent crystalline sleigh with her snow-white reindeer who were reined to the vehicle waiting nearby, her equally deceptively beautiful onyx-eyed glare that was filled with a caustic concoction of a variety of EXTREMELY toxic chemicals that were completely the opposite to her appearance, such as a thirst for blood, fixated on one of the hidden entrances of Gandalf's base. With the deceptively angelic Being of Pure Evil were some of her highly ugly cronies, among them Pazuzu the leader of the Shadows, Púca the leader of the Banshees, a few Wolves, the new lead of the Black Dwarves named Tenebris who had been promoted as leader of the group of short and chubby Humanoids shortly after the previous leader, Gollum's death at the jaws of the Rainbow Serpent when Dionaea and her group set it free; and a number of other creatures including a few Nogitsune who were hoping to find Belladonna. However, they were currently unaware of her demise. With Jadis and company were a large number of smaller sleds most of the cronies had used for their mode of transport, and reined to them were the ugly yule goats.

The White Witch and her army had arrived outside the base's secret entrances in huge numbers and now a MASSIVE majority of them had entered into the base like floodwater and had begun to wreak indescribable destruction on the highly complex underground structure that had taken Gandalf and company years and years to build and finish, a goal they had managed to achieve in time before Jadis took over Narnia. Palpatine the Drop Bear head and Romulus the leader of the Secret Police Wolf Pack were amongst the plunderers who had plunged into the underground structure and had begun to destroy everything. Inside the compartments of the base, everything was practically being destroyed as the evil creatures went about searching for anyone hidden within as well as any resources on the Golden Age Prophecy and Aslan, such as books. The minds of the creatures were completely warped with pure bloodlust and other unmentionable desires and they were practically behaving like feral non-talking beasts as they ransacked the base from top to bottom. It would take me too long to describe the resultant mess once the evil creatures had finished their destructive search in the base for anyone hidden within but put it like this, the compartments of the base will resemble severe bombsites. Hellhounds and other fire-utilising creatures were torching everything within their paths, Minotaurs and Satyrs were shredding everything while Wolpertingers, Drop Bears, Wendigoes, the evil Nekomata and Bakeneko, the Nogitsune and Wolves and the rest of the ugly creatures and Talking Beasts who had fallen for the Witch's side were mauling everything in their paths as they desperately searched for any inhabitants including Gandalf and Kyukon. The revolting and frightening Nukekubi and Rokurokubi were using their equally frightening traits with the former having detached their heads and were sending them flying around as disembodied heads in smaller and narrower passages such as the venting system while the latter were stretching their necks to search the higher places with the flying creatures, among them the Bat-Harpy. And the Hags, Boggarts, Bogeymen, Vampires, Sluaghs, female-only skeletal beings called Hone-onna, and the rest of the _revolting_ creatures were wreaking destruction everywhere they went in the base with some of them using their evil magic to blow up various objects such as bookshelves in the hopes of destroying any resources on Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy. The base was indeed being turned upside down and inside out by the Witch's large army of revolting creatures.

While the rest of the army of creatures were searching the base, some of the creatures waiting outside began to discuss about Belladonna. Some were ugly, club-armed giants, some of them skeletal giants called Gashadokuro, all of who towered even above the Witch and were as tall as a large tree, while a few more of the creatures were a type of Winged Horse but they were nothing at all like the Pegasi or their horned counterparts, the Alicorns. These Winged Horses, like almost every other creature who followed Jadis, were VERY ugly and had a revolting appearance. They were Horses but they were not like any typical horse you'd normally think of, not even a Winged Horse. These creatures were a rotting brown to jet-back or were pale, deathly, sickening green and had a skeletal appearance with skin much like the Wendigoes and also the Hone-onna. Their wings were Bat-like in contrast to the feathered Bird's wings of true Pegusi and Alicorns and they had a series of bony spikes running down the backs of their heads like a Dragon, and their tails were a lanky, almost fleshless whip-like structure. These horrible versions of Pegusi, called Carcassi (singular: Carcassus), were also armed with Vampire-like fangs like a Sabre-Toothed Cat, and their eyes were gleaming orange, similar to a Hellhound's eyes. Because of their hideous appearance and their resemblance to the feather-Winged Pegasi and Alicorns, the Carcassi have often been dubbed as 'undead Pegasi' or 'Zombie Pegasi', and they, like almost every other species under Jadis's leadership, were ultra-violent and bloodthirsty, and had been known to hunt Unicorns and even Cherubs for their blood which was their favourite food, and one of their dishes was Cherub or Unicorn blood soup, the blood taken from a captured Unicorn or Cherub and prepared into the dish. One of the Carcassi, a male, began to speak.

"I sure hope Belladonna is alright," he told his friends, "Her Majesty over there," he turned to face Jadis in her sleigh briefly, "is really looking forward to seeing her and turning her into a nine-tailed Fox as a reward for finding the super-secret base."

"She will be," said Púca with assurance, "After all, she is one of Her Majesty's top sorcery students, with Amanita being not too far behind."

A wicked smile formed on the Carcassus's fanged Horse-like muzzle as he turned and faced the entrance to the base once again. A massive stream of footprints marked the snow and lead straight into the entrance which resembled a burrow, indicating the Witch's cronies' entry into it but eventually, the cronies will be exiting the base once they had finished their mission in destroying the base from top to bottom and bringing out anyone who maybe hiding within.

A good while later, the large crowd of plunderers returned to the surface and the Witch from the burrow-like entrance, oozing out of the burrow-like entrance like a stream of heavily polluted water. However, the plunderers had returned emptyhanded and with extremely furious looks on their faces.

"Your Highness," said an evil Nekomata as he advanced towards the Witch with a few other Nekomata who had fallen for Jadis's side. Their fur was jet black; their eyes were glowing blood red (not from fury mode, the mode a Nekomata or Bakeneko entered when any of their close friends and loved ones is hurt or in danger) and the tips of their two tail bore a sinister blue-green flame. These Nekomata were skilled in the dark branches of magic such as shapeshifting, illusion casting and animating deceased carcases which they used as a form of intimidation and torture. The group of two-tailed black Cats then bowed before Jadis and rose back upright.

"I'm afraid the entire base is deserted," continued the evil Cat, "There's no-one, NO-ONE in ANY of the compartments, whatsoever. We have searched everywhere."

"Even in the air vent system and the storage rooms," said one of Nukekubi, her head now back on her body, and had detached her head with the other Nukekubi searchers to investigate the air vent system, "are completely deserted."

"We also couldn't find any books on the maned Pussy Cat and the Golden Age Prophecy," said a Nogitsune as he stood with a few Wolves, among them some of Nanu's relatives who had hoped to get their paws and teeth on the Wolf to kill him for turning against Jadis. Then Romulus came forward.

"We've practically decimated _each and every_ room and searched for any inhabitant and source on Aslan and the Prophecy, even on the very mentioning of humans, those extra-Narnians who had somehow managed to find their way into this world, but we couldn't find any," said the lead Wolf. The Witch, at this, glared at the plunderers volcanically as a Bat-Harpy walked in, a scowl on its ugly face.

"Furthermore," it growled, "It seemed that Gandalf and Kyukon had been aware of our coming and must have evacuated the base…" it called for a group of more Bat-Harpies to come forward, which they did and brandished a number of life-sized dummy Fauns constructed from fabric, non-talking animal fur and stones and carefully fashioned to resemble the real, flesh-and-blood Goat-Men. Many of these dummies had been shredded by the feral creatures of the Witch as they ransacked the base, and a number of other dummies, fashioned and modelled after a variety of other species such as the Talking Beasts, and also the Magical Creatures, such as the Centaurs and even the Merfolk in both their aquatic tailed and legged land forms, had also been found. A furious scowl formed on the Bat-Harpy's grotesque face as it continued its explanation. "And in the process, those two sly nine-tailed Foxes must have left behind these dummies as decoys to distract us while they make their escape."

"Are you meaning to say that those two nine-tailed Canid Ferrets have set up a distraction to STALL US FOR TIME!?" snarled the Witch, making the Bat-Harpies surge back as though they expected her to wave her wand and turn them into statues. She LOATHED being outsmarted and because of that, a childish outburst was threatening to erupt and the Bat-Harpies and the other creatures nearby could see that in the Witch's behaviour as the Snow Queen continued to tremble in rage. As the Witch continued to threaten to explode, a Nogitsune, Amanita who was one of Belladonna's sisters and was as equally evil and deranged as the Fox who had caused Gandalf and the others so much trouble, besides being one of the best sorcery students of the Witch in addition, turned to her.

"Well, nine-tailed Kitsune are EXTREMELY wise, tricky and excellent tacticians," she said cautiously especially as Jadis shot her a hellish glare. Amanita and the other Nogitsune flinched and backed away, not wanting to be on the receiving end of the Witch's wrath. Then before Jadis could open her mouth and let loose a MASSIVE Banshee-like scream of wrath, Palpatine and some of his Drop Bear underlings walked in with a few more evil Nekomata, three Chubacabra, a Hellhound, a bipedal-apelike creature called a Yowie, and three Manticores, one of them being Malefor. The Yowie and a Nekomata were carrying something.

"Your Majesty," shouted the lead Drop Bear, "While we were ransacking the base, we found this deceased individual."

All eyes, including those of the Witch, turned and converged on the carcass in the Nekomata and Yowie's hands and paws. Amanita and the other Nogitsune hardened their gazes on the carcass as they felt familiarity prick at them.

"She has been fatally charred black, clearly indicative of nine-tailed Kitsune foxfire damage, similar to what happened to Palpatine and his mate's two cubs," said the Yowie and with that, he and the Nekomata gently laid the carcass onto the snow. Recognition took hold of many of the creatures who knew this evil two-tailed purple-black Fox when she was alive (and had one tail at the time). Her fur had been seared off, including off the two tails, and the rest of her body had been scorched black. Her eyes, which had been so full of the flames of insanity, bloodlust and pure wickedness like that of Jadis when she was alive, were now lifeless and glassy, and she was limp. As soon as recognition of the carcass fully took hold in many of the creatures of the Witch who had known her when she was alive, despite the fact that she had two tails now, immense despair washed over them, especially as realisation hit.

"Belladonna?" said Amanita, her eyes wide with shock. The other friends of Belladonna, especially the other Nogitsune, all shook their heads in disbelief while the others simply looked on. The Witch continued to glare at Belladonna's carcass.

"Useless!" she hissed angrily, "And I was gonna make her into a nine-tailed Kitsune to be my second-in-command as a reward for finding Gandalf's base as well, but she somehow stupidly allowed herself to get caught by those two nine-tailed Rats and get herself killed by their foxfire."

"Well, who are you gonna make into a nine-tailed Fox now that Belladonna is gone?" asked Púca as she stood with many of the other Banshees. The Witch glared at the lead Banshee for a while as she thought this over. After thinking, she turned her glare to Amanita and said, "SHE will be made into my right-hand nine-tailed Fox," and with that, she shot her icicle-like wand at her to indicate to her followers of her choice. Amanita, at this, gazed back at the Witch in surprise but then an EVIL smile formed on the Nogitsune's muzzle as she relished the idea of becoming a nine-tailed Fox right on the spot in Belladonna's place. Just then, the sounds of heavy feet in snow reached the Witch and her army's ears, and all heads were turned in the direction of the sounds' sources, which were a few of the Giants and Gashadokuro, as well as a couple of Slender-Men. The thumping noises of heavy feet plunging into the snow were from the feet of the Giants and their large skeletal counterparts.

"Your Majesty," said one of the Gashadokuro at the front, "We have been examining the outsides of the other entrances while your smaller followers were inside the base destroying it and searching for inhabitants to capture and records to destroy and we have come to the possible conclusion that Gandalf and the others have indeed left. Where, I can't say for we could not find any footprints, not even one, as each and every entrance is devoid of footprints." (After Gandalf and the others had left with the Archenland-bound crowd heading south, the Fairies who had left with Kyukon had, at Kyukon's command, used their magic to erase the footprints left behind in the snow to prevent the Witch and her army from tracking them down. This was another sly and clever move to further prevent the Witch and her cronies from easily finding the evacuees).

"Great, now HOW in NARNIA are we gonna TRACK DOWN THAT LOT THEN!?" snarled one of the other evil Yowie.

"I don't know; they could have left for ANYWHERE in ANY DIRECTION!" growled one of the evil Satyrs in frustration. The Witch, however, maintained her composure which was unusual for she often threw paddies if things did not go her own way.

"Doesn't matter," she said, "We're gonna have to search up and down the country for those little worms. But first…"

She turned to Amanita and commanded the Nogitsune, who was purple-black like Belladonna but had only one tail for she was younger than that evil Fox and not yet past the 200-year-old mark which was the mark where a Kitsune, or Nogitsune, sprouted their second tail, to stand in a clearing. The rest of the Witch's cronies backed away as the Witch prepared to cast a spell onto Amanita. As they moved to a safe distance, evil smiles had formed on their faces (apart from the Slender-Men and the Triffid-Mouths for they did not have full faces). As the Witch began to perform some type of ritual, Palpatine looked on with a toothy, fang-bearing smile.

"I sure hope Gandalf and Kyukon get pierced with _extremely_ _painful_ offense when she becomes a nine-tailed Fox," crooned the Drop Bear head. Then after finishing the ritual and uttering a complex incantation, the Witch spun her wand, normally used by her for casting the living being-to-statue turning spell, around and shot it forward at Amanita. A powerful blast of pure blue-white energy exploded from the tip of the Witch's wand and surged towards Amanita. Because this spell was not the petrifying spell the Witch was casting, it was something entirely different.

The Witch's followers all flinched and shielded their faces as the blast of light erupted as the spell hit Amanita and engulfed her. Then the transformation process began. Amanita was lifted into the air as the stream of magical energy continued to pour like water from a firehose in our world from the Witch's wand and enclose her like a telekinetic grasp. Then the Fox's purple-black pelt began to transform, starting from her head. An aura of white light erupted from her nose and began to move like a wave of water down her face, her head, neck and then her body to her tail. In the aura's wake, the fur was transformed from purple-black to pure white, as white as Jadis's skin. This was likely because of Amanita's acquisition of the nine-tailed form being illegitimate and unnatural, for when a Kitsune sprouted its ninth tail at age 900 Narnian years; they always turned ivory gold with metallic yellow fur strewn through their pelt and on their tail tips, and Amanita was still under 200 years old. The aura tsunami continued to flow down the Fox's body and when it reached the base of her single tail, the aura expanded into a halo and from the halo, the single tail began to split from the bottom up. Jadis's cronies looked on as Amanita's tail transformed from a single tail into a fan of NINE tails, like Gandalf and Kyukon's set. Then as soon as the transformation was complete, the Witch withdrew her wand and ended the spell, freeing Amanita from the magical grasp and gently lowering her to the snow, the light dying down. Then as soon as the light had faded, Amanita bore a completely different appearance. Her fur was now vivid snow-white, similar to a Unicorn's pure-white hide or most of a Cherub's wings, and her eyes were onyx-black, and Amanita's rear bore a magnificent set of shining white nine tails. Amanita was indeed a sight to behold. However, don't be fooled, for the newly transformed Fox still bore her EXTREMELY toxic concoction of a love for bloodlust, sadism and psychotic behaviour. Furthermore, since she was now a nine-tailed Fox, having completely bypassed the natural aging and growth process of the Kitsune species as built into the by Aslan when he formed Gandalf and Kyukon from ordinary Foxes, Amanita also had all the powers and abilities of a nine-tailed Kitsune such as upgraded foxfire and other magical abilities. Amanita tested her foxfire on a nearby tree. She shot a paw at the leafless plant and from her paw, exploded a stream of pale blue lightning which then engulfed the tree. The cronies watched on and flinched when the tree was destroyed by the foxfire lightning. Palpatine formed an evil smile as Amanita then breathed a stream of flames at another tree and destroyed it, surprised at the immense power. She then turned to gaze at the Witch, who smiled wickedly at her. Amanita, proud of her newfound power, smiled back an evil, toothy smile in thanks to the Witch for granting her the shortcut into a nine-tailed Fox. However, there was a drawback to Amanita's transformation.

Because she had become a nine-tailed Fox so quickly and had not grown naturally and in a way that Kitsune should, both physically and through learning and experience over the centuries, Amanita was still NOT as wise and as intelligent as Gandalf and Kyukon, and her telekinesis and other Kitsune powers were still developing, despite her foxfire getting an upgrade, and it was the ONLY power that had been upgraded. Even then, it was still not as powerful as Gandalf or Kyukon's and she could still be killed by the foxfire from those two truly powerful nine-tailed Kitsune. Because of her underdeveloped knowledge and experience, Amanita's nine-tailed Fox sham was sure to be exposed at some point, but due to the fact that she could cast illusions and shapeshift as trained under Jadis, the discovery that her appearance as an extremely powerful nine-tailed Fox was a façade would likely be a long distance off since nine tails and a bright coat were symbols and a crown of a Kitsune's wisdom and experience, and Amanita had allowed herself to become a _mockery_ of that crown. However, the super-proud and arrogant Nogitsune did not care and absolutely RELISHED her new appearance and nine-tailed status, as well as her status as the Witch's second-in-command in Belladonna's place, and the Witch had planned to use her as an intimidation tool to frighten her opponents as well as an accomplice during her corrupt rule over Narnia, especially with Amanita's shapeshifting and illusion casting powers she had acquired under her studentship with the other Nogitsune and other magical Talking Beasts such as the Nekomata and Bakeneko. The Witch, as soon as she was finished with transforming Amanita into a nine-tailed Fox, barked at her crowd of cronies to spread out and search for the evacuees and also for Gandalf and Kyukon and their helpers. Palpatine, Púca, Romulus, Malefor and everyone else obeyed and dispersed to begin their search for the former base inhabitants while Amanita, now in her new, (but SEVERELY underage) nine-tailed, white Fox form, climbed into the Witch's sleigh with Jadis herself and also Tenebris who climbed into the driving part of the sleigh. Then with a thwack of the reigns and a shout, Tenebris commanded the white reindeer into running and pulling the sleigh with them. Then within moments, the Witch was off, many of her cronies in tow as they followed either on foot, on the wing or in their own, smaller sleds pulled by the yule goats. As they left, the Nekomata had taken Belladonna's carcass for they had planned to use it as a puppet with their zombie-animating powers once they found the evacuees (which would be near-impossible, as long as the Archenland-bound evacuees stay on track under Aslan's guidance).

As the Witch and her crowd left, the base in which Gandalf and the others dwelt was now no longer habitable. _Every_ compartment and corridor was in utter shambles and it was likely that it will never be used as a base again in a while.


	67. Chapter 66

**Chapter 66- the Exodus to Archenland continues**

 **Meanwhile**

The largest crowd continued their migration south to Archenland, flowing like a highly viscous fluid through snowy terrain. Kids stuck with the adults and Pyros were carried in the special lanterns. Babies and unhatched eggs were also carried in the special baskets and pregnant mothers were carried by some of the stronger creatures such as the Centaurs, Unicorns, Horses, and some of the Dinosaurs for they would be unable to walk very far unaided, and the permanently disabled individuals, such as Ena, Troodon's mother, were also carried by some of the stronger Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, and the aquatic creatures who could not walk on land at all, such as the Dolphins, Seals, Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs and some of the Merfolk, were transported in the special transport tanks, the water's temperature kept constant and protected from dropping by specialised heating elements built into them and thus protecting the occupants from the freezing air outside similar to how the lanterns protected the Pyros. This was especially important to the Ichthyosaurs for they were mostly ectothermic (cold-blooded) creatures. Some of the individuals who were expert warriors who had been Gandalf's helpers but had opted to leave with the Archenland-bound crowd, were on the lookout around and above the crowd, hands held close to their swords and other weapons should trouble be spotted. Warrior Centaurs such as Colress and the other creatures trained in sword-fighting and weapon-less combat kept a watch at the front, sides and back while the flying creatures, such as the Phoenixes, Rocs, Thunderbirds, Sphinxes, Eagles, Griffins, Hippogriffs and Passiflora and her small band of Cherubs, kept a watch from the air, their eyes constantly scanning the surrounds for ANY sign of trouble. If that trouble arose, the flyers will alert the ground escorts and action will be taken to deal with that threat and escort the more vulnerable members of the crowd to safety. However, as long as they stuck to Aslan's guidance, that will not be necessary.

The crowd and their escorts kept to Gandalf's advice and commands to remain together and not to wander off as well as follow Aslan's guidance in which Aslan formed a golden fireball shaped like a Lion's face with a flaming mane around it. The flaming Lion fireball was brighter at night and in fog than it was during the day and in clearings where no or fewer trees grew, but bright enough for the crowd to see and follow. However, the trek was not at all easy. The crowd had to walk through rough, snowy terrain, up and down slippery hills and across frozen rivers and streams which before the Witch had usurped the throne and locked Narnia in the Eternal Winter, had been flowing with water. Beavers used to build dams in these meandering snakes of water, while Otters, Curupira, Tengu and other creatures that had fish in their diets used to fish along these streams and rivers. Furthermore, Water Nymphs, also called Naiads (their saltwater counterparts were called Nereids and they lived in the Narnian Oceans and seas), used to frolic on the surfaces of these freshwater streams, especially during the spring, and as the crowd walked across the now-frozen snakes of water ice, some of them felt a wave of nostalgia wash over them as they gazed at the frozen streams. Some of the Unicorns who Tesseract travelled with, together with some of the Kitsune, Sauropods and Curupira (who were part of Cedrus's tribe and whom Troodon travelled with), gazed at the gleaming surface of the grey-white ice and took a moment to mourn before resuming their journey. They had known the clan of Water Nymphs that used to live here but now they were frozen solid, trapped in the constant ice as a result of the Witch's curse.

Tesseract gazed at a Stegasaur as he gazed down at the ice's surface with a young sail-backed Lizard called a Dimetrodon, who wore a perplexed look when he saw the Stegasaur gaze at the ice.

"This stream used to be home to the clan of Naiads we used to have fun talking with when we came here for a drink," the large plate-backed Beast said with a thick and mournful voice.

"I reckon they're frozen in that ice and will likely remain that way until the Dawn of Spring comes, I guess?" said Tesseract.

"I'm afraid so," said an adult Unicorn, a female or mare, "That tyrannical White Witch has not just devastated us flesh-and-blood creatures with the food shortage and the sickening Massacre Events, you know. The Nature Spirits not fallen for her side have also been badly affected."

Tesseract continued to gaze at the ice under his hooves and then at the Dimetrodon and the Stegasaur before resuming his walk with the other Horned Horses.

The journey continued for hours on end, the crowd only stopping to rest or eat the food Gandalf's helpers had packed for the mighty journey. Many of the members were groaning and whining about their aching feet, the freezing cold and the roughness of the journey (especially Dashiell and Amberpaw who were especially sour and kept whining). During one rest stop near the face of a small cliff and surrounded by trees, Cedrus, with his staff on one hand, examined the massive crowd while lookouts continued to examine the surroundings for any suspicious activity from Jadis's patrol groups for there were likely to be many of them wandering about the frozen land. While they did that, some of the other lookouts also examined the trees to check if the Dryads dwelling within them were on the Witch's side or not. If there were any Dryads on the Witch's side, the Phoenixes, Dragons and Kitsune (some Kitsune can breathe fire besides casting foxfire) would burn their tree to the ground to protect the crowd and to prevent them from alerting any of the Witch's patrol groups of their location. Obviously they did NOT want any sly spies posing as creatures in need being taken in by the crowd similar to how Kushanku's group had taken in Belladonna resulting in the serious mess at Gandalf's base, and the crowd's revelation to the Witch and her followers including Jack Frost, Krampus and his toy minions and Yuki-onna, was the last thing that was needed. Nearby, Troodon was eating some of the fruit and meat given to him by his adoptive Curupira family, as well as a few insects. Troodon screwed his face when he ate some of the food due to its sourness and not-so-pleasant tastes, such as some vegetables, but he was scolded by Cedrus's wife, Deodara, to stop making faces as he ate the food. Troodon flinched and tried to obey as he ate another piece of rather foul-tasting vegetable. The Theropods of Narnia were omnivorous. They mostly ate meat but also dined on fruit, vegetables, insects and fungi such as mushrooms (of which there were very few due to the Eternal Winter), but Troodon had rarely eaten a vegetable or any other healthy food as he was growing up. The food he mostly ate was the Theropods' equivalent to our junk food such as crisps (also called potato chips to those living in the Americas), chocolate and fast foods, but as with our junk food, that food barely had any nutritional value or none at all. Now Troodon was being trained by his new Humanoid family to get used to this new and improved diet, and he was not finding it easy to accept. Another routine Cedrus and his family and tribe had in mind was getting him to exercise more, knowing Theropods to be highly active little Dinosaurs even though they were Reptiles. Their larger counterparts, the T-Rexes, also required regular exercise, but these exercise routines will have to wait until the crowd makes it to the safety of Archenland… and out of the Witch's tyrannical reach.

"When we get to Archenland and settle there," said Deodara firmly as Troodon uneasily swallowed another piece of raw vegetable, a piece of broccoli for Deodara believed that vegetables eaten washed and raw was healthier than eating them cooked or steamed. Despite there being nowhere to set up and start a fire due to the freezing conditions, the Talking Dragons, Phoenixes and the Kitsune were lending their fire abilities to help boil some of the meat, fish and potatoes placed in water taken from the snow and held in special mini-cauldrons. Deodara continued, "You are going to be given a strict exercise and working routine and schedule that you WILL obey and stick to WITHOUT question."

Troodon shot the Curupira tribe matriarch a sour look but Deodara hardened her authoritative glare, "AND without childish faces, young Theropod."

Troodon breathed a disgruntled sigh and resumed eating his vegetables reluctantly. Nearby, Kushanku looked on as he ate some boiled potatoes and fish with his siblings Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and adopted Cheetah brother Sandstorm and then turned his gaze to Ena, with her crutches, and the other members of Troodon's biological family including Ena's brother, Troodon's uncle, Dromaeo. When he saw the cold glares on the faces of the Theropods and that they were directed at Troodon as if to say, 'He'll NEVER become well-disciplined', he frowned, especially when he saw thew fierce, unforgiving hatred boiling within the glares of Troodon's siblings and cousins. Nearby Kushanku's little group, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Nanu and Molayne ate a stew cooked from one of the cauldrons, and some fruit while Trotterhoof, Obsidian, Milky Way and Thundersparx helped with the cooking with Blaze the Phoenix using his fire to provide the heat to boil the pot.

"I still cannot believe the disownment Mrs Ena and her family brought upon poor Troodon over there," said Kushanku to the others, "It's just like what Dashiell and Amberpaw had done to us since we left Green Leaf Village."

"That's the least of the disbelieving things in those Theropods' disownment of Troodon," said Guinan nearby as she sat with her Impudulu friend, eating some cooked fish, "To hear that Mrs Ena would NEVER bother if Troodon strayed from the group and end up trapped with fatal results is beyond shocking. No wonder Mr Cedrus decided to take him in."

She flashed the Curupira tribe patriarch as she said this as he spoke with a Sphinx who was named Ptériga who had helped count the crowd with some Rocs, Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and the other flying creatures who had also been up and down the crowd and counting them.

"So far, so good, Cedrus," Ptériga said, her feathered wings flapping slightly and her Humanoid Woman's hair flapping briefly in the icy breeze, "Everyone's here and no-one's wandered off."

"Brilliant, Ptériga," said Cedrus firmly and with gladness, "That's great news. Let's hope that number is kept the same until we get to Archenland. Now you go and have your meal and then we'll move out."

Ptériga nodded, turned and walked towards the crowd, her Lioness-like tail sweeping at the air as she went. Guinan watched on as Ptériga left to get her meal which was currently boiling in one of the cauldrons. As she passed by Troodon as he continued wincing at the vegetable tastes, she flashed the young Theropod a firm glare before walking on into the crowd, before shooting Ena and her family an especially hard glare as she passed by them as well, making the Theropod family flinch. Sighing, Guinan resumed her meal. However, as she did that, one of the brothers of Troodon left Ena's side and crept towards Troodon as he continued reluctantly devouring the vegetables under the strict eyes of Deodara and Keteleeria and their rebukes. Clutched in one of his three-fingered hands was a stone and then making sure that no-one was looking, especially the surrounding Curupira who were busily eating their food, checking the presence of the non-talking beasts such as sheep (which were used as food), and the other members of the crowd, Troodon's brother slowly crept behind Troodon and quickly flung the stone from his hand directly at one of the taller Curupira as he stood to prepare to pack the plates. At the same time, Troodon's brother darted from his spot and quickly returned to Ena's group but his intended target had moved aside, causing the stone to miss and continue flying… right towards Ptériga's face to the horror of Troodon's brother and his mouth dropped open. However, Ptériga had seen the stone and had flashed her eyes blue to catch the stone with her telekinesis with a short startled gasp drawn through her mouth. The stone stopped dead just centimetres from the Sphinx's face and hovered there, enclosed in an aqua blue aura projected from the startled Ptériga's eyes which continued to glow in the blue colour. Then the Humanoid-faced creature released the stone from her mental grasp and caught in her paw before turning in the direction in which the stone came from.

"WHO THREW THIS STONE that NEARLY struck me IN THE FACE!?" the Sphinx furiously barked, her fierce and accusing glare raking the small crowd of Curupira, much to the reverse-footed Humanoids' confused gazes and the exchanges of them. Cedrus also looked on in confusion as did Guinan, Kushanku, and the others within earshot of Ptériga's shouts, their faces converging on the scene. Then the sibling of Troodon who had tossed the stone with the intention of hitting one of the taller Curupira, who was just as confused as the rest of the Curupira around him, rushed forward and screeched, "TROODON!"

The moment his name flew from his brother's mouth to his ears, Troodon stopped munching on the broccoli and shot his brother a confused look, his cheeks stuffed with the broccoli like a Chipmunk's cheeks with nuts. Then he found himself confronted by a vivid red-haired Curupira with a stick, his face laced with outrage as he stormed over to the young Theropod. The other Curupira also converged their outraged glares on Troodon while Kushanku and company watched on nearby. Ptériga also flapped over to Troodon with the stone in her paw.

"Troodon, did you throw that stone at Ptériga?" demanded Cedrus angrily. Troodon, at this, swallowed his broccoli and began to protest in denial, especially as the furious Sphinx showed him the stone. However, his tongue struck in his throat, retendering him unable to speak.

"Don't play games with us, young Theropod," growled Deodara nearby, her face laced with thunder which was replicated on the faces of Tsuga, Keteleeria, and the other Curupira, "Answer my husband's question, NOW!"

Still Troodon continued to shudder and struggle to from words. But when he finally plucked up the courage to overcome his confusion, he fought past the obstruction.

"I…" he began but his brother, the real culprit who had thrown the stone, darted in.

"Threw the stone at Miss Ptériga, yes you did, I saw it," he said, to which Troodon shot him a flabbergasted look. Then a furious look of outrage formed on Troodon's face.

"I DID NOT!" he retorted. In the background, Dromaeo, Ena and the others in Troodon's biological family looked on, furious looks on their faces while Kushanku and his group just looked on in confusion, fear and dismay at the unfolding argument being played out between Troodon and his brother.

"Yes you DID!" yelled Troodon's brother.

"DID NOT!" yelled Troodon in a louder voice.

"YOU DID!"

"I DID NOT! I would NEVER THROW a stone at a SPHINX! I RESPECT THEM TOO MUCH to EVEN THINK of hitting them with STONES!"

Cedrus and the others looked on as the argument between Troodon and his brother continued to escalate. However, things between the two screeching Theropods exploded like a sudden avalanche when a scathing comment exploded from one of them at the other.

"WELL, YOU have ABSOLUTELY NO RESPECT for ANYONE, not even a SPHINX, A CHERUB, CENTAUR OR UNICORN, or even your OWN CURUPIRA FAMILY," screamed Troodon's brother who was pushing it now, "You… you FIENDISH FRIEND OF BELLADONNA!"

That did it. With an EXTREMELY loud screech of fury erupting from his mouth, Troodon lunged at his brother like a pouncing Tiger and the two began to violently brawl with each other in the snow.

"Troodon!" barked Cedrus as one of his brothers rushed in to try and break up the brawl only to be whacked in the face by a Lizard's tail and knocked over. Ptériga tried projecting her telekinetic grasp on the two brawling Theropods to stop the fight between them dead but because the pair were rolling about in the snow, Troodon's mouth latched onto his brother's throat while his brother's mouth was latched onto his arm and his other claw attempting to rake over his opponent's skin to inflict injury before the pair began to viciously chase each other on foot the moment they rolled onto their feet, the Sphinx could not use her telekinesis on the pair. Breathing a frustrated sigh, Ptériga spread her wings and lofted into flight just as the pair of brawling Theropods charged into Kushanku's group, causing the little crowd to panic and scatter like startled sheep. As Troodon's brother chased Troodon through that part of the crowd, he skidded in his attempt to corner sharply after his brother after he had cornered sharply near it and bashed right into the cooking cauldron full of boiling soup and food that was being tended to by Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Milky Way and Obsidian, causing the quartet, and Blaze who was providing the fire to cook the pot, to panic, especially as Troodon's brother knocked the cauldron off its foundation of sticks. Ptériga inhaled a horrified gasp as the cauldron toppled towards Obsidian and a few of the other creatures nearby including Fluffy-Cotton, one of Faline's Rabbit kits, its scalding hot contents spilling towards them. Taking immediate action, the quick-thinking Sphinx projected her telekinesis onto Obsidian, Fluffy-Cotton and the others in the path of the toppling cauldron, her eyes flashing blue and the blue wrapping Obsidian and the others in an aqua blue aura. Then a split-second later, Ptériga telekinetically levitated Obsidian, Fluffy-Cotton and the others straight out of the path of the superheated cascade of soup, stew, fish and potatoes as they splashed onto the snow in the exact same spot where Obsidian's group had been. The other creatures had managed to flee out of the way while Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and Milky Way backed away from the small lake of scalding liquid and the knocked over cauldron as it quickly cooled in the snow. Ptériga then telekinetically moved Obsidian, Fluffy-Cotton and the other creatures with them which were two Dwarves, three Wolpertingers and part of Koga and Janine's family, three Dogs unrelated to Molayne, two Fairies and a Mole to a safe spot before resuming her attention to Troodon and his brother as they continued to viciously fight.

"PTÉRIGA!" yelled Cedrus as the Sphinx lunged towards the pair of brawling Theropods while a couple of Owls and a Centaur rushed in to help. If the brawl was not stopped, there was no doubt that it will escalate into the infliction of open wounds and blood flowing. However, before it could get that far, the brawl was halted as Ptériga seized Troodon with her telekinesis while an Owl swooped in and seized Troodon's brother but not before Troodon slashed his claws like a cat over his brother's cheek and carving a set of three claw marks, a split-second before Ptériga's telekinetic grasp in the form of an aqua blue aura enveloped him and pulled him away from his brother as he was seized by the Owl. Troodon's brother glared at Troodon as he was telekinetically pulled away from him by Ptériga while he was carried off in the Owl's talons.

"To Tash's Country with you, you (worst possible profane word in Narnia) and Belladonna's friend," he snarled; his three-clawed hand on the claw marks inflicted on him by Troodon. Troodon just replied with a tearfully outraged face and said nothing as Ptériga telekinetically moved him back to the Curupira tribe's spot with Cedrus while Troodon's brother was carried off by the Owl to be disciplined. After the storm had been quenched, Cedrus began to severely scold Troodon but the Theropod erupted into an uncontrollable sobbing fit, tears flying everywhere as genuine upset erupted within him. Ptériga touched down and looked on in confusion while Deodara, Tsuga, Keteleeria and a few of the other Curupira exchanged glances as Troodon continued to brawl like a baby Theropodling. Nearby, Kushanku looked on with Satoshi, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa, Akira, Sandstorm, Nyarth and some of the others including Dahlia and felt a flash of sympathy within them, especially as Ena, Dromaeo and the others nearby only glared at Troodon and left to tend to Troodon's brother and his face wound. However, they could do nothing and only stood there.

Then Ptériga went to harshly scold Troodon as he continued to wail and sob but Cedrus gently commanded her not to, before putting his hands onto Troodon and taking him aside. Then Thundersparx came in.

"Well, we've managed to salvage what was left of the food in that cauldron that was knocked over by the two Theropods, as well as clean the cauldron and pack it away once its contents had cooled down enough to a safe temperature," said the Raiju, his front paw behind his head. He then turned to Ptériga as she gazed sadly after Troodon as he continued to wail and sob, her feathered wings lowered to show her sadness and sympathy.

"Ptériga?" asked Thundersparx.

"That two-tailed virulent disease of a Fox certainly has caused a LOT of damage amongst us, with a few of us being severely affected by her deceptive appearance as an innocent and harmless microbe when on the inside, she was UTTERLY pathogenic and EXTREMELY toxic," said the Sphinx in a thick voice. Thundersparx just looked on as Troodon continued to wail and sob in Cedrus's arms as Cedrus tried to calm and comfort him.

"Shouldn't he and his brother be punished for the commotion they had stirred up almost resulting in some casualties from that cauldron's contents?" asked Kushanku behind the pair, a glance at Obsidian and the others with her as they were somewhat shaken from almost getting scalded by the cauldron's boiling water. At this, Thundersparx shot the Nekomata a glare, making Kushanku flinch and return to his group.

"I think what he's been through with one of Fluffy-Cotton's brothers when they were under the coercion of that two-tailed Fox leech and his own family's disownment is punishment enough. I think the stone incident is going to have to be put aside as it's not important anyway," said Ptériga, before her Humanoid's face turned to the crowd. "Anyway, if you don't mind, I'm gonna help with the packing of the cooking equipment and we're out of here. We've still got a LONG way to go."

With that, Ptériga turned and walked away, leaving Thundersparx to continue gazing at Troodon as he continued to wail and sob.

Soon, the journey had resumed. It continued even through the night, through blizzards and through clear but cold weather, all the while under the guidance of Aslan who continued to use his flaming Lion-faced ball to guide them like a compass. As the crowd continued to walk along with Troodon walking with his Curupira family well away from Ena and her family for Cedrus had deduced that many of them still bore grudges against the troubled young Theropod for his antics with Belladonna based on the trouble one of his brothers tried to bestow upon him with Ptériga (initially one of Cedrus's taller tribe members but he had moved out of the way resulting in the stone missing him and flying towards the Sphinx instead, and causing the Theropod to change his plan immediately and get Troodon into trouble with Ptériga as well as the Curupira), thoughts for Gandalf, Kyukon and the others with them flashed in the minds of Chicory, and Lana, Suiren, Hala, Morgana and their Harpy friends, and also Koga and Janine the Wolpertingers.

"I hope Mr Gandalf and the others are alright," said Lana as she walked along, a basket of Harpy eggs and young in her arm. However, those eggs and babies did not belong to her or Hala for they were the offspring of another, married Harpy couple.

"They have evacuated to separate places to us," said Alphard the Satyr nearby as he trudged through the snow, a stick in one hand to aid him along. Nearby, one of his Centaur friends was carrying a heavily pregnant Gorilla while a pregnant Badger rode on a T-Rex's back.

"How are they going to buy us enough time to put enough distance between us and the Witch and her cronies?" asked Koga as he walked with his family including his sister Janine. At this, Tuvok, a seven-tailed Kitsune and the same one who had given some of the crowd their first plant lesson, walked in, a cunning look on his face.

"Papa Gandalf and we have set up decoys modelled and built after us to distract them long enough while we escape," he said, "Furthermore; the Fairies had been commanded to use their magic to erase our tracks leading from the base to further conceal our escape."

A smile of fascination formed on Koga and Janine's faces, and Lana and company were equally fascinated.

"That certainly is a cunning strategy to deploy," said Chicory, "I doubt I'd have thought of that."

A proud smile formed on Tuvok's muzzle. "Wisdom and careful planning of a pair of 900-year-old, nine-tailed Kitsune," he said in a whisper.

"I reckon the complexity and the careful design of Mr Gandalf and Mrs Kyukon's underground base is also the result of their centuries of knowledge, am I right?" asked Suiren as she walked with Lana and Hala. Tuvok, a smile on his muzzle and his seven tails waving behind him, nodded.

"But it is also combined with our planning and implementing as well," he added, "Without our help, Papa Gandalf and Mama Kyukon wouldn't have got the base finished in time if they had built the complex underground network themselves by the time the White Witch made her quote-unquote magnificent appearance and took Narnia's thrown for herself at the start of the Eternal Winter."

Then Chicory turned her gaze ahead and eyed the golden Lion fireball hovering before those at the front of the crowd. The fireball was indeed the shape of a Lion's face, and it had a radiant golden gleam to it that was far more magnificent than even the sheen of a nine-tailed Kitsune's ivory gold and metallic yellow fur, and CERTAINLY far more radiant than the overwhelmingly alluring beauty of the wicked and devilish White Witch. Around the Lion's face radiated gleaming gold flames, giving the Lion's face the appearance of a flaming golden sun.

"I hope to see Aslan in the flesh anytime soon," said the young Sauropod, "I wonder when he's gonna appear to thaw out this frozen land the White Witch has locked it in?"

"In his timing, Chicory," said Tuvok, "It's not up to us to decide when the Winter Revolution and the Dawn of Spring will come, neither is it up to us to force Aslan into appearing and dispelling the Eternal Winter…"

Chicory tipped her head to one side.

"Aslan is NOT a tame Lion, Chicory," replied Tuvok when he saw the Sauropod's cocked head of confusion, "He never was, never is, and never will be. He is our Creator, and we should never attempt to attach strings onto him and make him do as we ourselves please."

"So sometimes his will for us may follow a different path than what we expect?" asked Lana.

"Yes," said Tuvok, "Being omniscient, Aslan knows best. All we need to do is trust in him. Even a 900-year-old nine-tailed Kitsune like Papa Gandalf and Mama Kyukon have to submit to him because he is Lord over all of Narnia, and absolutely NOTHING can overpower him. That is why we sometimes call Aslan the Lion above all other Lions. The Talking Sheep and Goats also sometimes refer to Aslan as the Good Shepherd…" Tuvok then breathed a sigh, "Mind you, having said that, it can be very hard to trust in him indeed for we so often want to do things our own way but if we tried to do that, things are bound to end up in a SERIOUS mess…"

Chicory, Lana, Suiren, Morgana, Hala and the other Harpies with them and Janine and Koga looked on and didn't reply at first.

"Well, if that is so," said Janine as she walked alongside her big brother, "I would rather trust in Aslan's wisdom in waiting for the Golden Age Prophecy to come true rather than take it into my own paws and make it come true by my own way…"

"But it's going to be very difficult," said Koga, "I just hope our stay in Archenland is not going to be too difficult…"

"I'm afraid it may have to be," said Tuvok sadly, "The reason why Aslan is sending most of us to there, is for our safety and to restrain the White Witch's bloodthirsty desire to invent games involving us, such as the Decadal Massacre Event…"

Janine and Koga sighed. It was indeed going to be a difficult time in Archenland for the crowd of Narnians were going to spend the rest of the Eternal Winter, however long the age may last, in the foreign country of Archenland. Sadly, the two Wolpertinger siblings walked on with Chicory, Lana and the Harpy group.

The crowd continued to walk on, only stopping to spend the night in a large cave before moving on. The Exodus was indeed proving to be a challenge and many of the crowd members were becoming more and more disgruntled, but it was vitally important that they stuck with the others in the crowd, as well as continue to follow Aslan's Lion fireball as it continued to move away and guide the crowd on their journey, and the Narnia-Archenland border was _still_ a very good distance away from where the crowd currently was.


	68. Chapter 67

**Chapter 67- disobedience followed by trouble**

Several more Narnian days pass and the Archenland-bound evacuees were still walking through the snowy terrain. It was proving to be an extremely exhausting and demanding journey as the creatures had to continue to pull their feet through the thick and deep snow as well as fight and dig through it for the snow sometimes rose in depth to an adult male Faun's waist. Even the larger and stronger walking creatures like the T-Rexes, Horses and Centaurs who carried those unable to walk far, such as pregnant mothers, were struggling to pull their feet through the deep white and freezing powder which sometimes clumped together like sand on a beach. Even if the crowd took rest stops such as to eat or spend the night in a safe place, exhaustion was beginning to become a more and more frequent problem, with the demand for rest stops becoming more and more common. Furthermore, the freezing temperature, blizzards and the snow were beginning to ignite disgruntlement and impatience in many of the creatures but their escorts still urged them on for they wanted to get to the Archenlander border as soon as they could. Aslan's Lion-faced fireball continued to hover ahead of the front of the crowd and continued to serve as a guiding beacon for the evacuees as they continued their journey, but doubt in Aslan and his guiding sign was beginning to take root within some of the creatures as well, including Dashiell and Amberpaw who absolutely loathed the journey due to the deep snow.

As the creatures continued to trudge, dig and struggle through the snow, a few of them began to stop frequently as the strain of the trek was beginning to get to them. Nyarth wearily trudged through the snow before stopping, slouching and put his paws on his knees.

"How much further have we got to walk?" groaned Kushanku's older brother, his face laced with the tiredness of the trip, "The Narnia-Archenland boundary surely can't be too far."

Kushanku then came by with Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi, Kushanku giving one of the Penguin chicks a piggy back to help its parents take a break while Sandstorm carried a Rabbit kit (not one of Faline's kits). Around Kushanku and his siblings, groans and moans continued to emanate from the other creatures and Tesseract was complaining of the aching muscles in his legs. Around the complaining crowd, Cedrus and the other escorts continued to urge them on for the crowd was not in any vicinity of any safe spot for another break, and there could be Jadis's minions lurking in any possible corner in the surrounds, especially forests and thickets, and some of the trees could be indwelt by Dryads on the Witch's side as well, though the fire-utilising creatures such as the Phoenixes, Talking Dragons and some of the Kitsune such as Tuvok were always ready to burn such Dryads' trees to the ground to kill the Tree Sprites and protect the crowd. Kids were getting more and more impatient while some of the pregnant mothers and the disabled individuals were swapped between the Centaurs, T-Rexes, the Horses and the Horse-like creatures (such as Unicorns and Pegasi) when these individuals got tired. Around the trudging crowd, the lookouts continued to scour the environment for any trouble. Ptériga and her band of Sphinx lookouts were hovering above the front of the crowd, their Humanoids' eyes scouring the surrounding forests for any suspicious movement while on the ground, some of Cedrus's tribe members were checking the trees to ensure that there were no Dryads on the Witch's side spying on them. As mentioned before, there could be trees indwelt by Dryads on Jadis's side, and it was important that action was taken to protect the crowd. Thankfully, the crowd had a naturally skilled Dryad communicator on their side.

Curupira, especially the older ones, were excellent communicators with Dryads and knew whether they were on Aslan's side or the Witch's side based on their behaviour due to their natural connection to forests and their roles as guardians and protectors of trees and plants, and because the older members of Cedrus's tribe had the most experience in dealing with Dryads, they were chosen to be the Dryad watchers and checkers and as the crowd moved on, they would stop and knock on the trunk of every tree they came across. If they got no response, they knew that the tree did not belong to one of the Tree Spirits and moved on, but if they did get a response from the trees, the next step of action followed two separate paths: if the Dryad was genuinely on Aslan's side and against the Witch, that Dryad's tree was spared but if a Dryad was a spy for the Witch, that Dryad was put to death on the spot via the burning of their tree and subsequent cutting down to ensure that the Dryad was put to death. This second course of action had only been taken once when Deodara detected suspicious behaviour in one of the trees and had a Kitsune able to breathe fire to set it alight, while a Triceratops and an Elephant applied their strength in pushing over the tree to finish the job. Normally, it was unethical to chop down the trees indwelt by the Nature Spirits but because some of the Dryads had fallen for the Witch's side and thus were assigned the roles as stationary spies hiding in plain sight, permission had been granted in doing away with these Dryads for the safety of the evacuees. 

"Come on, everyone," called Blaze as he hovered ahead with Cumulonimbus and Brina and some of the other Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs, "Keep going and keep your eyes on Aslan's Lion fireball sign."

The golden fireball shaped like a Lion's face burning with golden flames and radiating out like a Lion's mane continued to hover before the crowd, and the crowd continued to follow it but soon, the path came to a bifurcation in which the path forked into two. One branch, the right one, led into very thick mist, and the mist was so thick that hands and wings held out at their maximum length was barely visible from their observers' eyes. The other path branch, the left one, however, was as clear as day and was not smothered in mist, and the horizon was visible for it was downhill. As the crowd approached the bifurcation, some of them at the front shuddered at the thick mist enveloping the right branch of the path. Their eyes then turned to the left branch of the path, which they found more appealing to travel down, and they had hoped that Aslan's sign would hover over this path. Dashiell and Amberpaw gazed timidly at the foggy path.

"I do NOT wanna travel in THAT," murmured the adult Cheetah as he shuddered at the thick mist. Near Cedrus and his family, Troodon also gazed timidly at the super-thick mist and backed away but he had been gently ushered along by Tsuga. Then as soon as the crowd's front stopped at the bifurcation, glances were exchanged amongst them with many of them wanting to go down the clear path. Kushanku gazed at the foggy path with the Penguin chick on his back as Milky Way touched down beside him, having been helping the flying lookout teams examine the surroundings above the crowd for any signs of trouble.

"I can barely see ANYTHING in that mist," he said to the Pegasus, "I've NEVER seen fog as thick as THAT."

As he spoke, Milky Way gazed down the clear path as Cedrus walked up to the pair with a Centaur.

"Which path does Aslan want us to take, Cedrus?" asked Milky Way. Cedrus, his tribe leader's staff in his left hand like a shepherd's crook which he used as a skier's stick to help pull himself through the snow, then gazed from one path to the next, searching for Aslan's Lion fireball sign. Then within moments, the Lion fireball appeared but it did not appear down the clear path. It was glowing in the thick fog smothering the right branch of the path, the flames licking at the mist. Cedrus, when he spotted the Lion fireball, then formed a stern look on his face and turned to the crowd as more turned up.

"We're to go down that path," said the lead Curupira, a finger point to the thick misty path. At this, disbelief tore through many of the crowd members.

"WHAT!?" blurted out a Dog (not Molayne).

"You want US to travel down THAT thick mist!?" retorted a Cat (regular Cat).

"We could EASILY get lost in that mist," said a Camel with a pregnant Fox on his back, his gaze on the thick mist smothering the right branch of the fork. His calf, a son hid behind his legs and whimpered timidly. Cedrus's glare hardened.

"Well, since Aslan is indicating us to take that path, we should take it," he said, "Since the Lion of all Lions knows best, we should follow his direction. Now let's not have any arguments and walk down the misty path, but make sure that you ALL STAY TOGETHER and KEEP YOUR KIDS CLOSE TO YOU!"

Troodon, at this, huddled closer to Deodara's side as he gazed at the super-thick mist. He clearly did not like the sight of the mist one bit and was tempted to go down the clear path, much like the majority of the other creatures. Kushanku was also tempted to go against Aslan's guidance, especially as he stared into the thick mist which was so thick that he would not be able to see much of his forked tail. Cedrus began to try and assure the crowd when he saw doubt well within them.

"Look, all you need to do is trust in Aslan," shouted the Curupira tribe patriarch for everyone to hear, "and follow his Lion fireball sign. He will guide us through the thick fog."

"But we'd not be able to see what's in front of us!" protested someone in the crowd, a Hippogriff (not Cyril).

"What if we have to walk along a precipice in THAT!?" yelled another, a Dimetrodon.

"You've got to be kidding us!" said a Pterosaur. Then a protesting uproar erupted from many members of the crowd, many of them yelling of their desire to travel down the left path which was clear and fogless. Cedrus, at this, began to worry. It was clear that the crowd was not listening and many of them were insisting that they travel down the clear path. Then Obsidian came forward and gazed at Aslan's Lion fireball sign in the thick mist.

"It will be a difficult trek through that but we must go along with it," said the Wampus Cat, "especially since the Lion is indicating to us to travel down it."

"I agree," said Kushanku as Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth turned up, "Aslan called me to evacuate Green Leaf Village to Mr Gandalf's base in a dream and we made the right decision…"

"Yes, especially since our former home and its neighbouring town had been ransacked and destroyed by the Witch and her cronies thanks to Soran," said Trotterhoof as memories of his return to the decimated Green Leaf Village and Purple Flower Town along with Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne, Obsidian, Thundersparx and Milky Way, "and that you guys would have without a doubt died with every other villager who had stayed behind," the Pig's gaze turned to Kushanku and the others with him who used to live in Green Leaf Town. Trotterhoof then turned to Dashiell and Amberpaw who looked on with disgruntled, sour glares and continued, "But despite the decimation of everyone in Purple Flower Town, we had found only four survivors, which are you two along with Citron and Eureka the Otters…"

"We don't wanna talk about the devastation that Nekomata brought upon us, Pig, because of his some belief in some oversized Cat with a messy mane," snapped Dashiell bitterly, his acidic, resentful glare shot at Kushanku who flinched, before he returned it to Trotterhoof, "and since there's no such thing as a Lion that has created Narnia by caterwauling it into existence, we're gonna go down the clear path as it's much safer."

"WHAT!?" snapped Sandstorm incredulously.

"But we're to go down the _misty_ path," protested Akira, "As Aslan is showing us over there."

"Yes, remember what Gandalf said about following Aslan's guidance," said Thundersparx sternly, "We're to follow Aslan's guidance…"

"I don't wanna hear what that nine-tailed Dog has said about following some unseen Lion's lead," snapped the Cheetah disrespectfully to the outrage and offense of Cedrus and the other helpers of Gandalf, especially his offspring such as Tuvok, "There's no way WE are gonna go down THAT dangerous and uninviting foggy path. We're gonna go down the clear path where it is safer."

Amberpaw came in and nodded in agreement. When this determination reached the ears of the listeners nearest to the two still-sour Cheetahs, those listeners exchanged glances and began to go along with Dashiell and Amberpaw's suggestion. At this, Kushanku rushed in and began to protest.

"Wait, everyone!" shouted the Nekomata and with that, he twisted his forked tail and launched into the air. Kushanku then flew over to the clear path and began to protest to the crowd.

"We should NOT be going down this path," he yelled, "If Aslan wants us to take the foggy path then we should take the foggy path. If we don't obey him then trouble will befall us. What if the Witch and her cronies catch us for instance?"

Cedrus smiled at the young Nekomata as he hovered before the crowd in his attempt to dissuade them from going down the clear path. Dahlia, Snowwing, Crystal and Guinan walked in. however, their gazes were filled with dismay as they examined the faces of many of the crowd, especially as they were considering going down the clear path. Then Dashiell stepped in.

"Everyone, don't listen to that Nekomata," shouted the Cheetah," he's just trying to endanger you all like he did to those of us who had lived in Green Leaf Village," he yelled. This caused more glances to be exchanged throughout the crowd. Then impatience boiled within Gandalf's helpers who had become escorts.

"Come on, everyone, let's get a move on!" shouted Blaze as he hovered with the other Phoenixes, Rocs and Thunderbirds above the foggy path, insisting the crowd follow that one. The crowd stood there, murmurs rolling through them. then a few of them stepped out of the crowd, amongst them Gandalf's helpers including Cedrus' own tribe and Troodon, and walked over to the foggy path as a practical signal that they wanted to go down the path in obedience to Aslan's command based on the Lion fireball hovering in the fog. Then a push-of-war started up between Kushanku and Dashiell as they began to try and usher the crowd one way or the other with Kushanku trying to usher the crowd into following the helpers and their group down the foggy path while Dashiell insisted on the crowd going down the clear path which appeared far safer than the foggy path. As the ball of persuasion continued to be passed from Kushanku to Dashiell and back like how a shuttlecock flew back and forth in our world's tennis sport, Deodara glared at Cedrus.

"This is going nowhere, dear," the Curupira tribe matriarch growled. Cedrus then called together the aerial lookouts such as Ptériga and began to discuss with them in gently forcing the crowed down the foggy path but before any of the helpers could disperse to apply the backup plan, the stream of various creatures had begun to make its way down the clear path, having finally fallen for Dashiell's persuasion and their own short-sighted judgement. At this, Cedrus exploded in panic.

"Hey, EVERYONE!" he yelled, "You're going the _wrong way_ and _against_ Aslan's guidance! Remember what Gandalf said about disobeying…"

The Curupira then began to run around and protest to the crowd with Ptériga and the others taking or rushing off to try and stop the crowd but it was no use. The crowd, or most of them, had already chosen to go down the clear path. Big mistake since it was NOT the path Aslan had ordered them to take. A few remaining members of the crowd, however, took the correct path and prepared to enter the mist, amongst them Trotterhoof. Blaze and Brina and a few of the helpers began to guide them but they stopped and worriedly gazed at Cedrus.

"You guys take that few into the mist, we'll deal with the rest of the crowd," said Cedrus and with that, he resumed trying to get the crowd to change their direction. Blaze and Brina exchanged worried gazes with their comrades and the crowd members who had chosen to go down the path, before disappearing into the fog.

Then within moments, the rest of the crowd began to pour like a viscous liquid down the clear path with the rest of the escorts led by Cedrus trying to dissuade them from going further down the path. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Nanu and Molayne and a few others including Milky Way, Obsidian and Thundersparx and also the Pyros in their lamps also tried to help but to the protesters' dismay, many of the crowd members did not listen and continued down the path.

"You're DISOBEYING GANDALF'S COMMAND to follow ASLAN'S GUIDANCE!" yelled Cedrus at the deliberately deaf-eared crowd, "YOU'RE GONNA end up in a LOT of trouble if you CONTINUE DOWN THIS WRONG PATH!"

However, when the Curupira realised that his protests were falling on deaf ears, he eventually stopped to take a break as his voice went raw and hoarse from all the shouting, but he was furious and devastated that so many of the evacuees had chosen to disobey Gandalf's advice and also Aslan himself by deliberately taking the wrong path. It was clear that many of the crowd had a lack a faith in the Lion and were clouded by their short-sighted judgement as well as the exhaustion of the journey which had been going on over rugged and snowy terrain for days now.

 **Meanwhile**

In a hidden cave somewhere else in Narnia and far from Gandalf's decimated base, Gandalf and his group had taken shelter. The last of Gandalf's helpers such as Perseus the Centaur; that is, those that had volunteered to go along with the male Kitsune and the father of the entire magical Fox species, were chatting with Kyukon (the mother of the Kitsune species since she was Gandalf's mate) and her group over the ellipsoidal communicator, the same one Jadis had magically hacked to taunt Gandalf before he and his group could leave their base. While they did that, Gandalf was examining the magic map of Narnia. The map was a scrollable 3D projection of the land similar to how certain devices of our world's digital technology would project 3D images of objects, and it allowed Gandalf to have an overall eye-in-the-sky look over the land, and he had been using the map to track the evacuees headed for Archenland over the past days, the crowd's tagged coats and tents showing up as red coloured dots on the map which merged together to form a mass, indicating the crowd's location. The magic map also showed the location of the Witch's cronies and the Witch herself, shown as black dots for the map also traced the signature of those creatures and so far, none of those black dots had strayed too near the crowd, much to Gandalf's relief. However, that relief was about to be shattered as the male nine-tailed Kitsune continued to watch the crowd continue their journey to the Narnia-Archenland border in the far south.

While Gandalf continued to watch the Archenland-bound evacuees, Perseus was talking with Kyukon who had retreated to an underground chamber somewhere in the north of the Narnian country for a rest before moving on.

"Have you been taunted by the White Witch as well, Kyukon?" asked Perseus, the female nine-tailed Fox and Gandalf's mate on the ellipse-shaped crystalline communicator screen with a few of her helpers, among them a Dwarf and a few Fairies, "Gandalf was impressively calm when dealing with that Devil Woman when she and her comrades taunted him and me."

"Oh, that Witch was a Devil Woman alright," said Kyukon with a distasteful scowl on her face on the screen, "But I did not enter into a conversation with her. I just cut off the communicator and ignored her attempts to contact me. I honestly did not want to get ONE SINGLE glimpse of that Snow Beast's overwhelming beauty and her hideous minions. Those Slender-Men honestly give me the chills and some of the more grotesque and frightening creatures like the Lizard-Men, Bonehead Crawlers, Xenojaws, Sluagh, Triffid-Mouths, Banshees and the other Horror species always make me nauseated. I cannot stand the sight of those diseased monsters and feral beasts."

Kyukon's face twisted slightly in disgust as she mentioned these, "They sometimes remind me of Krampus's hideous demonic toy minions. The Basilisks especially remind me of that giant Python-Jack-in-a-Box I have dubbed Python-Clown-in-a-Box because of its clown-like facial features and its massive Snake-like body, as well as its behaviour in that it has extendible jaws and that it swallows its victims whole and alive…" chills coursed down Kyukon's spine and made her nine tails shudder, "Anyway, enough of that foul bunch…"

Kyukon then went on to explain the wellbeing of her group.

"We're doing fine, Perseus," said the female Kitsune, "Our salvaged Narnian flora and fauna samples are in good shape as well. We hope to raise them as soon as we escape this Eternal Winter gripped land and release them back into the country once the Winter Revolution and the Dawn of Spring comes with Aslan's coming and the two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve's entry into Narnia through the wooden box portal according to the Golden Age Prophecy…"

"It's good to know that the salvaged flora and fauna of our country is being well looked after," said Perseus, "And you know something, Kyukon, all this snow, ice and freezing air has practically become the norm for us it has been around for so long…"

"Have a bit of patience and faith, Perseus," said Kyukon with a smile, "The Eternal Winter may be called the Eternal Winter but it will, ironically, not last for ever. Alternatively, I think this period should be called the _Age of Winter_ instead…"

Perseus was about to reply when suddenly, a Kitsune shout erupted from behind him.

"Oh, NO!" cried Gandalf's voice. At this, Perseus's gaze snapped from the screen to behind him where Gandalf sat. Worry ignited within Kyukon.

"Perseus, is everything alright on your side?" asked the concerned Kitsune. However, Perseus did not hear Kyukon's question and yelled at Gandalf.

"Gandalf, what's going on?" called the Centaur. Gandalf, however, was already leaving the cave.

"No time to explain, Perseus," replied the Kitsune as he scurried out of the cave entrance, a few of the Phoenixes, Thunderbirds and Rocs in tow for he had called them to come with him, "Can you look after the other helpers and the equipment such as the magic Narnia map please? We've got something VERY important to do."

Then before Perseus and his group could ask any more questions, the ivory and metallic yellow Fox was gone, his nine tails disappearing after him, followed by the Elemental Birds. Kyukon continued to shout on the communicator screen.

"What's going on over there?" demanded the female Kitsune, "Has something happened?"

At this, a Roc who had remained behind went to talk to Kyukon to answer her question while Perseus and the other remaining helpers of Gandalf walked over to the magic Narnia map. When their eyes landed on the large cluster of red dots from the beacons on the crowd's coats and tents, alongside a cluster of black dots, indicating creatures Gandalf's helpers were all too familiar with, and how close they were coming together on the magical holographic map, horror and worry ignited within them.

 **Back with the Archenland-bound evacuees**

The crowd continued down the clear path. As they continued to walk along, Cedrus and the other escorts and some of the other crowd members such as Thundersparx, Milky Way and Obsidian continued to protest for them to turn back and return to the bifurcation node so that they could go down the misty path but the only response they got was clogged ears for no-one stopped to listen. Some of the crowd members were beginning to regret the decision, remembering Gandalf's words to always stick to Aslan's guidance but the other crowd members urged them on and to forget what the Kitsune said, the impatience of getting to Archenland as soon a possible to escape the snowy terrain of Narnia and the Witch's tyranny having finally taken them over, as well as cloud their judgement, completely. Despite this, some of the Elemental Birds had managed to convince a few of the crowd members into turning back and returning to the bifurcation successfully but the rest continued to move on. Cedrus finally gave up protesting and shook his head in utter disappointment.

"We're seriously gonna regret this," said the lead Curupira with dread as Kushanku touched down near him, "We've turned against the guidance of the Most High in Narnia in exchange for our own judgement."

"Some of the crowd members at the back had turned back and are heading back the way they came to go down the misty path which is the correct one as indicated by Aslan, Mr Cedrus," said Kushanku.

"Well, that's good but we need to get EVERY member of the crowd back to the bifurcation and down the misty path," said Cedrus as he continued to gaze at the crowd as it continued walk down the clear path despite his comrades, including his tribe members' protests. Then Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl came in with Passiflora with a couple of other Cherubs. The latter three wore disgruntled and angry faces.

"Cedrus, we've tried EVERY method possible in getting the crowd to turn back with only a handful of successes," said Passiflora crossly, "but the others won't listen."

"They're insisting that this path is safer than the other path," said Ahhuayo. He then flashed worried glances in different directions at the surroundings, worried that trouble may erupt at any moment. As he did that, the aquatic spiny, hand-tailed Dog-like creature shuddered. Seeing you-know-who and company was the LAST thing the Ahuizotl needed, for himself and for everyone else. Kushanku also shuddered and began to shoot timid glances at the surroundings as well. However, the fears were about to become reality.

While Cedrus's group continued to discuss on what to do while Kushanku and Ahhuayo continued flashing timid glances around the group like timid deer sensing a hunter, the sounds of flapping feathered wings reached the group's ears, and those wing flaps were laced with terror. Cedrus, the trio of Cherubs, Kushanku and Ahhuayo looked up just in time to see Ptériga and a few of her Sphinx comrades fly in and crash-land onto the snow. The chimeric Magical Creatures' faces were laced with what Cedrus had feared most: terror.

"Cedrus, we MUST get the crowd to turn back RIGHT NOW!" shouted the lead Sphinx, "We've just been hovering high above the crowd and have seen…"

"Seen what, Ptériga?" demanded Cedrus. Ptériga was about to reply when suddenly, the conditions around the crowd abruptly changed. At first, the conditions had been pleasant, sunny and clear but within _seconds,_ everything plunged into darkness as though an eclipse had suddenly appeared. The crowd all stopped dead and uttered confused and terrified whimpers. Kids huddled against their parents or carers' sides or in their arms or wings. Troodon hid behind Deodara and his adopted Curupira siblings and cousins as the reverse-footed Humanoids shot suspicious glances this way and that, their weapons poised to strike. Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Nanu and Molayne also huddled together while Thundersparx, Obsidian and Milky Way shuddered, especially Obsidian as the Wampus Cat began to panic. Then the next thing that happened, a massive blizzard was whipped up. The winds shot up and a MASSIVE flurry of snow began to swirl around the crowd wildly, much to their fright. Cedrus examined the sudden change in conditions when a Centaur came by. He was shivering at the sudden change in weather conditions and was backing away towards a wall of trees but as he did that, something horrifying happened.

As Cedrus deduced the cause of the sudden, dark blizzard and was about to yell at the crowd, the agonised screams of a Centaur erupted behind him, Passiflora and her two Cherub assistants, Ptériga and her Sphinx comrades, and Kushanku and Ahhuayo, snapping the lot's gazes in the Centaur's direction but the moment their eyes landed on the screaming Centaur, they saw that the Horse-Humanoid was under savage attack from a pair of Bear-like creatures with vicious fangs and claws, and those two Bears were applying their weaponry full force and gruesomely. When Passiflora looked closer as the two creatures then began to gruesomely kill the Centaur, recognition immediately took hold. Her husband had been attacked by such a creature before and had been killed while he was out searching for material for finishing the building of Gandalf's underground base just as Jadis was conquering Narnia with her army, and those creatures were infamous in clinging to the treetops, keeping a birds-eye view of the snowy country from that level. But the most distinctive trait of these creatures was the fact that they ambushed their victims that walked under their tree and gruesomely killed them. As these traits came together, Passiflora identified the creatures as they killed the Centaur despite the dark blizzard.

"DROP BEARS!" screamed the Winged Humanoid as her two Cherub assistants nearly fainted from the gory sight. Cedrus then turned to the trio, Ptériga and the other Sphinxes, his eyes saturated with pure terror as deduction of the darkness and blizzard came over him

"GEEEEET THE CROOOOWWWD TO TUUURRN ROOUUND AND RETUUURRN TO THE FOOORRRK, NOOOOOW!" yelled the Curupira tribe patriarch at the top of his lungs, a point to the direction opposite the crowd. Then without hesitation, Passiflora, Ptériga, their comrades and Kushanku lofted into flight while Cedrus and Ahhuayo sprinted back to the crowd as they began to scatter in their panic, but the flying creatures such as the Elemental Birds immediately sprang into action.

Behaving like flying shepherds, the flying creatures such as Passiflora, Ptériga and their Cherub and Sphinx comrades respectively, began to herd the crowd back the way they came while the grounded escorts like Cedrus and his tribe, worked on the ground, but due to the darkness, high winds and saturation of blizzard in the air, all sense of direction was lost. However, Bursyamo and his Basan underlings, together with Thundersparx and the other Raiju, sprang into action and began to apply their glowing feathers and fur as a guide to the crowd with the Phoenixes transforming into their flaming forms to brighten the beacon. But due to the thickness of the blizzard, their light was hard to see. Amongst the crowd, Kushanku yelled for Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth.

"Akira, BROTHERS!" called the youngest son of the late Frosty and Ferntail, "AKIRA, SANDSTORM, NYARTH, SATOSHI!"

Somewhere in the crowd, Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, together with Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Nanu and Molayne were huddled together, saturated with terror, trying to move with everyone else back in the direction in which they came but due to the darkness and the blizzard, it was difficult, and Bursyamo and company's makeshift beacon was proving very difficult to see.

"Kushanku," called Satoshi as he began to search for a certain Nekomata, "KUSHANKU!"

"SATOSHI, GUYS!" cried Kushanku as he struggled against the wind and the blizzard. Because of the high winds, he could not fly by spinning his forked tail but when he had found his siblings and friends, he was pulled into a hug by siblings.

"Oh, there you are," cried Satoshi as he hugged Kushanku. Then as soon as they had broken the hug, the group began to get a move on along with everyone else.

The rest of the crowd continued to struggle against the blizzard and the dark, with kids being clasped by their parents or carers or guided in the case of the four-footed Talking Beasts, while the escorts continued to help push them along. While this was going on, Cedrus began to angrily bellow, "This is WHY we should have listened to GANDALF'S COMMAND TO FOLLOW ASLAN'S GUIDANCE at ALL TIMES during this PERILOUS JOURNEY!"

None of the crowd members answered however for they were too saturated with panic by the darkness and the windy blizzard to listen. Desperately, they tried to make their way back to the fork in the path but it was a difficult struggle due to the high winds flooded with snow battering them. Some of them, such as Tesseract, were in hysterics and countless kids and babies were VERY frightened and were crying and wailing in their parents or carers' arms, baskets or wings or by their parents or carers' side in the case of the four-footed Animals as they were carried or tackled in the direction of the fork in the path. Then something else arrived in the darkness: a sound familiar to some of them who had been traumatised by the cause of the darkness and the blizzard, and that sound increased in loudness.

"What's that sound?" asked someone.

"Sounds like the pounding of feet and the sliding of blades against tithe snow," replied someone else. However, recognition had already taken hold within some of the crowd members, especially those who had encountered the causer of the dark blizzard, amongst them a certain six-legged Mountain Lioness who had lost her mother, father and brother to the creature when she was young. The moment recognition took hold, those crowd members began to panic all the more, and Cedrus had identified the causer of the blizzard. Violently alarmed, the Curupira patriarch barked orders at his assistants to help the crowd get back to the fork, especially the children.

Kushanku, along with Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne had never encountered the creature before and had only ever been told about him by Dashiell and Obsidian, but Nanu had encountered the Snow Beast before when he was a younger Wolf pup, but his introduction to the Snow Beast had given the poor Wolf pup nightmares for days despite his parents and siblings' insistence that he get used to knowing the creature and his purpose as Jadis's assistant, spy and punisher. The demonic toy minions, especially the evil Cherub-like dolls, had how they dispatched their victims had rendered Nanu petrified of those toys and their master, and now he did not want to meet that creature and his minions again. Desperately, the Wolf pup began to help the others get their kids to safety, just as the stomping of feet and the slicing of metal blades on snow increased in loudness and abruptly stopped as the causer of the sounds finally arrived. At this, Ptériga and her Sphinx assistants and a couple of Centaurs snapped their gazes from the panic-stricken crowd to the new arrival but the moment their eyes landed on the silhouette of a sled, a pack of reindeer, and a giant, hunched bipedal being dressed in the robes of a familiar figure with giant Goat's horns rising and curling back from its head, horrified and alarmed gasps entered their mouths and the Sphinxes prepared for action, the eyes of some of them flashing aqua blue and projecting an aqua blue aura onto some of the fallen logs nearby as the Sphinxes telekinetically lifted them, into the air, ready to batter the creature and his minions to protect the crowd and stall them.

As the giant Goat-Demon rose in his seat and quickly climbed out of it, his glowing red eyes in his Father Christmas-like outfit's hood and the dark blizzard ruffling the fur of his suit glaring menacingly at the Sphinxes and the crowd in their desperation to escape, squeaky cackles laced with malice and bloodlust exploded from the cargo compartment of his sleigh, indicating the presence of his minions and their preparation for action. Then one of Ptériga's Sphinx assistants, a male, lurched forward (his hair blowing and wavering in the blizzardy wind) and flashed his eyes aqua blue, and projected an aqua blue aura of his telekinesis at the Goat-Demon figure who was Krampus. However, the aqua blue aura, though it surrounded Krampus, was immediately shattered as though Krampus had some sort of magical paste to prevent the mind-powered grasp from gripping him. The male Sphinx, surprise flashing within him, tried again but as before, his telekinetic grasp on the Snow Beast in the form of the blue aura appeared and then vanished in a split-second. He tried again a third time but the same thing happened before. Then Ptériga came in.

"It's no use, Simoom, Krampus is totally immune to the direct use of our telekinesis," said the lead female Sphinx and with that, she telekinetically seized a log, her eyes flashing blue in the dark and the aqua blue aura surrounding the hollow tube of wood, and lifted that tube into the air. Then with all her might, Ptériga telekinetically flung the log at Krampus, a number of the other Sphinxes also flinging four or five more logs telekinetically at the Snow Beast in the hope that the logs would knock the bipedal Father Christmas imposter off his feet. However, Krampus only lifted his arms and violently deflected the flying projectiles by smashing them with his powerful arms, before seizing the last two with his own telekinesis and flinging them back at the Sphinxes, a red aura surrounding them as the Goat Demon, his eyes also flashing red, locked them in his mental grasp. Ptériga, a sharp gasp entering her mouth, seized the two logs quickly with her telekinesis and flung them to one side.

"NO," shouted Simoom in horror and frustration, "That Goat Demon has his own telekinesis as well. We'd BETTER get the crowd OUTA HERE, NOW!"

With that, the male Sphinx spread his feathered wings and lofted into flight to help the crowd to escape Krampus while Ptériga and the other Sphinxes tried a stationary defensive tactic in spreading their feathered wings and baring their teeth threateningly at Krampus and his toy minions in the hopes of stalling him but to their dismay, the Goat Demon and his toy minions consisting of the false Cherub dolls, demonic gingerbread men armed with candy-based weapons such as candy canes with a sharpened tip on one end like a spear, demonic teddy bears and other typical toys, a giant python-like jack-in-the-box and his demonic Elf assistants (Father Christmas had Elf and Fairy assistants as well who helped him make and pack toys and other gifts for Christmas, but due to Jadis's winter curse, they, along with their master, had been kicked out of Narnia and will not return until the Dawn of Spring), were totally unfazed by the Sphinxes' defensive stance. Then Cedrus came in.

"It's no good, Ptériga, Sphinxes, Krampus is not afraid of you. Just come and help us get this crowd back to the fork. Also, get ready to deflect that pack of twisted fairy-tale Father Christmas counterfeits' attacks on them," the Curupira commanded. Without hesitation and with Krampus and his band of minions advancing towards the group, Ptériga and her comrades obeyed and lofted into flight. Then within moments the crowd got moving but with due difficulty due to the darkness and the windy blizzard summoned by Krampus smothering them. Then when Krampus and company lurched at the crowd only to be countered by some of the helpers as they sought to protect the crowd, a fight broke out.


	69. Chapter 68

**Chapter 68- a discombobulated mess and some fatalities**

The escorts clashed violently with Krampus and his minions while the other escorts continued to help the crowd head back to the fork in the path and down the misty path but because the darkness and the blizzard summoned by their enemy was so thick and the winds so strong, it was proving extremely difficult, and the crowd, especially the kids and pregnant mothers, were in grave danger of getting attacked by Krampus's toy and Elf minions, but someone else was about to arrive… someone FAR worse than Krampus.

While the escorts continued to fight off the toy minions of Krampus and his Elves, the swords of some of them clashing with the candy cane weapons of the demonic gingerbread men while some of the others were slashing their bladed weapons or spears at the other toy minions as they hissed and lashed their tongues or other appendages such as sharp claws at their opponents, the crowd continued to struggle against the windy blizzard and the darkness. They deeply regretted rejecting Aslan's guidance to go down the foggy path and because of that, they had brought themselves and their escorts into this gigantic mess, and now they will have to risk life and limb to get back to the fork in the road and down the correct path which was smothered in mist for Aslan had indicated to them with his Lion fireball in the first place. Cedrus lunged at a demonic teddy bear as it terrorised a mother T-Rex and her T-Rex-lings and savagely drove it away with his stick while Tuvok, Kairyu and some of the latter's Talking Dragon underlings blasted some gingerbread men with their flame breath to save some more families from their assault, among them Faline and her kits, three of her younger babies clasped against her chest with her forelimbs and a petrified look on her face. Nearby, Colress and some other Centaurs were viciously duelling some of Krampus's Elf minions in a swordfight when one of the evil Elves managed to fight past a Centaurette's counter moves and nearly slash her neck, almost fatally wounding her much to her alarm. Shaking off the shock of this near-fatal miss, the Centaurette lunged at the Elf and plunged her sword right through its chest, killing it instantly while Colress cut down two more Elves with two slashes of his sword in a row. Nearby, some more of the Elves tried to get at the crowd, their eyes on the younger members but the Elemental Birds, among them Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina, appeared out of nowhere and drove them away. Blaze transformed into his flaming form and charged at the Elves while Cumulonimbus summoned a mini-thunderstorm before using its bolts to zap the Elves. While the pair did that, Brina unleashed her icy breath and froze some more Elves solid when suddenly; a ginger-coloured mini-figure decorated with various candies leaped up from below and flew towards Brina with a squeaky battle cry, its sharpened candy cane spear aimed for her throat. Brina, at this, froze, taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of the demonic gingerbread man as it continued to fly towards her when suddenly, a young Unicorn appeared and skewered the little candy figure with his icicle-like horn, plunging his horn right through the gingerbread man's candy torso, saving Brina from death. Brina looked on in shock as Tesseract; an _extremely_ furious neigh exploding from his mouth, then removed the gingerbread man from his horn with a front hoof and pinned the candy figure onto the floor. He then prepared to devour the candy creature but Brina intervened.

"DON'T eat the gingerbread man, Tesseract, they're cursed and could make you _violently_ ill," said the Roc, "Just trample it into crumbs."

Tesseract flashed the ice bird a look and immediately obeyed and trampled the gingerbread man under his hooves to turn it into candy mulch and killing it.

Krampus's gingerbread men and the other candy-based minions were cursed and were thus highly toxic and inedible, a deliberate defence mechanism set into them by Krampus when he and his Elf minions made them, so that any defending victim consumed them, they would be violently poisoned with a possible slow and painful death resulting. They were much like Belladonna's highly toxic but attractive food, such as the crystalline ruby apple that nearly killed Nanu. (Belladonna's chocolate cake that Troodon and the other kids who foolishly befriended the Nogitsune had consumed was not toxic but EXTREMELY addictive, and Troodon and the other kids were still afflicted with the desire for more cake even now, and it was going to take an awfully long time to overcome that addiction. The food Jadis also conjured was also magically imbued to be either extremely toxic or addictive but highly attractive on the outside to tempt the victim into eating it). However, poisoning from consuming Krampus's candy minions can be cured with fire-flower cordial which was the only potion capable of curing such deadly poison, but due to the chaos the crowd was in, any poisoning and injury to deal with may have to wait until they were safely down the correct path as indicated by Aslan.

Then as soon as Tesseract had finished trampling the gingerbread man to nothing but crumbs, he turned to help the others escape but before he could set to threat, a massive scream erupted from near him. At this, the young Unicorn snapped his gaze in the direction of the scream but the moment his eyes landed on the screamer, horror tore through him and his blood froze like the blizzardy air around him. An Elf minion of Krampus had managed to seize Janine, Koga's sister, and was now carrying her to one of the larger toy minions of Krampus to be either killed or eaten alive, and the young Wolpertinger was kicking and screaming and thrashing her paws and wings in the Elf's iron grasp. Outrage tearing through him, Tesseract bolted into action despite Cumulonimbus's protests wen the Thunderbird saw him charge at the Elf while he was occupied with a demonic plush rabbit armed with vicious fangs like an evil Wolpertinger.

"Tesseract, NO!" cried Cumulonimbus as he had the plush rabbit by the throat with his talons and surrounded by mini storm clouds. Tesseract did not hear the Thunderbird's cries and continued charging at the Elf as it continued to carry the screaming Janine towards Krampus and the larger toy minions, among them the giant python-like Jack-in-the-box dubbed by Kyukon as the Python-Clown-in-a-Box due to its snakelike behaviour, extendible jaws and its tendency to swallow its victims whole like a python, often alive. Then as soon as Tesseract was near the Elf, he released an EXTREMELY loud neigh and without hesitation struck the Elf with his horn, goring him through the chest before the Elf had time to react. The Elf, fatally struck by the young Unicorn's attack, fell down and released Janine who immediately spread her feathered wings and charged off after her family, terror consuming her while Tesseract, his horn bloodstained from striking the Elf through the chest, glared maliciously at the fallen Elf and Janine's attempted kidnapper. However, he was forced to retreat when he found himself confronted by a giant clown-faced beast.

The giant jack-in-the-box resembled a typical toy of the same name but it was much, MUCH bigger, about the size of a Basilisk. Its face was bone-white, like that of Jadis's skin and from its head, sparkling ruby-red jesters emanated. These jesters each ended in a golden bauble. The jack-in-the-box minion had a mane-like ruff around its neck and a stripy top below the fluffy mane. It had a pair of arms ending in cute white mitts, while below its vest; its body continued downward and along the ground, like the body of a Snake and on the tip of its tail was a cube, obviously the box from which a typical toy it was named for resided. The creature's eyes had upside-down U-shaped eyebrows and beady eyes, and below the eyes was a cute red spherical nose, and its cheeks had faded cute red patches, similar to a certain yellow rodent but fainter as though the red had been spray-painted onto its cheeks. Below the clown's nose was a cute, sweet smile. However, concealed under that smile was a MASSIVE extendible mouth which the Python-Clown-in-a-Box could enlarge at will to reveal the frightening interior of its mouth and throat and also to swallow its victims, and concealed under the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's cute, funny appearance was a murderous, bloodthirsty personality characteristic of a demonic toy minion of Krampus. Blaze saw how dangerously close Tesseract was to the Python-Clown-in-a-Box.

"Tesseract, get away from that clown-faced snake," said the Phoenix warily. Tesseract, however, was too rooted to the spot before the Python-Clown-in-a-Box, especially as the cutesy clown-faced creature reared up like a Cobra. Then Tesseract attempted to frighten the Python-Clown-in-a-Box by neighing as loudly as he could right into its face, much to Blaze's alarm. However, the wicked jack-in-the-box was completely unfazed and retaliated with a MASSIVE hissy screech right into the Unicorn's face. It flared open its huge mouth, revealing its blood-red oral-innards and the entrance of its throat and shoved it right into Tesseract's face, screaming right at him like a Banshee. The mouth was so large that it was wide enough to swallow a young Centaur and certainly a young Unicorn, and Tesseract felt like he was going to end up headfirst down that hatch any second since the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's enormous mouth was right close to his face. Tesseract, petrified by the Python-Clown-in-a-Box and its giant mouth, neighed in terror, turned tail and charged off, the evil Python-Clown-in-a-Box in hot pursuit.

As the crowd continued to hurry in the direction whence they came, Krampus glared at them with his evil red eyes and let loose a Bull-like call, making some of the crowd members and their escorts, including Tuvok and a few other Kitsune as they dispatched some of Krampus's minions with Tuvok having flung one of the demonic bunnies into a tree telekinetically, stop and shoot the Goat Demon with curious gazes.

"What's that Father Christmas counterfeit Beast doing, Tuvok?" asked Troodon nearby as he stood with Deodara. Tuvok, along with Cedrus, Passiflora (who had viciously destroyed and shredded a pseudo-Cherub doll, her rancour for the creatures burning fiercely within her), Ptériga and the other helpers nearby all stopped fighting Krampus's minions and gazed at Krampus as he continued to bellow into the stormy dark air. At this, alarm tore through them when they deduced what Krampus was doing.

"He's summoning help and backup, possibly that Tyrant," Cedrus's voice exploded into the air at the top of his lungs, "GET EVERYONE OUTA HERE, NOW!"

With that, the crowd began to pick up pace and hurry more than ever back to the fork, screams erupting among them while the helpers resumed warding off Krampus's minions. Amongst them, Obsidian was in hysterics, the sight of the Goat Demon and his minions having brought back a flood of memories of her family's demise since Krampus and his minions were the ones who had killed them and left her an orphan. She was being helped by an Elf (a good Elf) and some Fauns alongside the other victims of Krampus. But as the crowd rushed along through the dark blizzard, accidents began to happen as some of the members tripped and fell and were threatening to cause a chain reaction for the other crowd members near them or were threatened of getting trampled underfoot. Dahlia who was with Kushanku's group, was one of the unfortunate members as she fell forward onto her front, Kushanku and the others at first unaware that she had tripped. Then the Jackalope kit immediately covered her head with her paws as more of the crowd members stepped over her, a group of Theropods, Troodon's biological family, tripping over her as they were shoved into the Antlered Jackrabbit. Troodon's brother, the same brother who had tried getting Troodon into trouble with Ptériga and Cedrus the other day with the stone, screeched as he fell over Dahlia's rump and onto the snow. He then shot the terrified Jackalope a furious glare just as Kushanku and company turned round to find her and the bipedal Reptiles struggling to get up with the flurry of feet stepping over and around them.

"Jackalopes like YOU are HONESTLY CLUMSY," snarled the sibling of Troodon into Dahlia's face. Dahlia only replied with a silent, terror-filled gaze when suddenly, a few Phoenixes and Fairies appeared. The Fairies began to guide the crowd around the fallen Jackalope and Theropods while the Phoenixes quickly helped Dahlia and Ena and her family to her feet. As they stood up, Dahlia shot Troodon's brother an acidic glare.

"You're NO better than Belladonna when she caused us trouble, lizard boy, especially if you're gonna cause Troodon all that!" the antlered Rabbit hissed. At this, Dromaeo, when he heard this, rushed in and gave Dahlia a hefty shove in the chest while the brother of Troodon screeched and lashed at the Jackalope with his sickle claw, the tip of the claw almost catching Dahlia's ear and inflicting a scratch on it. However, a Fairy swooped in and guided the hissing pair of bipedal Lizards away before a fight could break out, while a Phoenix guided Dahlia away but the Jackalope kept her acidic glare on the two Theropods who in return glared back at her maliciously.

The crowd continued to hurry along through the dark blizzard as Krampus continued his call for backup. Some of the crowd members at the front (initially at the back but because the crowd had turned round, the backmost members were now at the front), managed to pick up speed and were rushing ahead. The helpers continued to fight off the minions of Krampus with a few Okuri-Inu and adult Nekomata driving the Python-Clown-in-a-Box away from Tesseract as it had managed to whack him with its powerful box-tipped tail and knock him down and before it could proceed to devour him. The moment the giant Jack-in-a-box had widened its mouth to swallow Tesseract headfirst; a Nekomata had rushed in and had telekinetically flung a small log end first directly into its mouth.

"Try swallowin' THIS you tacky CLOWN-FACED SERPENT!" screeched the two-tailed Cat as he flung that log into the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's mouth and then withdrawing his telekinetic grasp on it, the aqua blue aura around the hollowed tube of wood along with the blue glow in the Nekomata's eyes and around his paws. The log, the telekinetic grasp energy having become kinetic energy the moment the Nekomata released his mind-powered grasp on it, flew through the air towards the Python-Clown-in-a-Box and entered the demonic jack's mouth end first. The momentum carried the object on its trajectory and took the toy minion with it and safely away from Tesseract. The evil Jack-in-a-box then crashed at the foot of some trees in a shower of snow, the large tube of wood lodged in its massive mouth and throat like a gannet that had attempted to swallow a fish too big for its gullet. With a giant hollow tube of wood stuck in its throat, the Python-Clown-in-a-Box was helpless, especially as it began to choke and convulse to dislodge the inedible piece of wood while the Nekomata and the Okuri-Inu helped a petrified Tesseract away. The crowd continued along, the helpers ushering them on faster while the rest continued to ward off Krampus's' minions either through close combat or from a distance with bows and arrows and telekinesis but because of the heavy blizzard and darkness and more and more members falling down due to the rush, it was proving a challenge, especially since precious time was being cost, and that time was about to run out.

Cumulonimbus was forced back into one of the walls of leafless trees by an Elf of Krampus who slashed its sword at him, narrowly missing the Thunderbird's abdomen, forcing the unusually purple-black and silvery Thunderbird in countering with a small thundercloud and lightning strike from that cloud, zapping the Elf and flinging it at a large, demonic toy teddy bear and knocking the two back. As the cloud he had summoned with his thundercloud-summoning powers barely working in the Witch's winter spell disappeared, Cumulonimbus hovered on when suddenly, a bundle of fur appeared from above and landed on top of him. The Thunderbird released a screech of surprise as another Drop Bear plucked him out of the air and slammed him into the snow but before the Drop Bear could plunge its fangs into the Thunderbird's neck, Cumulonimbus let loose a lightning strike, electrocuting the Drop Bear, stunning it and making it scream in agony. Then Cumulonimbus squirmed violently out of the Drop Bear's grasp and the moment he was free, he slashed the Bear-like Beast with his claws over the throat before it could get up and attack, killing it in seconds. However, another Drop Bear dropped from the tree tops and attempted to land onto Cumulonimbus but the Thunderbird dodged, and lofted into flight, the Drop Bear chasing after him in an attempt to jump onto him. But as Cumulonimbus took off, he was made aware of a sound of a stampede and blades of metal on snow through the trees. At this, he shot a horrified look in the direction of the sound and immediately darted off the moment the sources of the sounds, a number of sleds driven by hideous beasts and pulled aging by yule goats, appeared, barely escaping getting butted by the ugly non-talking goat-like creatures. The crowd and helpers also saw the arrivals and immediately spotted as the group of sleds and yule goats landed onto the snow; drove round and pulled up. At this, Cedrus looked up and the moment the Curupira's eyes landed on the new arrivals, a horrified gasp was pulled into his mouth while Ptériga flapped off with some of her Sphinx comrades to confront them with Bursyamo and his underlings following, the instinct to battle to protect the crowd of migrating Narnians explosively taking control.

The moment the group of sleds and their carriers had stopped, some of them, a few Lizard-Men and Púca the leader of the Banshees, stood up just in time to see a flock of Fire Chickens and Sphinxes rush straight towards them, enraged screeches exploding from their mouths. At this, Púca immediately took action. Raising her bony hands, the ghost-faced Hag inhaled deeply and the moment Bursyamo and his underlings were close, the lead Banshee flung her hands forward and let loose an ear-rupturing scream. At the same time, her hands released a stream of blue-white lightning. Bursyamo and his underlings were stopped dead by the Banshee's powerful scream and were blown backwards from the soundwaves, some of the Basan and a Sphinx getting fatally blasted by the Banshee's powerful lightning while in the crowd of Narnians, hands, paws and wings flew to ears as Púca's screech, which was powerful enough to carry for miles and shatter our world's glass within metres of the lead Banshee's powerful cries, assaulted their ears. Kushanku, together with Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth and the others with them covered their ears with their paws and screwed their eyes shut while Cedrus and the others did the same, Cedrus gripping his teeth. Púca continued to scream as loud as she could, advancing towards the crowd immediately after dispatching some of Bursyamo's squad, her extremely loud scream continuously exploding from her mouth and causing the Sphinxes nearby including Ptériga to writhe and shout in the snow in agony, their paws clasping their ears, along with the rest of Bursyamo's underlings, their wings on their ears and their faces twisted in severe pain. However, Bursyamo, despite his ears suffering the sword-stabbing assault from the lead Banshee's scream, immediately seized some soft plant material and stuffed his ears with them to dampen the scream blast. Then the lead Basan lofted into flight and lunged at the screaming Púca, and without hesitation, blasted the Banshee with his fire, throwing the lead Banshee into the air. While Púca was airborne, Bursyamo charged forward and tackled right into Púca's belly and with all his might rammed her into a tree trunk to knock her out. The moment Púca's screams were cut off by Bursyamo's attack; the crowd slowly removed their paws, wings, etc. from their ears which were ringing painfully from Púca's vocal assault, and Bursyamo's underlings, together with Ptériga and her Sphinx comrades, slowly removed their wings and paws from their ears, their ears ringing and their hearing slightly clouded as though they had been plunged into water. Cedrus, his also ears ringing, looked up just in time to see Púca land limply in the snow at the foot of the tree, Bursyamo hovering nearby with some of his underlings gathering around him. Then some Lizard-Men immediately gathered round the limp Púca with one of them, a large male named Ganondorf who was the head of the Lizard-Men, began to shake the Banshee awake.

"Púca," said Ganondorf as he shook Púca in his reptilian hands, hoping to get a response out of her, "Púca, are you okay?"

However, Púca remained unresponsive the impact against the tree trunk caused by Bursyamo having completely knocked her out. Though she was still alive, she was unconscious. Then Ganondorf, the other Lizard-Men and the other wicked arrivals felt horror tear through them as it dawned upon them.

"That Fire Rooster has knocked the lead Banshee out _completely_ ," said one of the other creatures, a Tenome as she examined the Banshee's limp body with her hand-eyes. At this, Ganondorf shot Bursyamo and his underlings a volcanic glare as the Basan descended to the snow and drew their swords and sticks, ready to fight in defence of the Narnians as they continued to hurry along to escape Jadis's minions.

"I'm gonna DISEMBOWEL YA for what you DID TO Púca…" snarled the large Lizard-Man and with that, he charged at Bursyamo, raised a hand and flared its claws which were laced with a paralyzing venom and brought it down towards Bursyamo but the lead Basan whop was skilful in close combat, raised his stick and blocked the Lizard-Man's attempt to slash him and envenom him. Ganondorf, an enraged grunt exploding from his mouth, then engaged Bursyamo in the fight to the death while the other arrivals lunged at the other Basan and the Sphinxes and soon, a fight had exploded. While Bursyamo and company kept the new arrivals occupied, Cedrus ushered the crowd to continue to move but before they could move any further, more sleds and ugly creatures consisting of Hags, Boggarts, Wendigoes, evil Nogitsune and Nekomata, Shadows, and other Horror species and also Ropens, Bat-Harpies and other flying creatures on Jadis's side, arrived and soon enough, those ugly creatures leapt from their sleds and engaged the crowd into a battle. Krampus and his minions then joined in the fight. Now it was the crowd's turn to defend themselves as the new arrivals lunged at them despite having not much training in self-defence or combat due to the incidence with Belladonna back at Gandalf's base.

Thundersparx lunged at a Boggart as it lashed its sword at a group of young Rabbits, Hares and Bakeneko and their carers and parents and let loose a lightning bolt to zap the Goblin creature and send it flying while Milky Way swooped down upon a Banshee, one of Púca's underlings as she sent some Elves, Fairies and Fauns, among them Guinan flying with its scream, exploding from her mouth in the form of sonic sound rings. Because the Banshee was one of the underlings of Púca, her scream was not as powerful though it was still powerful enough to send her opponents flying and assault the ears of anyone within a smaller range. Then as soon as she was close enough, Milky Way whirled round and powerfully kicked the Banshee square in the face with her back feet and knocked her backwards while Truffula the Tanuki jumped in and landed the killing blow by plunging her sword through the Screamer Hag's chest. Nearby, Snowwing and Crystal were hovering in the air, shooting arrows at some of the flying creatures of Jadis as they tried attacking some of the crowd members from above when a Ropen swooped in and with an enormous wing knocked Crystal out of the air with a wing slap in the blink of an eye. The young Parrot chick screeched as she fell towards earth, the black and glow-spotted Pterosaur creature swooping down on her, its beak open ready to catch her and possibly eat her when suddenly, an aqua blue aura surrounded the Ropen and stopped it dead in mid-air. Crystal managed to slow her fall by flapping her wings and looked up in time to see the Ropen enclosed in the aqua blue aura struggle as a Sphinx then appeared. The Sphinx, Ptériga, then appeared and with a screech and her eyes glowing aqua blue, sent the Ropen telekinetically flying towards a group of Bat-Harpies as they assaulted a group of flying creatures of the crowd, among them Lana and her group of Harpies including her boyfriend Hala, sister Suiren and friend Morgana. The Ropen smashed into the Bat-Harpies and sent the gargoyle-faced Bat creatures flying everywhere. Crystal flashed Ptériga a thankful nod and rushed off while Ptériga hurried off to deal with more minions of Jadis.

Elsewhere, Shadewing the Bat, Quill the Hedgehog, Dashiell and Amberpaw, and Faline the Rabbit were running along with some of the screaming other crowd members, young grasped in their arms or wings, away from a group of Shadows as they swooped after them, alongside a group of Triffid-Mouths and Bonehead-Crawlers (ugly Reptilian creatures resembling Crocodilian-headed Humanoids but with arms and a tail but no legs, and bone-white heads resembling a Reptile's skull, and could only crawl by pulling themselves along with their arms and tails. They resembled a certain creature that lived on an island in another world where a giant gorilla also lived, but were smaller) who chased the group, the Triffid-Mouths whipping at them with their venomous 'tongues' and the Bonehead-Crawlers lashing with their claws in an attempt to scratch any of them the moment they were close enough. Then Shadewing tripped and fell and within seconds, the Bat found himself at the mercy of one of the Bonehead-Crawlers who proceeded to tower menacingly over him and let loose a roar, its mouth wide open and its teeth bared. Shadewing let loose terrified whimpers as the hideous beast then raised a clawed hand and prepared to bring it down upon him to kill him but before the Bonehead-Crawler could make the fatal blow, a flock of graceful white birds appeared and swarmed it. Shadewing flinched as a group of Swans, among them Cygnus and his cousin Swomee then began to viciously beat the creature with their wings and jab their beaks into its hide, a few of them armed with daggers and swords for they had been trained in swordfighting, to help pierce the tough hide of the Bonehead-Crawler. Then as the Bonehead-Crawler began to writhe and thrash to dislodge the Swans from its body as they rammed their beaks and weapons into its hide, Swomee bravely flew to its open mouth and without hesitation and with an extremely loud battle screech, rammed her sword through the roof of the creature's mouth, resulting in an agonised scream exploding from the two-limbed, prehensile tailed creature. Shadewing then backed away as the Bonehead-Crawler, the moment Swomee withdrew her sword. However, the Swan was forced to land when she felt agonising pain explode from her wing, the same one she had gripped the sword to fatally wound the Bonehead-Crawler, one of the creature's dagger-like teeth having punctured it during her delivery of the fatal blow. As Swomee landed on the snow, her wing bleeding from the tooth mark, the other Swans backed away as the Bonehead-Crawler thrashed about violently and crash-landed right onto a group of Zombie Pegasus-like creatures called Carcassi as they tormented some of the other members of the crowd, among them a family of Echidnas and Webby the Platypus. As soon as they had slain the Bonehead-Crawler, Cygnus and company parted to either deal with more of Jadis's minions or help guide the frightened crowd members from the scene. Shadewing as assisted by one of the Swans as he helped him to his feet while Swomee had her wing injury treated with a drop of fire-flower cordial carried by another Swan.

Elsewhere, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, her vivid orange-red markings slashing her jet-black fur glowing fiercely with anger and aggression, was viciously battling a Slender-Man, her fore and middle paws deftly wielding four swords, one in each paw and deflecting the Slender-Man's attempts to attack her with his sword. Because Obsidian was so good at utilising four swords, she was able to confound the Slender-Man and eventually cut him down with a fatal slash to the legs. The Slender-Man fell like a tree as he was fatally wounded, Obsidian fiercely looking on. Then a Hag appeared but rather than charge at Obsidian to physically attack her, she had in mind a different weapon. As Obsidian lunged at the Hag to also cut her down with her four swords, the Hag immediately pulled out a strange flask-like container and some strange powder and the moment the Wampus Cat was close enough, the Hag immediately tipped the flask upside down and flung the powder down at her feet. A gassy explosion erupted before Obsidian and sent her flying backwards as the powder and the liquid from the flask made contact with each other on the floor at the Hag's feet. The Hag then looked on evilly and with a wicked grimace as Obsidian recovered and scrabbled for her four swords that had flown out of her paws and as the smoke rose from the mixture she had made at her feet. The green smoke then rose and formed a screen for this smoke was a form of magical smoke. Nearby, Thundersparx had managed to drive off a Nekomata that was torturing some more Bats and Dinosaurs with a few animal carcasses for many of the Nekomata and Bakeneko on Jadis's side had the ability to animate dead bodies. However, when he heard a startling sound, he snapped his attention to the source and when he saw a magical smoke cloud hover before a certain individual, horror tore through him.

Obsidian continued to lay there on her back, her petrified gaze on the magical smoke hovering above the wicked Hag as it began to flash her visions. A ghostly, sinister voice then began to emanate from the smoke and torture the Wampus Cat.

"You know you are useless… You know you are worthless… Wampus Cat…" hissed the voice, much to Obsidian's trembling fear. Obsidian continued to gaze at the smoke as it began to flash her torturous images, those images taking on her worst fears such as the frightening eyes in the dark.

"I know your fears, Obsidian…" continued the torturous ghost voice from the smoke which sent chills down Obsidian's spine, especially as it flashed her images of the various creatures that petrified the Wampus Cat most, "And I know your guilt…"

Thundersparx rushed in and began to try and snap Obsidian out of her trance.

"Obsidian, don't listen to the voice!" called the Raiju. However, Obsidian was too rooted to the spot to hear her Raiju friend's voice as the green smoke then took on the form of three familiar creatures. It were Obsidian's mother, father and brother Granite, and their faces were glaring at Obsidian. In their faces were betrayal, disappointment and loss of faith. Obsidian began to tremble and weep as the three apparitions of her deceased parents and brother began to berate her. However, these three were not real. They were just visions conjured by the Hag's spell. Thundersparx began to panic when he saw the sinister cloud's images begin to torture Obsidian.

"You should NEVER have taken us out on that hunting trip, you no daughter of mine," growled one of the larger Wampus Cat apparitions that had taken the form of Obsidian's mother, "If you hadn't have suggested the four of us going out on that trip, we wouldn't have encountered Krampus."

"Obsidian, ignore that image, it's NOT REAL and what they are saying is NOT TRUE AT ALL!" shouted Thundersparx. Obsidian continued to gaze at the unreal apparitions of her parents and brother as the one in the form of her father spoke.

"It's ALL YOUR fault that we are dead, Obsidian," said 'he', "You SHOULD be ashamed of yourself."

"We would still be alive, and I would have grown up alongside you, Obsidian," said the smaller apparition, taking the form of Granite, Obsidian's deceased brother, "But BECAUSE OF YOU, I NEVER had that chance… I hope you're proud of yourself."

Obsidian felt guilt ignite by these words flare within her and she began to tremble and weep. Her breathing spiralled out of control and she began to tremble violently. Thundersparx then tried to intervene but found himself face to face with a Humanoid with a Spider's body. At this, the Raiju was forced to defend himself against the Ushi-Oni, along with an evil Troll as they lunged at him, leaving Obsidian to continue to face the torturous apparitions in the smoke cloud conjured by the Hag on her own. Then the three Wampus Cat apparitions began to heap abuse at Obsidian and told her that she should put herself down and other negative things. Obsidian, despite the extreme guilt over the loss of her family flaring within her as triggered by the magic torture cloud, eventually overcame that guilt, seized her swords and charged towards the Hag who continued to laugh at her emotional torture. Then with a MASSIVE Cat screech, Obsidian cut down the Hag with one slash of one of her swords, ending the wicked creature's life and the nightmarish cloud spell she had conjured up, along with the three Wampus Cat apparitions taking the form of her family. At the same time, Thundersparx slayed the Ushi-Oni and mortally wounded the Troll, before going over to Obsidian.

"Your family would never say such things and they would NEVER blame you for that incident at Krampus's clutches had they survived that event in your life," said the Raiju as he began to comfort the weeping Wampus Cat, "You did right in trying to find additional food for your family and fellow villagers…"

Obsidian then let loose some sobs and was pulled into a hug by Thundersparx. Then after the pair broke the hug, the two left to help fend off more creatures of Jadis.

The vicious fight between Jadis's minions including Krampus and his toy and Elf minions, and the evacuating Narnians continued to rage with more of the crowd members fleeing for the fork in the road, but despite the best efforts of the fighters including Cedrus and company, more and more of Jadis's minions just kept appearing and appearing, and some of the Narnians were beginning to get fatally cut down by the new arrivals or slaughtered by Krampus's toy minions. Soon, their leader will eventually arrive, and that was not too far away now. Molayne, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa "Paddy", Ahhuayo, Link, Cyril and Desdemona continued to viciously fight against a group of Wendigoes with Ahhuayo, his tail-hand grasping a Sword, slashing the Skeletal Goat-like beast and killing it while Cyril rescued a group of Tengu youngsters from a Nukekubi and a Killer Ghoul by driving the pair off with his hooves, claws and beak. Link then rushed in and with his antlers, the young Peryton gored the Killer Ghoul and slaughtered it. As his enemy fell, the winged Buck glared maliciously at the corpse of the Killer Ghoul.

"I could NEVER strand those monsters," he growled. Suddenly, Desdemona's voice shouted, "Look OUT!"

At this, the Peryton looked up and to his horror, he saw a Nogitsune armed with two swords in its paws appear and slash the blades at him. Startled, Link darted to one side and narrowly had his feathered wings hacked off by the savage Fox, the blade of one of the swords only shearing off some of his flight feathers. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Ahhuayo, Cyril and Desdemona then took up defensive stances as the Nogitsune stood before them with the two swords in its paws but when they examined its features, they shuddered violently and Ahhuayo almost retched. The Nogitsune was charred black but it had familiar features such as the two tails and a feminine look to it but when the seven examined the familiar Fox closer, they saw that it was walking on its hind legs unlike the Nogistune they knew when she was alive and before Gandalf burned her to death with his foxfire, and that her eyes were glowing in a menacing red-orange light, and that light was piercing the seven like a Wendigo's shining white glare. Then a bipedal fork-tailed Cat appeared. These bipedal Cat's eyes were glowing red-orange and its two tails ended in sinister sea-green flames, all features of an evil Nekomata and one of Jadis's minions. The Nekomata then glared viciously at the five young Animals and Ahhuayo as they shuddered at the armed carcass of Belladonna under the animation of the wicked Cat for the Nekomata and Bakeneko on Jadis's side had the ability to telekinetically animate corpses.

"Yes, she is back to deal with you Narnian rats," snarled the Nekomata and with that, he had the carcass of Belladonna engage the seven in battle. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona were too petrified by the animated corpse of Belladonna but Ahhuayo, a volcanic glare on the Nekomata who used to be one of his so-called friends before he defected, took up the offer to fight the carcass. Then the Ahuizotl and the animated carcass of Belladonna under the Nekomata's control began to circle with Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril and Desdemona watching on.

Elsewhere in the crowd, Ena and her family were trying to escape some of Krampus's toy minions including some candy cane weapon-armed gingerbread men. Under the guidance of some Tengu, Dwarves, Centaurs and Fauns skilled on combat, the family of Theropods hurried in their escape with a Tengu helping the crippled Ena along. As the group moved along, a scream erupted from nearby, prompting the group to shoot frightened gazes in the direction of the scream and to their horror, they spotted a Fox with a fan of tails emanating from its rump. Its fur was pure white and its nine tails were waving in the blizzard but its face was laced with pure insanity and sadism. Helianthus, one of the female Tengu, shuddered in outrage.

"HOW INSULTING, ESPECIALLY TO THE KITSUNE!" she snarled and with that, she drew her sword and went to confront the Fox who was Amanita but some hands appeared and latched onto her shoulders.

"That is EXTREMELY unwise, Helianthus," said a Centaur, "What if that Nogitsune is truly powerful like Gandalf? She could char you into a blackened corpse with her foxfire."

Helianthus, at this, gazed at the Centaur and relented to his advice and did not go to confront Amanita in battle just to be on the safe side. However, the appearance of a nine-tailed Nogitsune had sent immense terror tearing through the Narnians and they began to rush for the fork in the road all the more, knowing that a nine-tailed Fox was the most powerful form of Kitsune and Nogitsune, some even crying out to Aslan for help. However, Amanita's appearance was only a façade intended by the Witch to intimidate her opponents but the Narnians were too stricken by fear to realise this. But the appearance of a Nogitsune with nine tails was not a good sign. The crowd HAD to get back to the fork and down the misty path at all costs.

Ahhuayo clashed his sword in his tail-hand against one of the swords of the animated Belladonna corpse, his eyes glaring viciously into the orange-red glare of the carcass. The Nekomata whose body position was in the exact same pose as the carcass, then pushed forward to telekinetically have the corpse behave the same way and shove Ahhuayo backwards and send him tumbling onto the snow. The Ahuizotl, at this, shot the evil Nekomata a stunned look. The Cat smiled wickedly while Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona looked on, too frightened to move.

"Hah, hah!" cackled the Nekomata, his eyes still a red-orange colour and his body position matching the corpse's exactly, "I'm very good at this puppetry, you traitorous slime-ball. Now it's time to pay for your APOSTASY AND BETRAYAL of OUR GODDESS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND OF NARNIA!"

And with that, he moved his arms to animate the arms of the Belladonna carcass and slashed the swords in the carcass's paws at Ahhuayo. However, the Ahuizotl dodged and sent the swords slashing at the snow where he had been seconds before. Then Ahhuayo rolled to his hand-like feet, reared up on his hand-like hind feet and continued his fight with the Belladonna carcass by swinging his sword grasped in one of his hand-paws, at it in an attempt to slash it only for the Nekomata to make it dodge and counter with the two swords. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona watched on as the sounds of metal blade striking metal blade echoed into the blizzardy air as Ahhuayo viciously clashed with the carcass animated by the Nekomata. Then after a few more frightening minutes of violent clashing of swords, the Nekomata managed to have his puppet slash Ahhuayo in the hip and wound him. The Ahuizotl let loose a bark of agony and fell down, his sword falling from his hand-paws and those two hands shooting to his injury which began to ooze blood to the horror of the six watchers. As Ahhuayo continued to grasp his injury, the Nekomata, an evil and triumphant look on its face, then walked in sync with the Belladonna carcass and raised its paw, the movement of its puppet matching it exactly.

"Now it's time for you to DIE, you TRAITOR," cackled the Nekomata evilly as Ahhuayo, his face twisted in agony with Desdemona rushing to his side, looked up and quivered at the Belladonna carcass, its eyes glowing the menacing red-orange glow like it's animator and the sword hovering in the air, ready to deliver the fatal blow. However, before the Nekomata could have the corpse bring down the sword and slay Ahhuayo, a bipedal Lizard appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto his back. The telekinetic link between the Nekomata and its puppet was broken and Belladonna's corpse fell limply onto the snow, the swords falling out of its paws and the red-orange glow fading from its eyes. Ahhuayo flinched as he, Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona then looked up and saw Troodon then fatally slash the Nekomata with the strike toe claw on one of his feet to put the evil Cat to death and rescue Ahhuayo and the other six. As soon as he had slain the Nekomata, a Talking Dragon appeared and burned the remains of Belladonna's carcass to ashes. As soon as the Dragon had finished the job, Troodon came over to Ahhuayo and the others, a distressed look on his face.

"Ever since that Poisoned Apple of a Fox had showed her true colours towards me and the others who had befriended her," he said in a strangled voice, "I have grown to despise her and that Nekomata's bringing of her carcass to use as a puppet top fight you has ignited those bad memories."

Ahhuayo gazed at the young Theropod as a few Curupira rushed in to scold him when suddenly; screams erupted from nearby, sending alarm tearing through the group.

"MOTHER, UNCLE DROMAEO AND MY SIBLINGS!" screeched Troodon and before anyone could stop him, he had charged off despite the Curupira's shouts for him to return. Ahhuayo, Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona wanted to follow but two of the Curupira ordered them to escape to the fork in the path, which they reluctantly obeyed, while the other Curupira charged off after Troodon.

Ena, Dromaeo and the other Theropods in the family were being mercilessly chased down by a group of Wendigoes, Tenome, evil Tengu and Drop Bears as the evil creatures continued to lash their claws and swords at the group of bipedal Lizards. One of Troodon's cousins nearly had her feet wounded when one of the Drop Bears lunged at her from below and slashed at her feet with its claws only to miss by inches while Dromaeo almost dropped the basket containing the eggs and young Theropodlings when a Tenome charged into his side to get him to drop the precious cargo only for him to jump up and slash the hand-eyed Hag with his sickle-claws to drive it away. The other young Theropods continued to dodge the attacks of the Wendigoes, Tenome, evil Tengu and Drop Bears but Ena, with her cripple as a result of her spinal injury thanks to Troodon and Belladonna's deed, was having greater difficulty. Without her deftness characteristic of a small, fleet-footed Theropod, she was very vulnerable and soon, she tripped and fell. Dromaeo and the other Tehropods of her family continued to rush on when they saw that the adult female Theropod had fallen.

"ENA!" cried Dromaeo. Ena tried to get up but a Drop Bear jumped onto her and restrained her to the horror of her relatives.

"MOOOOOM!" screamed her sons and daughters while her nephews, nieces, brother and sister-in-law let loose horrified screams as a Wendigo towered menacingly over Ena as she was restrained by the Drop Bear. The Wendigo, its bone-white eyes glowing menacingly in the dark blizzard, then raised a lanky, bony hand and prepared its claws but before it could slay Ena with those claws, a screech erupted from nearby; stopping the Wendigo and the other would be killers of the Theropod family. At this, the attackers together with Ena and the other Theropods, shot confused glances this way and that but before they could identify the owner of the screech, a small, fleet-footed Theropod Dinosaur appeared, heaved himself off the snow and flew like a pouncing Cat at the Wendigo, his sickle claws poised to strike. Then before the Wendigo could act, Troodon was on its face and the moment he was on the skeletal Goat-like creature's head, the little Theropod scored his sickle claws over its face. Dromaeo and the other Theropods ducked as a small shower of blood flew their way. Then after severely wounding the Wendigo, Troodon jumped off the creature and leaped onto the Drop Bear, also slashing it across the face with his sickle claws. The Drop Bear immediately jumped off of Ena and grasped its bleeding face, screeching in agony as Troodon made another mark on its paws with another sickle-claw slashed. Then Troodon wildly turned towards the other attackers of his biological family and engaged them in savage combat, using his agility and sickle claws and jaws to dodge their attacks and counter by inflicting them with scratches. While he kept the attackers occupied, Dromaeo helped Ena to her feet and helped her to safety while the siblings and cousins of Troodon looked on in utter astonishment as Troodon raked his sickle-claw over a Tengu's face, making it scream in agony.

Troodon continued his savage attack on his family's attackers while his family continued their escape to safety when suddenly; ginger-coloured comets rocketed in and knocked him off the face of another Wendigo just as he was finishing delivering a sickle-claw scratch to its face. Troodon let loose a surprised screech as the group of demonic gingerbread men, all armed with candy cane weapons, then plunged with him into the snow. While the injured attackers of his family left to treat their injuries inflicted on them by Troodon, Troodon turned his attention in fending off the gingerbread men as they lashed at him with their candy cane weapons. Ena, Dromaeo and the rest of Troodon's biological family watched on as the Theropod lashed its sickle-claws at the gingerbread men as well as snap his jaws at them. Troodon lunged at two of the gingerbread men and gobbled them down before stomping on a few more of the wicked candy creatures of Krampus. However, because he had eaten two of the cursed gingerbread figures, the magical poison built into them by Krampus began to immediately work their sinister effect on the Theropod, and he began to feel his stomach lurch violently as the sickness took hold. Not too far away, Deodara appeared and watched in horror as Troodon began to weaken under the effects of the gingerbread men he had eaten. At this, horror tore through her. Then as Troodon began to lose concentration in fending off the gingerbread men, one of the gingerbread men launched itself into the air and towards the struggling Theropod as he continued to weaken under the effects of the cursed poison of the two gingerbread figures he had swallowed, a candy cane spear in its candy 'hands'. Then to the utmost horror of Deodara and his biological family members, the gingerbread man plunged the sharp end of its spear right into Troodon's hip, making the Theropod scream in agony and Deodara cry in extreme horror, her hands on her cheeks. The gingerbread man then twisted the candy cane to deal more damage and yanked out the weapon before jumping off Troodon so that he could collapse into the snow, his injury bleeding. As he fell into the snow, Troodon's agony-saturated eyes gazed at Ena and the others in his family, especially as the gingerbread men began to swarm him, ready to deliver the fatal blow to finish him off with their candy cane weapons. Ena shot Dromaeo and the others a look.

"We need to help him," she said, "He's in trouble."

Dromaeo and the others apart from a few gazed at Troodon as he lay wounded and helpless on the snow, the gingerbread men piling onto him. He was now too weak to defend himself from these marauding candy minions of Krampus, and those minions were ready to kill the young Theropod. Then memories of their brother/cousin's involvement with Belladonna appeared in Troodon's siblings; and cousins' minds, alongside the resentment they still had for the young Theropod. Dromaeo and his mate also shuddered with rage.

"Dromaeo, guys," demanded Ena in increased desperation. At first, Dromaeo and the others did not reply and continued to gaze at the wounded Troodon under the blanket of cursed gingerbread candy. Then finally, they made their decision.

"Let's go," said Dromaeo, his claws latched onto two of his offspring who would be two of Troodon's cousins.

"B-b-but what about Troodon?" demanded one of Troodon's sisters, she and four other young Theropods, including a brother (not the brother that had attacked Troodon and tried to land him in trouble with Cedrus and Ptériga) who, despite their resentment towards him for causing trouble with Belladonna, wanted to help him. However, one of Troodon's other brothers came in, the same brother that tried to land Troodon in trouble, a resentful look on his face.

"Look, he's caused us a LOT of trouble, especially with that two-tailed Fox rat, okay?" he said, a sour glare on the struggling Theropod under the gang of the gingerbread men, "And furthermore, he has crippled your mother along with that filthy Fox. So let's leave him and let him pay for his actions."

The sister, the four other siblings and Ena continued to protest but at their family's urging, they left Troodon to his fate. This ignited guilt within Ena and the other five as they left Troodon to deal with the gingerbread men by himself.

When they saw Troodon's biological family leave the poor Theropod to deal with the clump of cursed candy himself, Deodara and one of her sisters who had also appeared, drew in horrified gasps and rushed to Troodon's aid. Nearby, Passiflora and her Cherub comrades were viciously destroying the pseudo-Cherub dolls with their swords and arrows, extremely thunderous and volcanic looks on their faces, one of the young male Cherubs even flinging one of the pseudo-dolls directly at Krampus only for the Goat Demon to use his telekinesis to deflect the doll and prevent it from hitting him. While the Cherubs viciously fought their most despised toy minions built by Krampus as an intentional insult to them, Deodara and her sister leaped at the gingerbread men and began to drive them off of Troodon, using her stick as a weapon. She struck some gingerbread men with her stick and smashed them into candy pieces and trampled more of them underfoot while her sister drove away more of the cursed creatures from Troodon who was wounded in the hip and struggling to get up. The moment he was free, one of Passiflora's associates swooped in and seized the weakening Theropod, lifting him off the snow. As soon as he was in his hands, the Cherub began to carry Troodon to safety and for treatment but Troodon looked on as his adopted Curupira mother and aunt continued fighting the gingerbread men when suddenly, one of the gingerbread men, after dodging Deodara's sister's attempts to flatten it with her stick, leaped to one side so that it was behind both Curupira women before launching itself into the air like a pouncing tiger. As it flew towards Deodara's sister with her back turned to her, the gingerbread man aimed the sharpened tip of its candy cane stick for her upper back and as soon as it landed onto the Curupira female's back, it plunged to candy cane weapon into its target like a dagger. The sister of Deodara, upon feeling the extreme agony of the candy cane blow, suddenly went rigid, her eyes bulging out of their sockets and her mouth wide open but with no noise coming out. Then horror tore through Deodara and she screamed, and Troodon in the Cherub's arms as he carried him away to safety flinched violently. Some of the other Curupira nearby, including Cedrus, snapped their gazes in Deodara's direction when they heard her screams and when they saw that one of the two female Curupira had been fatally stabbed, the gingerbread man withdrawing its candy cane from Deodara's sister's back, an EXTREMELY sadistically triumphant look on its face, then dropped to the snow and ran off, its bloodstained candy cane weapon in tow.

Deodara's sister then toppled backwards towards the snow, the demonic gingerbread man looking on with sadistic triumph from a distance as its comrades surrounded it. Deodara seized her sister before she could hit the snow and began to shake her to keep her awake. However, it was too late for the gingerbread man had inflicted a fatal blow on her. Troodon began to cry for Deodara's sister as he was carried away by the Cherub to safety. Deodara continued to shout at her sister to stay awake but when she found herself surrounded by the evil toy minions of Krampus and some of Jadis's minions including Amanita and her nine-tailed appearance and deceptively beautiful sparkling white fur, the Curupira matriarch had no choice but to retreat. The moment the last of her sister's life ebbed away, Deodara placed her body onto the snow, seized her stick and fled for her life for she was unable to drag the now-dead body of her sister to safety due to the dangers, and the grieving for her sister will have to wait. As she fled, some of the other helpers including Cedrus continued to deflect the attacks of Jadis's minions and the toy minions of Krampus as they continued launching a barrage of various attacks such as telekinetically thrown projectiles, spears, venom, venomous whip-like tongues, claws and arrows, among other types of weaponry. While the marauding minions of Jadis and Krampus continued to work together to attack their opponents and manage to kill some of them, the crowd of Narnians continued their hurried struggle back to the fork in the path through the dark blizzard, the young clasped against their breasts or protected by their bodies.


	70. Chapter 69

**Chapter 69- violent explosions**

The escorts continued to viciously fight the minions of both Jadis and Krampus as the dark blizzard continued to gust viciously around them but as more minions were cut down, more arrived as backup and began to engage the helpers in battle. However, the helpers knew they had to stall the minions for time in order that the crowd of migrating Narnians might hurry back to the fork in the path and safely down the misty path as indicated by Aslan's fireball Lion sign earlier. Phoenixes were transforming into their flaming forms and charging some minions while Rocs were using their cryokinetic abilities in conjuring some blasts of ice to freeze more of the ugly creatures and toy minions in their tracks. Thunderbirds conjured up mini thunderclouds, their feathers, especially those in their wings, flashing with electricity as they did that, and then zapping more minions with the lightning bolts from those clouds. A few Pyros, among them Emberflame had exploded from their protective lamps to blast more minions with their fire as they came after the fleeing crowd members and their escorts, among them Passiflora as she herded them like sheep back to the fork in the path before retreating to their lamps as the lethality of the Witch's winter magic in the air began to eat away at them. While the helpers continued to viciously fight the minions of both Krampus and Jadis, the crowd continued their hasty and treacherous retracing of their path back to the fork through the dark blizzard summoned by Krampus when he arrived first.

Bursyamo the lead Basan continued fighting against Ganondorf and his minion Lizard-Men with their swords and sticks as well as their flames, the streams of glowing orange fluid-like plasma piercing the darkness of the blizzard at the Humanoid Lizards as they flowed from the Basan's beaks. Bursyamo discharged a stream of orange fire from his beak at Ganondorf when the head Lizard-Man approached him close enough only for him to dodge and somersault backwards, avoiding the lead Basan's flame breath. Then as soon as he was on his four feet, Ganondorf reached with his prehensile tail, seized the rapier sword in Bursyamo's talons for he had been using his sword in his feet and had been hovering for Basan could fly unlike regular Talking Chickens who could not fly much, and then yanked the rapier out of Bursyamo's talons, much to the shock of the Fire Rooster. Then after flinging aside the sharp needle with a hand-shield, Ganondorf, with a vicious Reptilian roar and his Reptilian eyes glowing a menacing yellow in the dark, lunged at Bursyamo, raised a Humanoid hand and flared its finger claws. Then before Bursyamo could act, the lead Lizard-Man raked his claws right across the Rooster's torso, tearing out some fiery red and orange feathers and knocking the Rooster out of the air and into the snow. Bursyamo let loose an agonised crow and clasped his scratched chest with his wings as he lay on his side, wounded with his eyes screwed shut. Then Ganondorf sauntered towards the downed Bursyamo and prepared his finger claws once again, this time to go for the neck to inflict the fatal blow. Around him, his Lizard-Men underlings continued to attack the Basan by disarming them with their prehensile tails and slashing at them with their venomous clawed hands, two or three more of the Fire Chickens getting injured and knocked out of the air. Achamo, when she saw that the Lizard-Men were beginning to overpower the Basan, sounded a loud screech for all the Basan to retreat, which they did. Nearby, the other helpers also retreated and seized their injured comrades, the Lizard-Men continuously slashing at them with their venomous finger claws, the Triffid-Mouths lashing their whip-like venomous tongues at them, the Bonehead-Crawlers snapping their jaws and the variety of other creatures slashing at them with their weapons, Krampus's toy minions helping them.

Ganondorf continued to approach Bursyamo as he lay wounded in a snow and prepared his finger claws, his hand raised in the air and his Humanoid Reptilian face saturated with murderous triumph, his yellow Lizard's eyes glowing with it and his mouth grinning from ear to ear, the teeth showing through but before he could slit the Basan's neck, Bursyamo suddenly sprang into action. The lead Basan snapped his head to the Lizard-Man despite being in agony with the paralyzing venom from Ganondorf's claw swipe setting in and before Ganondorf could act, the lead Lizard-Man was blasted square in the face with a stream of fire from Bursyamo's beak at point-blank range. An EXTREMELY agonised scream erupted from Ganondorf's mouth as the flames burned his face and he flung his head back from the surprise of the retaliatory and literally flaming counterattack. Bursyamo, seeing his enemy scream in agony and cover his charred face with his hands, then rose to his feet, his wings grasping his wound which was oozing blood, and blasted the Lizard-Men with another stream of fire, hitting him in the back and charcoaling him, and making him release another Reptile cry of agony. However, as he blasted his enemy with his flame, the venom from Ganondorf's attack on him began to take hold on the Basan, and he began to struggle to breathe and fall on his front, his wings continuously grasping his injury. As he fell on his front, a Sphinx appeared, seized the wounded Basan with her telekinesis, her eyes glowing aqua blue with an aqua blue aura projected onto Bursyamo, and lifted him off the ground before levitating him with her mind-powered grasp to safety. She knew that if Bursyamo did not receive treatment, the paralyzing venom from Ganondorf's slash and its resulting envenomation into him could freeze every muscle in the Basan's body, including those in his heart and breathing system and that would be fatal, and the paralysing venom was already taking effect on Bursyamo's system as he was beginning to struggle to breathe harder and harder.

As the helpers continued to retreat, more of Jadis's minions turned up. One species was an evil version of the Fairies, called Fairyflies. These little creatures resembled a cross between a Fairy and a fly, and these creatures were revolting. They had revolting coloured skin, ranging from black like the Shadows' 'cloaks' to a disgusting brown colour, to a sickly deathly green or bone white and from that skin sprouted a sprinkle of fly-like hairs. Their eyes were compound eyes like an insect's rather than the simple Humanoid eyes the Fairies had. They had two pairs of arms and two pairs of legs, and their body anatomy was also like that of an insect, their thorax and abdomen divided into separate parts as opposed to a single torso also like in Fairies. Their wings were fly's wings and they possessed fly's antennae, and they smelt absolutely disgusting and dribbled disgustingly whenever they were hungry for violence, and like the scratch of a Lizard-Man, their bites were venomous, only their venom possessed different properties and instead caused excruciating agony for the victim much like the sting from a male platypus's spur in our world but because the Fairyflies attacked in swarms, the extreme agony resulting from their bites was even more painful. The moment the Fairyflies appeared, they began to swarm like locusts all over some of the helpers and bite them, forcing the helpers in swiping their hands, wings, claws and weapons at them to drive them off but because of their smaller size compared to many of other Jadis's creatures, Fairyflies were harder to deal with. Then after the Fairyflies arrived, larger creatures appeared from the trees, their feet sending thunderous thumps through the snow as they landed into it and made the ground somewhat shake. They were some of the Giants, among them Giant Ogres and the skeletal Gashadokuro, and the moment these horrible bipedal beasts arrived, they began to try and flatten their smaller enemies with their feet. Seeing that they were beginning to become overpowered by Jadis's forces, Cedrus ordered all the helpers to retreat and help the crowd back to the fork pronto, which they did. The helpers all surged off for the crowd, the minions of Jadis and Krampus as well as Krampus himself and Amanita the false nine-tailed Fox, transformed into one by the Witch, in hot pursuit, the Fairyflies swarming all over them and viciously biting them and inflicting them with their weak venom that will eventually induce extreme pain while the Giants and the skeletal Gashadokuko attempted to stomp on them as they retreated. However, as the crowd and their escorts continued to retreat, the sound of hooves pounding against snow alongside the slicing of metal blades on the same white substance began and increased in loudness in the leafless trees and the dark blizzard, indicating her arrival.

As the crowd and their escorts continued desperately fleeing for their lives back to the fork with some of them going the wrong way only to be slaughtered by Jadis and Krampus's minions, a sextet (group of six) of bone-white reindeer arranged in two rows of three, alongside a crystalline sleigh behind them and reined to them, exploded from some leafless tree trunks and lunged right at the crowd. The crowd, upon seeing the new arrivals, screamed and scattered as the reindeer and crowd slammed onto the snow, mowing down those too unfortunately slow to get out of the way in time. Then the reindeer and the sleigh swerved round and pulled up, alongside even more smaller sleds pulled by Yule goats and more of the wicked minions of the owner of the larger sleigh. Cedrus, Cumulonimbus and Blaze, while they continued to ward off the attacking evil creatures with Blaze roasting some of the Fairyflies with his flame, looked up and the moment their eyes landed on an unmistakable figure as she rose from her seat and jumped out of her sleigh, an immense blizzard of immense horror, the biggest one they had harboured since most of the crowd had disobediently headed down this path against Aslan's guidance, tore through them like the raging blizzard brought upon them by Krampus. Then one of the Sphinxes, a female, lunged forward towards the White Witch as she brandished her wand and fired blue-white beams of energy at some of the helpers, turning them into statue versions of themselves as well as slice down any helpers that came her way to attack her with her sword, and against Cedrus's protests flashed her eyes blue and projected her telekinetic grasp onto the Witch, hoping to mentally throw her back and stall her. However, like with Krampus, the blue aura appeared around Jadis only to shatter a second later.

"It's no use, Meg," said Cedrus when the Sphinx, named Meg, tried again only for the same result to happen, "Jadis is totally immune to your telekinesis and that of the Nekomata, Bakeneko and Kitsune and the other Magical Creatures capable of using it, including Gandalf and Kyukon. Let's RETREAT and FAST!"

Meg, at this, obeyed and re-joined Ptériga and the other Sphinxes and resumed helping the crowd evacuate as the Witch fired another energy blast from her wand and struck one of the Sphinxes, turning her into stone and making her drop out of the air, landing into the snow as a lifeless stone Sphinx in the exact pose the moment she was struck. As the crowd continued struggling along through the dark blizzard, the Witch released a maniacal, triumphant laughter at their predicament as the cronies that had accompanied her, among them Nuri-onna (woman-faced Snake Yokai creatures), Naga, Inugami (Canid ghosts who floated through the air like a Spectre), Kamaitachi (flying Spectre-like Weasel creatures with long claws on their feet curved like scythes which they used to slash at enemies; only a small handful of these Yokai species were loyal to Aslan and when those that were began to attack the crowd of Narnians, they revealed their true colours and betrayed their 'comrades' and began to fight them instead to help the Narnians escape, alongside a few of the other 'cronies' who were loyal to Aslan, much like Dionaea and her group), Yowie and Oni (Yokai species who were similar to the Trolls and Dwarves and had prehensile hair which they could use like tentacles in ensnaring victims) leaped from their smaller sleds and lunged at the escaping evacuees and helpers.

"Did you lot think you could escape me, you little migrating rebels?" she crooned as she twirled her wand and fired another blast of her petrifying spell at a Curupira, turning him to stone much to Cedrus's alarm, "Your nine-tailed Fox friend might have outsmarted me and my army back at his little secret base with his set of decoys and removal of your tracks in the snow but it seems that you have brewed a little carelessness on your Exodus, allowing my dear friend Krampus over there to trap you long enough for me and my minions to arrive and deal with you!"

And with that, the Devil Woman let loose another villainous laughter of pure triumphant insanity and continued firing blast after blast of her petrification magic at the crowd, turning more of the creatures to stone, among them an adult Nekomata, a few Elemental Birds, a few Fauns (fortunately, Guinan was far at the front of the crowd), one of the Kitsune, a Nighttime Okuri-Inu, a Centaur, a traitorous Kamaitachi as it cut down a few of the Witch-royal Wolves to save a group of Ducks and geese, and a few of the other Talking Beasts including a Basan and one of Bursyamo's underlings, and a Talking Dragon. Then Kushanku, when he saw one of the Witch's magical blasts nearly catch Akira and turn her to a stone statue as she stumbled in the snow only to be seized by Cumulonimbus before a few four-smelling Fairyflies, along with a Carcassus, could pile onto her and attack her by biting her and stomping her underfoot, shot the White Witch a furious, volcanic glare as she continued to come at the crowd with her minions, Krampus and his Elf and toy minions, and the moment he did, his fury mode instinct took over once again and flashed his eyes pure orange-red.

"Kushanku, what are YOU DOING!?" demanded Nyarth when he saw his younger brother enter fury mode. Then without hesitation or thinking and much to the horror of his brothers, sister and the others nearby, especially Thundersparx, Kushanku's forked tail twisted and he lofted into flight, launching directly at the White Witch with an enraged Cat screech.

"KUSHANKU, GET BACK HERE!" bellowed Thundersparx as Kushanku continued flying at the Witch as she continued blasting at the crowd and helpers with her wand in an attempt to turn more of them to stone statues while her cronies, Krampus and his toy and Elf minions continued their terror on the crowd. Kushanku did not hear Thundersparx's commands to return to the crowd and continued flying towards the White Witch as she managed to hit a Raiju (not Thundersparx) with a blast of petrification spell from her wand and turn it to a stone statue. The onlookers looked on in utmost horror

"Oh, NO, YOU'LL BE KILLED!" cried Snowwing as he looked on with Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Nanu and Molayne, and also Shadewing, Quill and Emberflame from the lamp carried by Shadewing. Kushanku continued to fly at the White Witch and when he was close enough, he released an EXTREMELY enraged screech similar to the ones he released during his brutal battle with Belladonna. Jadis, when she heard a Cat screech the moment she released another blast of her petrification magic from her icicle-like wand, snapped her deceptively beautiful and devilish glare to the direction of the screeching Cat just in time to receive a painful spinning-tail slap to the face from a hovering Nekomata.

Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, and also Cedrus and the others, looked on in utter astonishment as Kushanku struck Jadis square in the face with his spinning tails, making the Witch throw her head in the direction of the slap. Kushanku, his eyes a glowing fiery orange-red from fury mode, saw Jadis fling her head and raised her hand to where he had slapped her, then twirled round in the opposite direction and with all his might slapped Jadis in the head again with his spinning forked tail, this time knocking her icicle crown off her head. The icicle crown careened through the dark, blizzardy air and struck one of Krampus's toy robots and shattered into several icy shards. This froze the onlookers in EXTREME horror.

"Oh, not her _crown_ ," said Shadewing with a cover of his face with a membranous wing. Then Nanu decided to take the opportunity to taunt the Witch. A scornful smirk appearing on his face, the young Wolf pup broke from the crowd and hurried right over to Jadis.

"Heh, I told her off once, I'm sure I can do it again," he crooned.

"Nanu, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" yelled Cedrus but Nanu ignored him and boldly ran up to the Witch as Kushanku, realising that he had knocked her crown off her head which broke him out of his fury mode, immediately backed away towards the crowd.

"Hey, White Witch maggot and Queen of the Flies," yelled Nanu at the top of his voice, that voice saturated with bitter scorn and mockery, to his former master and leader, bringing the Witch's attention to him, "Remember me!?"

Jadis, despite the pain from the two slaps from Kushanku's spinning tail attack to her face and head and the humiliation in losing her icicle crown, at this, just turned away and flatly growled, "NO!" before twirling her wand and fired a blast of petrification spell energy at the young Wolf pup but before the energy blast could connect with Nanu and turn him into a Wolf statue, an aqua blue aura surrounded him and yanked him out of the spell blast's way just in time. Ptériga then telekinetically carried Nanu, her eyes glowing aqua blue and projecting onto the Wolf pup, away from the danger and hastily rocketed to the front of the crowd, not wanting the young Wolf pup to fall victim to the Witch's wrath again. Any of Jadis's minions nearby had been witnessing the whole incident.

"Was that the Wolf pup that rebelled against us by calling Jadis that HEINOUS, BLASPHEMOUS INSULT!?" asked one of the Oni, its Troll-like face saturated with pure outrage, bringing a few Wolves, among them Romulus to attention. At this, Jadis screeched at her minions at the top of her lungs.

"NEVER MIND THAT WOLF PUP," she screamed, her voice echoing throughout the area for tens of metres like a Banshee's scream, making the crowd cover their ears and return to fleeing, "JUST CATCH THAT BUNCH OF MIGRATING REBELS AND CAPTURE THEM!"

With that, the chaos returned as the crowd returned to fleeing for their lives and Jadis's minions resumed their attack on her with Krampus and his Elf and toy minions assisting.

Some of Krampus's toy minions including the Python-Clown-in-a-Box, once it had managed to remove the log lodged in its throat thrown telekinetically by the Nekomata earlier lunged in and seized a young Faun (not Guinan) before beginning to consume him headfirst and alive, much to Obsidian's hysterical distress nearby as the memoires of seeing her younger brother meeting his demise the same way flashed in her mind. While the serpent-like Jack-in-a-box did that, the gingerbread men armed with their candy cane weapons, the demonic plush teddy bears, bunnies and other stuffed toy animals, toy robots, pseudo-Cherub dolls and Elves continued to assault the crowd, seizing some of them and killing them. Jadis's minions also continued their relentless attack with the giants and Goshadokuro trying to trample on them only to miss and be driven back by the Elemental Birds, among them Brina as she blasted one of the skeletal Goshadokuro in the face with a stream of ice from her beak and sent it toppling over like a large tree. The skeletal Giant then crashed hard onto the snow in a shower of the stuff and with a terrific thud, flattening some of the Wendigoes, Naga, Nuri-onna and Drop Bears and saving some of the crowd members they had managed to seize. Lana, Suiren, Hala and their group of Harpies were seized by a few Centaurs when Amanita tried to blast them with her foxfire though Lana managed to land a talon slash on the pure-white nine-tailed Nogitsune and inflict a scratch on her face before Colress appeared and seized her and dragged her away, and the rest of the crowd members were also saved from the Witch and Krampus's minions they continued their relentless attacks on them.

Soon enough, and despite the dark blizzard, the crowd's front had made its way to the safety of the fork and the moment they were at the fork, they immediately swerved left and poured down the misty right-hand path as guided by Aslan's Lion fireball and as herded by Cedrus and company. As the crowd continued to surge down the misty path from the wrong path, Jadis and company continued their relentless attacks on them with Jadis turning more and more individuals into stone, Krampus and company capturing a number of more crowd members and Jadis's cronies fiercely attacking the helpers who fought back full force. However, the majority of Jadis's minions pursued the part of the crowd as they continued to pour down the misty path and pluck more individuals from the swarm like birds of prey plucking their smaller bird meals from a large flock of them. One of Guinan's cousins was seized by an Inugami while a few of the Fairyflies diverted some of Faline's kits in the direction of some of Krampus's demonic toy bunnies, the rest of their Rabbit family, among them Fluffy-Cotton and Faline herself, being too occupied with escaping Jadis and company, and two more Curupira, a Swan and some Dwarves and a Naga loyal to Aslan were turned to stone by blasts of petrification spell energy from the Witch's wand as the evil Charn-originating Humanoid continued wielding her most powerful weapon and shooting out more of her petrification spell at the petrified Narnians. Amanita the nine-tailed Nogitsune also slaughtered some more of the Narnians with her upgraded foxfire and injured more of them, among them a Cherub who was seized and carried to safety. But as Jadis and company continued attacking the crowd as they continued pouring down the foggy path (the tanks containing the severely frightened Sea Creatures like the Merfolk hanging on for dear life and the water splashing everywhere; thankfully they were too close to the bottom of the tanks for Jadis's cronies to snatch and they were heavily guarded by some of the helpers who continued to drive away any of them that approached them), the traitorous cronies, among them some of the traitorous Kamaitachi, swooped between many of their former comrades and the frightened crowd members and viciously fought back, the Kamaitachi using their scythe-like claws to deflect the swords of the sword-wielding cronies and the traitorous Drop Bears destroying some of Krampus's minions and also took on the Bonehead-Crawlers and Wendigoes, much to the outrage of their 'comrades' and they began to engage these traitors in combat. One of the Kamaitachi even swooped towards Amanita and viciously injured her with its scythe-like claws before retreating to stall her and her use of her upgraded foxfire power, much to the outrage of Amanita's allies, while another Kamaitachi swooped in and severely injured Gothel, the female leader of the Wendigoes before retreating.

While the traitorous Kamaitachi, Drop Bears, Vultures and a few of the other traitors viciously attacked Jadis's cronies and company with a few of them fleeing with the crowd members down the foggy path, Jadis managed to fight her way past the helpers' defence force by turning more of the creatures to stone with her wand, among them one of Bursyamo's underlings Achamo, one of the Sphinxes Meg, and a few of the Capelobo related to the deceased Hocico, forcing the rest to retreat due to the Witch's immense skill in combat and her magical capabilities. Then as soon as the defence force led by Cedrus was broken apart, the Witch proceeded to pursue the last members of the crowd as they tore down the foggy path. As the helpers retreated after their herd, Thundersparx flashed a terrified glance back at Jadis.

"That Devil Woman's gonna follow us down the path and possibly turn more of us to stone statues, Cedrus," said the Raiju in horror, "WE MUST DO SOMETHING!"

As these words left his muzzle, two Shadows and an Inugami swooped in and cut off a few of the crowd members, among them Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne and Thundersparx himself, much to the horror of the others.

"THUNDERSPARX, GUYS, NO!" cried Cedrus in horror. Two of the traitorous Kamaitachi flew in and when they saw that few of the crowd members had been cut off, horror tore through them, especially as they became surrounded by Jadis, Krampus and their cronies. Then Thundersparx shot Cedrus and the other helpers, among them Passiflora, Colress, Milky Way and Ptériga, as they gathered in the distance but Thundersparx urged them to escape.

"Go, go, GO, the others need you," howled the Raiju loudly. At this, the helpers paused, clearly reluctant to leave Thundersparx and the others with him to their fate but upon seeing the sadistic and malicious glares from Jadis and company, especially Jadis who was armed with her most powerful weapon, her wand, they reluctantly retreated after the other crowd members down the foggy path. After Cedrus and company had gone, Thundersparx and the others with him shot terrified glances at the swarm of ugly creatures and their masters surrounding them as they closed in on their prey. The Xenojaws were hissing hungrily and bloodthirstily, the Satyrs were wearing diabolical leers, the Slender-Men were glaring at the group with their featureless faces and shuddering their lanky arms in an intimidating manner and the variety of other ugly creatures, among them Krampus's Elves and toy minions including the Python-Clown-in-a-Box, were grinning triumphantly and with bloodlust, their weapons and claws aimed for Thundersparx and company as they closed in on their prey, and amongst the crowd, the Giants, among them the massive Ogres and the skeletal Gashadokuro who towered over the smaller species, and the smallest of the minions, the Fairyflies, hovered like rabid starlings above the medium-sized creatures, their insect-like eyes fixed on Thundersparx and company.

Jadis, who was currently crownless after Kushanku had knocked her icicle crown off her head and sent it smashing on one of Krampus's robot-like minions, wore an EXTREMELY FURIOUS GLARE while Krampus's red eyes glowed behind his Father Christmas-like mask. His long, Snake-like tongue slithered out through the mouth, flicked at the air and retracted back into the mouth as the hulking Goat Demon waddled over to the trapped group with his minions and those of Jadis. As he flicked his tongue, he also released a fierce hiss and his Father Christmas-like mask under his hood came into view, Nyarth happened to catch a glimpse of it and shuddered. Krampus was also armed. Trailing behind him was a large toy sack, similar to the toy sacks the real Father Christmas carried but unlike those sacks which were full of cute toys, accessories and equipment like swords, Krampus's toy sacks were stuffed with more demonic toys, animated swords and other equipment. Then one of the young Pterosaurs approached the toy sack, curiosity welling within him despite Nyarth's protests. Then as soon as the young Pterosaur was close, Krampus pulled his sack towards him and opened it. The Pterosaur then peered in but the moment the Bird-like Winged Reptile did, the contents in the sack screamed demonic screams and lunged at the Bat-Bird, seized him and pulled him into the sack, much to the horror of Nyarth, Snowwing and Molayne who saw the lower body and legs of the Bird-like Reptile disappear into the sack with a scream where he was gruesomely devoured by the contents in Krampus's sack, Krampus releasing a diabolical hissy laugh as it happened. The three relatives of the Pterosaur victim let loose anguished cries and rushed towards Krampus but were seized and restrained by two Okuri-Inu, who feared for their safety. Kushanku shuddered when he watched the three Bat-Birds as they released Birdlike cries of anguish as they watched the sack writhe as their brother was eaten by the contents. Then the Nekomata pulled his gaze and scanned the surrounding ugly creatures as they advanced upon him and the others. Timidly, he pulled out his Gladio-Captionisse, or GC, sword and aimed it at the advancing creatures while Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira, Alexandrite and Paddy pulled out their swords and aimed them defensively at the creatures. Thundersparx bushed his fur and sparked furiously with his teeth bared and growls shuddering his throat; Crystal and Snowwing aimed their arrows nocked into their bows, and Dahlia, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne took up defensive stances; their fur and feathers bristling and the Peryton, Griffin and Hippogriff spreading their wings. Dahlia and Link also lowered their antlers and poised them for attack while the other creatures, such as the Okuri-Inu, also took up defensive stances and aimed their arrows and swords at the advancing creatures. But despite the group's best efforts, Krampus, Jadis and the minions were undeterred.

"Now we've got you, you pathetic, traitorous Narnian worms," gloated the Witch, her crownless head saturated with the purest and most vitriolic malice, hatred, bloodlust and sadism Kushanku and the others had ever seen, and her wand's tip aimed for the trapped Narnians, "It is time for you lot to be captured and taken to my castle where you will be either made into slaves or turned into food," her eyes landed on Snowwing, Link and Dahlia and glittered menacingly like a Wendigo's moon-like eyes, "And I fancy roasted Talking Jackalope, Peryton and Skvader served with the best vegetables and herbs and gravy for my dinner."

This sent chills coursing down the three creature's spines and they shuddered. Then Jadis's eyes travelled to Thundersparx and Molayne, igniting with WRATH as they landed on the Raiju and the young Dog.

"As for YOU TWO," she snarled in a more threatening voice, "I'm gonna take you both back to your families and turn you into slaves with the LOWEST and most DETESTED JOBS in ALL OF NARNIA FOR BETRAYIN' US and LEAVIN' US BEHIND. YOUR families have been slaughtered on the Stone Table and their meat consumed because of YOU!"

Molayne flinched violently and felt his stomach lurch while Thundersparx shot the Witch a volcanic, unflinching glare. His mane and fur sparked more violently as his eyes locked with the Snow Queen's.

"Don't you EVER mention our former life where you gave us a so-called better life through that Massacre Event, you Snow Hag," snapped the Raiju fiercely but Jadis threatened him with her wand, pointing it dead centre and the Lightning Wolf-Cat, much to the alarm of Molayne and also Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth.

"Or better still, I could have a stone Raiju for my collection," said the Witch as she aimed her wand at Thundersparx, making him back away nervously. Then a Ropen came to the Raiju's defence. Her bioluminescent patches marking her torso and wings flared in the dark as she became aggressive and defensive. However, she maintained her composure.

"There's no point in trying to threaten this Raiju and his companions, Your Majesty," said the glowing Pterosaur, "They have…" but before she could finish, Jadis immediately twirled her wand and blasted the bioluminescent Bat-Bird with a blast of her petrification spell, turning the Ropen into a stone statue of herself. Horror tore through Thundersparx and the others like a shockwave and some of them actually screamed, but all of them jumped back. Thundersparx gazed at the now stone Ropen figure, its beak open and wings raised in a defensive position in the exact moment the Witch's petrification spell had connected. The Witch, unspeakable volcanic wrath saturating her face, then withdrew the tip of her wand from the petrified Ropen and aimed it at Thundersparx and the others, making them flinch again. Around them, Krampus and the minions continued closing in on the group, their weapons poised for attacking with Krampus dragging his sack of possessed toys and tools behind him, ready to seize the trapped Narnians and stuff them into there for slaughter and the three Pterosaurs shuddered violently at the sight of the giant, hunched Goat-Demon and his sack and Father Christmas outfit. The blizzard and eased off somewhat and it was still very dark. Jadis continued to taunt Thundersparx and the others, her wand still pointing at them.

"Your father and your group did a REAL great job in exposing that den of Aslan believers where that pair of Nekomata kept them hidden from the pryin' eyes of my loyal spies," continued the Witch, before her eyes, which were large, black, bulbous and as penetrating as a harpy eagle's, found Nyarth, Satoshi, Akira and Kushanku as they stood with Padparadchsa and Alexandrite, "and I believe those four are the offspring of that pair of Nekomata who had perished in the den when I sent my Manticore and Wolf Police squad to that den to slaughter them."

Thundersparx, at this, continued to tremble and spark with rage, especially at the mentioning of his father's betrayal of Ferntail and Frosty to the Witch resulting in their slaughter, and some of the cronies tittered at this when they saw the Raiju's reaction and that of Kushanku and his siblings. Then Jadis's eyes found Molayne and she continued, "And as for you, Dog. Your cousin also did a marvellous job in tellin' me about some of your fellow villagers believin' in that Puddy Tat with a Mane, hence why I have also sent a Police Squad in dealin' with them and those in Purple Flower Town. Too bad they had to be forced through EXTREME labour and eventually slain on the Stone Table because of YOU escapin', together with your little bright blue and yellow Wolf-Cat friend with you, and also that Wampus Cat and the Pegasus…"

"We also don't wanna hear of your taunts in our relatives betraying us, Devil Woman," snapped Thundersparx, cutting Jadis off while Molayne hid behind Alexandrite and Paddy, "What they did was DIABOLICAL, but it was YOU who had that NEGATIVE INFLUENCE ON THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Jadis, at this, snapped her volcanic gaze to Thundersparx.

"Maybe I'm not makin' myself clear," growled the Witch and with that, she locked eyes with the Raiju and flashed them white. At first, Thundersparx thought the Witch was using some sort of trick but then he felt his brain spark and shudder as though a blast of foxfire from a Nogitsune had begun wreaking havoc within him. As Thundersparx began to twitch, gasp, grunt and flinch, Kushanku looked on in horror.

"Mr Thundersparx, are you okay?" asked the Nekomata. Suddenly, a frightened howl erupted from the Raiju's muzzle and he clasped his paws onto his head before dropping into the snow and thrashing as though he were being tortured by Belladonna's foxfire. Jadis's white glowing eyes continued to remain fixed on him as he began to let loose agonised and tortured howls to the laughter of Krampus and the cronies and to the horror of Kushanku and the others.

Thundersparx continued clasping his head with his front paws and thrash in the snow as images then flashed in his mind. These images were extremely disturbing and gory, some of which were Narnians getting tortured and slain but they were not his own thoughts. These thoughts were from the Witch and she was sadistically projecting them directly into the Raiju's brain and believe me, they were EXTREMELY immoral and UTTERLY violent and bloody. As Thundersparx thrashed on his back in the snow, his fur sparking wildly and his tail and back legs thrashing violently, an agonised tortured scream exploding from his muzzle as the images of the Witch's beyond-violent thoughts flashed in his mind, Kushanku snapped a furious glare at the Witch as she continued her telepathic torture on the Raiju. His fur puffed out and his eyes flashed red as his fury mode took over once again to the alarm of the others, especially Alexandrite, Nyarth, Akira and Satoshi.

"Kushanku, what are YOU…" began Alexandrite but Kushanku had already heaved himself into the air and had launched himself at the Witch, his tail branches spinning. He kept his GC sword weapon but he was not intending on using it on the Witch.

"GET OUT OF MY RAIJU MENTOR'S HEAD you VILE SNOW SERPENT!" screeched the Nekomata and with that, he spun round and with all his might, he flared his claws and scored them right over the Witch's face. Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne and the others flinched violently as the Witch's head was flung in the direction of Kushanku's vicious claw swipe, a few drops of blood flying from her face and landing in the snow. During the attack, the Witch's telepathic attack on Thundersparx was broken and the Raiju stopped thrashing, sparking and howling and flumped in the snow on his back as the flow of indescribably immoral thoughts from the Witch's as the flow of indescribably immoral thoughts from the Witch's mind directly into his own was cut off. As soon as the psychic attack from the Witch was ceased, Molayne rushed over to Raiju with the two Okuri-Inu. Thundersparx was trembling violently, his paws still clasped onto his forehead and he was gasping and trembling violently from the trauma of seeing the beyond-immoral flow of thoughts from the Witch's beyond-evil mind. Kushanku, his eyes blazing orange-red from his fury mode fixed on the Witch as her hands covered her slashed face, then hovered away and touched down near his siblings and watched without a sliver of remorse as Jadis continued to hold her clawed face, the blood pouring through her fingers. Paddy shot him an astonished and furious glare.

"I can't believe you DID THAT, KUSHANKU!" she gutturally yelled. Kushanku's eyes then resumed their normal Cat's colour as his fury mode subsided but when he saw what he had done, he flinched but there was no going back now. His violent attack on Jadis was the final icicle and the Witch was beginning to tremble violently as her temper boiled and increased in pressure but this temper tantrum was not going to be like the temper tantrum she had erupted when Nanu insulted her over the communicator, or when she found out that Thundersparx, Trotterhoof and the others had escaped. Krampus and the cronies looked on in timidly as the tall Extra-Narnian Humanoid trembled more and more until finally…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The MOST… EXPLOSIVE… EARDRUM-PIERCING… HIGH-PITCHED SCREAM erupted from the Witch's mouth, far louder than even Púca the lead Banshee's cry. Paws, wings, claws and hands flew to ears as the Witch continued to scream at the top of her lungs, her ultra-loud scream assaulting their ears. The scream was so loud that it carried for miles and miles such that the crowd that had disappeared down the foggy path as guided by Aslan picked it up. At this, the lot froze.

"That does NOT sound good," murmured Cedrus when he and the others turned their horrified gazes in the direction of the sound's source. Then Ptériga yelled commands to her fellow Sphinx comrades and before Cedrus or the other escorts of the Narnians could protest, the Lion-like Humanoid-faced winged creatures lofted into flight, their feathered wings beating at the air furiously.

Back with Thundersparx and company, Kushanku and the others looked on in utmost horror as the Witch, her face which was slashed with the bleeding scratches Kushanku had inflicted on her and painting a number of red stripes down her bone-white skin, now saturated with the MOST VOLCAIC FURY she had EVER harboured in her life since she arrived in Narnia during Aslan's creation of it with a few Humans and a non-talking Horse who would be transformed into the first Pegasus, glared furiously at Kushanku and company as they rubbed their ears from the Devil Woman's piercing scream.

"GET THEEEEEEEEEEM!" she yelled to Krampus and the other cronies and before Kushanku and the others knew it, they were enveloped in a dark tsunami of savage, bloodthirsty toys and various horrible creatures on Jadis's side. Then another fight erupted as Thundersparx's group began to viciously fight back. While this happened, Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne managed to escape from the tsunami. As they did that, they gazed back at the other trapped Narnians but an Okuri-Inu, a Daytime female, shot them a desperate look as she had an Oni by the throat while the Oni had her entangled in its prehensile hair.

"HURRY, YOU LOT, FLEE," yelled the Magical Wolf, "Don't worry about us!" and with that, she resumed throttling the Oni who continued to strangle her with its prehensile hair.

Kushanku and company, at first were reluctant but when some of the cronies of Jadis managed to break away from the crowd and spot them, they went along with the Okuri-Inu's command to flee. But as the group of fourteen young Talking Beasts rushed for the leafless forest, they found themselves confronted by a wall of ugly creatures, among them Malefor, Ganondorf, Pazuzu, Romulus, Aku no the lead Tenome whose hand-eyes were fixated on Kushanku and company and were saturated with unspeakable fury, especially at what Kushanku had done to her master, and also Krampus who was armed with his sack of evil toys and tools, his blood-red eyes glowing in his hood and his long Snake-like tongue flicking at the air.

"You're goin' NOWHERE, you BUNCH OF LITTLE MORSELS!" cackled Aku no in a Hag-like voice, her mouth on her eyeless face speaking while her eyes, which were on her hands, glared menacingly at Kushanku and company. Accompanying Aku no and the others were more Manticores, Wolves, Tenome, Lizard-Men, some of Krampus's Elf and toy minions such as the candy cane weapon-armed gingerbread men, two Oni, some Inugami, Triffid-Mouths, A few Bonehead-Crawlers, a Slender-Man and a variety of a few other of Jadis's horrible creatures, and all of them wore volcanic glares and had their weapons poised, teeth bared, or claws prepared, such as the Lizard-Men whose claws always injected a paralysing venom into their victims.

As the wall of evil creatures continued to advance on Kushanku and company, Desdemona shot Kushanku a desperate look.

"KUSHANKU!" screeched the Griffin. Kushanku, at this, gazed to a pouch attached to his GC sword scabbard and seized it. Satoshi, Desdemona and the others continued gazing frightfully at the advancing call of creatures when Pazuzu the lead Shadow, with a ghostly growl rising from a simmer to a volatile eruption, rose into the air like a black Spectre for Shadows were a type of this Ghost, and dove at them, his claws and teeth poised to sink into flesh, aiming right for Molayne much to the screams of his allies. However, before the lead Shadow could pounce onto Molayne and possibly kill him, a white comet shot in and tackled Pazuzu away from Molayne who cringed, expecting the Shadow to attack him. When he saw nothing land on him, Molayne looked up and saw Pazuzu begin to savagely fight a Kamaitachi, one of the traitorous individuals, the Weasel-like Air Beast slashing its scythe-like claws at Pazuzu wildly. During this, Kushanku managed to pull out a vial. This vial was full of a blue-black liquid but before he could seize the cork to open it, screams exploded from his allies nearby, At this, he looked up and to his horror, he saw Satoshi, Akira, Alexandrite, Nyarth and the others flee as the wall of creatures led by Romulus, Krampus and the other lead creatures except Pazuzu who was occupied with the Kamaitachi, increase their pace of advancement towards them, their claws, teeth and weapons flared. Alarmed, the Nekomata twisted his tail branches and lofted into flight before flinging the vial at Krampus as hard as he could. In the other battle cloud, more flashes of white erupted as the Witch turned more victims to stone statues, among them one of the Okuri-Inu.

As Krampus and company continued advancing towards Kushanku, the vial containing the blue-black liquid flew towards the Goat-Demon's face and the moment it struck the horned Father Christmas impersonator's face, the vial exploded and from it, a massive blue-black plume erupted. Krampus let loose a hissy screech of agony and flung his head back as the vial struck him and before he, Romulus, Aku no and the others realised it, they were swallowed up in a massive blue-black cloud thick enough to form an opaque plume. Screeches, shouts and howls of angry frustration erupted with the plume as it blinded them.

"I can't see a THING!" came Aku no's voice, "WHERE IS THAT TWO TAILED CAT SLIME-WORM!?"

Kushanku who still hovered in the air by spinning his two tail branches, when he saw the plume envelop his foes and blind them, then retreated after Alexandrite and the others as they fled into the sea of leafless branches. The plume then drifted over to Jadis's group and blinded the attackers of them as well. This provided the other trapped Narnians enough time to cut down their foes who held them, seize the traumatised individuals like Thundersparx who was still hysterical from the Witch's psychic attack on him, and fled. However, the Witch managed to blast the smokescreen away with her wand and the moment the smokescreen was vanquished, Romulus, Malefor and the others pursued Kushanku and company through the trees.


	71. Chapter 70

**Chapter 70- the most brutal fights in Kushanku and company's lives part 1**

The blizzard and the wind that it rose on continued to tear through the dark air. The leafless branches of the trees which stretched and clawed at the air like Krampus's finger claws, wavered and swayed with the winds as it tore through them. However, this blizzard was not natural and it was not night time. It was still day but the sunlight had been eclipsed by the cryokinetic powers of Father Christmas impersonator Krampus, and the blizzard had also been summoned by this Horned Beast dressed in a ragged Santa Claus outfit. As the snowflake flurry continued to stream through the snowy forest with the wind, several blurs sliced through it, one of the blurs carried a stream of light, obviously a magical torch-like device, as the group continued to flee through the blizzardy darkness. Behind the group which were Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing (who carried the magical torch), Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne, was a group of various evil cronies of Jadis and some from Krampus's entourage of demonic toys and possessed candy figures and items such as swords in hot pursuit. Amongst them were Malefor and his brother Scar, Aku no, Ganondorf, Romulus and some of the gingerbread men of Krampus who were armed with their candy cane weapons, and they and their comrades continued to furiously pursue Kushanku's group through the dark blizzard.

Ahead of their pursuers, Kushanku and company continued their desperate escape. Kushanku was flying through the forest with Cyril, Link, Desdemona, Snowwing and Crystal while Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira leaped from tree to tree agilely. Dahlia ran like a Hare through the snow while Molayne, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa "Paddy", and Sandstorm stuck to the shallower parts of the snowy terrain, quickly leaping from one shallow spot to the next. As the fourteen creatures tore through the forest, mocking voices exploded from their pursuers behind them.

"You can't escape us, you bunch of menacing YOUNGSTERS!" snarled the voice of a Manticore, obviously Malefor before he directed his acidic Scorpion's tail-stinger like tongue to Kushanku, "Especially you, NEKOMATA, for humiliating Her Majesty and Goddess of the Highlands by knocking off her crown and then slashing her across the face! You will to BE PUT to the most PAINFUL DEATH for THAT THE MOMENT WE CATCH YOU!"

Kushanku, who flew with his tail branches spinning like a helicopter's propeller, flashed a timid glance at the pursuers and continued flying on after Crystal and the other flying members of the little group while Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira continued jumping between trees. Romulus then added another comment that struck the nerve of Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Nyarth.

"Just like how we caught and KILLED YOUR MOTHER FERNTAIL!" snarled the Wolf, making the three sons and daughter of Ferntail and Frosty flinch violently. However, they shook off the stabbing pain from the mentioning of their deceased parents and continued their escape with their adopted Cheetah brother and the remaining youngsters of Soran's family.

Eventually, the fourteen arrived at a rocky enclosure but when they saw that they were trapped and had no further chance of escape, the fourteen regrouped and prepared to face their pursuers who halted their wild dash and flight and began to close in on them like a pack of snarling wolves closing in on their prey, their teeth bared and weapons, claws and in the case of the Manticores, their Scorpion's tail-stingers, poised for action. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing (who held the magic torch rock in his paws to provide light for himself and his companions in the darkness), Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne shuddered and huddled closer together as their pursuers with Ganondorf, Romulus, Malefor and Scar, Aku no and a Wendigo at the front, began to advance towards them. Then Kushanku drew his large GC sword and aimed its tip at Malefor as the Manticore bared his fangs and teeth and spread his Bat's wings. His Scorpion's tail lashed at the snowy air like a whip as he continued to threaten the Nekomata as he continued to threaten him in turn with his GC sword. Then Snowwing and Crystal nocked their bows with arrows and aimed them threateningly at the group.

"You take ONE MORE STEP you winged HAIRBALL and I'll SKEWER YA!" snarled Kushanku gutturally as Malefor continued to close in on him, his sword's tip aimed at Malefor's head. However, the former leader of the Manticore pack was unfazed by the little Nekomata's attempts to intimidate him.

"Hah, you think your cute little kitty Cat's growl is gonna deter us, Nekomata?" crooned the fanged Humanoid-faced chimera, "Or should I say, son of the Nekomata couple who kept that bunch of Maned Puddy Tat believers hidden from us until Lightningflash revealed their location?"

At this, Crystal hovered closer to Malefor and aimed her arrow nocked in her bow at his face, a volcanic look on her face.

"Aslan is NOT some 'Maned Puddy Tat', Vampire face," snarled the Parrot chick, "He's the LION above ALL LIONS!"

"Who is FAR MORE POWERFUL even than your so-called _Queen_ ," added Snowwing, his arrow-nocked bow also aimed threateningly at Malefor and his torch rock tucked away in a pouch he had worn during the journey and still shining into the darkness. Then Aku no stepped in, her hand-eyes glaring maliciously at Kushanku and company.

"That 'Aslan' doesn't exist, you bunch of minxes and menaces," snarled the lead Tenome, the eyes on her hand burning with the fires of wrath while the mouth on her eyeless head gritted its teeth, "The MOST POWERFUL BEING in all of NARNIA is JADIS, the QUEEN AND GODDESS OF ALL THE HIGHLANDS and NARNIA'S ONE TRUE RULER, and YOU LITTLE RATS," her hand-eyes then shot their volcanic glare beam at Kushanku, who flinched, "Have DISHONOURED HER in EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD, especially YOU, fork-tailed CAT!"

Kushanku just glared maliciously at the Tenome with his fur spiked out and teeth gritted and turned his sword's point to her. Then Ganondorf came in, his venomous finger claws flared.

"And BECAUSE OF THAT, YOU ARE TO BE PUT TO DEATH in the MOST PAINFUL, AGONISING WAY!" yelled the lead Lizard-Man and with that, he let loose a massive hiss-howl and with his prehensile tail thrashing wildly behind him, the scaly Humanoid crouched and launched himself at Kushanku and company like a massive cat. Kushanku and the others darted off and sent Ganondorf crashing into the snow only for him to roll to his hands and feet again, his tail swinging one side to the other behind him like a Cat's tail. The Lizard-Man then glared maliciously with his Reptilian eyes at the group as they prepared to fight the rest of Malefor's gang as they also launched into an attack charge. Then within moments, the clashing of claws, swords and teeth on metal or wood erupted into the blizzardy air above them as Kushanku's and Malefor's groups began their vicious battle. It will be the most brutal battle Kushanku and company have EVER fought in their lives, and since Kushanku's vicious battle with Belladonna back in Gandalf's base.

Padparadchsa, a stormy Cat screech exploding from her mouth, charged viciously towards Ganondorf who prepared to retaliate the moment the Nekomata and Alexandrite's sister was near him. Around the pair, the rest of Kushanku's group continued to fight Malefor and company. Then as soon as Padparadchsa "Paddy" was close enough, Ganondorf swung round and with all his might, sent his tail smashing into the Nekomata's head, hard. At this, Alexandrite, Satoshi, Molayne and Sandstorm snapped round and drew in horrified gasps of horror when they saw Paddy, Cat cries of pain emanating from her mouth, rolled towards a rock and stopped there. Then Ganondorf lunged at Paddy and began to beat and slap her over and over again with his prehensile tail, cackling with the most bloodlust-saturated laughter. Satoshi then began to struggle with one of Romulus's comrades as she came in and tried to bite him only for the Nekomata to raise his sword and send the Wolf's jaws clamp onto the blade instead. Then Satoshi forced the Wolf, her jaws still clamped onto the sword's blade, back and injured her in the process. Ganondorf continued mercilessly beating and bashing Paddy with his tail, inflicting her with bruises and a bleeding nose. When he saw his opponent cover her head protectively from his tail strikes, Ganondorf eyed her with a devilish glare.

"Wassup, you lil' two-tailed Feline Yokai?" crooned the Lizard-Man meanly, "My tail too powerful for you to stand up and fight against?"

Satoshi managed to cut down the Wolf with his sword and the moment he had done that, he rushed over to help Padparadchsa but found himself confronted by a savage Wendigo, its moonlike eyes gleaming menacingly in the dark, snowy air and its claws flared. Then with a savage howl, the skeletal Goat-like beast lunged at Satoshi and attempted to slash him with its claws only for Satoshi to raise his sword and block it. While he struggled with the Wendigo, Satoshi continued to watch Paddy as Ganondorf proceeded to land a more brutal attack on her.

"Now let's see if you can manage A BODY SLAM ATTACK FROM ME!" growled the large Lizard-Man sadistically and with that, he jumped onto the rock and launched himself into the air before plummeting, his limbs spread wide, towards the battered, struggling and weakened Nekomata below. Ganondorf slammed as hard as he could onto Paddy and inflicted her with a great deal of pain as she was brutally crushed between the snow and Ganondorf's body.

"PADPARADCHSA!" screamed Satoshi in horror as he slashed his sword at the Wendigo. Alexandrite, Sandstorm and Molayne also looked on as Ganondorf rose to his feet, distance himself from Paddy and then launch himself at the injured Nekomata.

"Now for the final ENVENOMATION!" cackled the Lizard-Man as he flared his claws on one hand and prepared to bring it down on Paddy to inflict the Lizard-Man's most powerful blow: a slash of the venomous claws followed by injection of the paralysing venom that was extremely painful and fatal to the victim if they did not receive medical attention right away. Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne looked on in horror at the imminent attack, Paddy still lying face down in the snow, battered and bruised with a bleeding nose.

"PADPARADCHSA!" shouted the four together.

"WATCH OUT, SIS!" cried Alexandrite as she held another Wolf by the throat as it attempted to bite her. Then when it all seemed dire, Padparadchsa's eyes suddenly flashed open but they did just flare open. They also flared with an orange-red glow, a trait of a Nekomata's fury mode. The moment fury mode took hold of Paddy; the Nekomata rose to her paws and feet, shot Ganondorf a glare and leaped out of the way, sending Ganondorf crashing into the snow and his claws raking the rock face as he missed. Joy swept through Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne as they watched Padparadchsa, now red-eyed with fur bushed, land nearby. The others including Kushanku were too occupied with the other members of Malefor's group to stop and watch the unfolding battle between Padparadchsa and Ganondorf.

Paddy then charged like a pink and orange comet towards Ganondorf who rose to his feet and shot the incoming Nekomata a malicious glare. His teeth gritted and dripped saliva and his tail thrashed at the air behind him. Then as Padparadchsa was close enough, Ganondorf proceeded to try and slash the fork-tailed Yokai Cat but Padparadchsa darted to one side like a nimble Stoat and made his clawed hand imbued with venom land into the snow instead. This made the bubble of wrath explode volcanically within Ganondorf and he released a Reptilian version of a roar and he tried to viciously attack Padparadchsa. Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne as they continued to struggle with their opponents, watched on with smiles on their faces as Paddy deftly dodged and sidestepped each and every strike Ganondorf tried to deliver her, weather it was a claw strike, a body slam attack or a tail swipe. Then Molayne took the opportunity to taunt the enraged Lizard-Man.

"Wassup, Dragon face?" crooned the Dog cheekily, "Your opponent too fast for you?"

Ganondorf ignored the Dog's taunts and continued to viciously attack Padparadchsa by lunging towards her but Paddy dodged once again and sent him crashing headfirst into the rock face, dazing him. Then Paddy, fury mode taking control full throttle, charged towards Ganondorf again, darting from side to side super-fast and resembling a pink and orange blur in the process. Ganondorf, after shaking himself to rid the dizziness from the impact of the rock face, looked on, befuddled and UTTERLY bewildered at the Nekomata's super-fast and super-agile speed. Then Paddy zoomed past Ganondorf and proceeded to zoom around him, faster and faster, prompting the confused Lizard-Man to try and follow her. Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne looked on with amused looks on their faces as Paddy eventually took the form of an orange and pink comet as she reached top speed and eventually, Ganondorf was thrown into another cloud of dizziness alongside nausea, his Reptile's eyes spinning with his stomach.

"It seems that my sister has extreme agility as a talent, Lizard lips," crooned Alexandrite tauntingly. Ganondorf said nothing. Then as soon as Paddy had stopped circling speedily around him, she stopped nearby, her eyes still ablaze with fury mode, prompting the lead Lizard-Man into shooting her a dizzy-but-malice-saturated glare. Then Paddy, a furious Cat's cry and her eyes blazing orange-red, surged towards Ganondorf like a speeding arrow for one final attack dash. Ganondorf, seeing the speeding Nekomata rush towards him, raised his hand, flared his claws but before he could bring the swipe down onto Padparadchsa, the Nekomata struck first, hitting him in the belly, HARD. After this, Paddy, with an EXTREMELY loud Cat screech, flared her own claws and brutally slashed them right over Ganondorf's face, carving a series of gashes through the scaly hide. After this, Paddy lunged at Ganondorf and began a ferocious and savage biting and clawing frenzy on the Lizard-Man, forcing the scaly Humanoid into clasping his head to protect himself from the vicious attacks. Nearby, Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne continued to attack their opponents.

While Paddy continued to viciously slash and claw Ganondorf to a pulp, Snowwing and Crystal were shooting down some gingerbread men and demonic animals, some of the minions of Krampus who had followed Malefor and company as commanded by Krampus to help, with their arrows. Crystal, while hovering in the air, used her talons to nock and fire an arrow from her bow in a blink of an eye while Snowwing did the same, his bow and arrows handled by his front paws while also hovering. Suddenly, a malicious little Bat flew in and slammed right into Crystal to Snowwing's horror. Crystal then began to struggle as the Bat began to try and plunge its fangs into her neck but Crystal dropped her bow and arrow, raised her talons to the Bat on her head neck and seized it. Then she flung the Bat towards one of the large rocks where it slammed against the solid surface. The Bat then transformed into a Humanoid creature with bone-white skin similar to that of Jadis, pointy ears like an Elf or Curupira, a pair of fangs protruding from its mouth which was gritted by the Vampire from the pain of the impact against the rock, and jet black, smooth hair atop its head. Then the Vampire slid down to the snow but the moment it landed onto the white powder, it shook itself to and shot Crystal a bloodthirstily venomous look. Snowwing and Crystal, after the latter had seized her bow and arrow from the floor, then aimed their arrows at the hideous blood-sucking monster as it began to approach the pair.

"I've always wanted Skvader and Parrot blood for my next drink," crooned the Vampire in a deadly, sadistic voice and with that, it licked its lips in the grossest of way, saliva dripping from its fanged mouth and grossing out its targets. Then Crystal shook off the revulsion and glared at the Vampire.

"Well if you're so desperate for blood, fang-faced Hobgoblin," growled the Parrot, "Then why don't you become desperate for THIS!?"

And with that, Crystal seized an arrow from her quiver and nocked it in herd bow. Then as soon as the Vampire launched itself into the air and transformed back into its Bat form, Crystal fired the arrow from her bow. The arrow surged towards the Bat-form Vampire and before the Vampire could react, the arrow struck it, penetrating its chest. The Vampire, a stunned look on its face as it had been fatally struck, then dropped out of the air like a stone and landed in the snow, Crystal looking on with a triumphant look on her face. However, that triumph was immediately swept aside as Snowwing and Crystal were faced with more demonic soft toys, candy cane-armed gingerbread men and more Vampires, some transformed into Bats, and proceeded to continue their fight.

Nearby, Scar, Malefor's brother and the current leader of the Manticore pack, lunged at Alexandrite, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Molayne with a loud hiss. Three of them dived to one side as the Manticore then swung his Lion's body round and deployed his Scorpion's tail sting but Sandstorm was too slow to react. Alarmed, the Cheetah cub raised his paws at the sting as it slashed at the air towards his neck, aiming for the carotid artery area. However, because his paws were in the way, Scar's tail stinger tip instead stabbed the Cheetah's left paw like a whip. A Manticore's Scorpion-like tail much like a Lizard-Man's finger claws, was imbued with venom but this venom, rather than paralyse its victim after envenomation as a Lizard-Man's venom would after the Lizard-Man had slashed its victim, instead sent a victim on an extremely slow and agonising death after the Manticore had struck its victim, and the sting was EXTREWMELY painful indeed, as Sandstorm began to feel in his paw-wrist where Scar's tail stinger had struck. Sandstorm then backed away and grasped his wounded paw, his face severely twisted in immense agony and the urge to scream wildly threatening to volcanically erupt within him. Scar looked on sadistically as the Cheetah continued to grasp his stabbed paw and fight the urge to scream, a hissy cackle filtering through his Humanoid's mouth. However, Scar's lethal sting attack on Sandstorm hadn't gone unnoticed. Satoshi then stepped in while Akira rushed to give Sandstorm a drop of fire-flower cordial from her medical potion kit before Scar's venom could start to wreak havoc on his system. Satoshi's eyes then flashed red-orange as fury mode took over as he glared at Scar who continued to snigger. Satoshi was clearly FURIOUS. Scar had very nearly killed a beloved family member and Satoshi was not going to allow Scar to get away with it, especially if he was going to mock Sandstorm's agony.

"NOT our only remaining adopted Cheetah brother, you filthy ARACHNID with FUR and WINGS!" snarled the Nekomata gutturally and aggressively and with that, he aimed his sword threateningly at Scar who flinched violently at the insult.

"WHO do YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLIN' AN ARACHNID, you TWO-TAILED FELINE RAT!? I'm the Manticore CAPTAIN, YOU KNOW," retorted the Manticore volcanically but Satoshi, in reply, let loose a volcanic Cat screech and lunged at Scar.

While Satoshi engaged Scar in a savage battle with Satoshi swiping his sword at the Manticore only for the Manticore to dodge and deflect his sword swipes with his claws, his face saturated with sadistic mockery as he glared daggers with the fury mode-saturated Satoshi, Akira delivered a drop of the red liquid of the fire-flower cordial onto Sandstorm's wound. Sandstorm's face relaxed as the extreme agony from Scar's sting attack to the wrist ebbed away with the wound which closed shut. After this, Sandstorm and Akira backed away and watched Satoshi as he continued lashing his sword at Scar. Satoshi lunged at Scar again and tried to slash the Manticore's face with his sword only for the Manticore to dodge. Scar then spun round and attempted to land a fatal sting on Satoshi but Satoshi, in his alarm and to the horror of Sandstorm and Akira, arched his head back. The tip of Scar's Scorpion tail sting swing precariously close to the Nekomata's neck and missed the skin by millimetres. Then after Scar had finished a complete turn, Satoshi, his eyes red-orange, ablaze with fury mode, lunged at him and lashed his sword at Scar only for Scar to dodge and retaliate with a paw swipe and a vicious snarl. Satoshi dove to one side and narrowly avoided getting slashed by the lethal Manticore's deadly claws. After rolling to his feet, Satoshi deftly lunged at Scar and swiped his sword at the Manticore again, only for Scar to block his swipes, this time catching the blade between his front paws much to Satoshi's shock and Akira and Sandstorm's horror. Scar let loose an evil cackle.

"That's what you GET for messin' with the LEADER of the Manticores, you feline Yokai brat!" crooned Scar sadistically. Satoshi, at this, flashed a red-eyed gaze at a pile of small rocks but then he felt his opponent shove him backwards as Scar violently pushed his sword back against him. Satoshi stumbled and landed on his backside and shot Scar a stunned look. Scar then crouched, spread his Bat's wings and then with a flap of his wings, he launched himself into the air and toward Satoshi, his claws flared and his teeth fully exposed. Satoshi shot a glare at the rock and to the surprise of Akira and Sandstorm, an aqua blue glow flared in his eyes and projected onto one of the little rocks, enclosing it in an aqua blue aura. Then a split-second later, Satoshi snapped his gaze back to Scar, telekinetically pulling the rock from the pile and smashing it directly into Scar's face. Scar, stunned by the sudden strike of the rock to his face, crashed right at the feet of Satoshi. Then the moment Scar rose to his feet, Satoshi, his eyes still glowing red from fury mode, lunged violently at the Manticore and slashed his sword at him, driving Scar, confusion still enveloping him, backwards. Satoshi swiped his sword at Scar a further three times in quick succession, not giving his foe time to react until finally, he managed to land an injury on his opponent by catching his right wing with a rapid fourth sword swipe. Now it was Scar's turn to feel agony rip through one of his limbs and he seized his wounded wing in his paws and gritted his teeth in agony. Then seizing this distraction as an opportunity to strike, Satoshi lunged towards Scar, twirled mid-jump and then slashed his sword right over the Manticore's neck, landing the fatal blow. Sandstorm and Akira flinched as the massive bundle of fur, Bat's wings and Scorpion's tail of Scar toppled over like a mighty tree and crashed into the snow. Satoshi, his fury mode fading with his eyes returning to their usual Cat's colour, then glared smugly at his fallen foe as he clutched his wounded neck, blood pouring from the injury and turning the snow bright red and his face saturated with pure agony and stun. Satisfied that the Manticore was no longer worth the trouble, Satoshi left him to bleed to death and returned to Akira and Sandstorm.

On the opposite side of the mini battlefield, Cyril, Link and Desdemona viciously fought against more cronies with Cyril cutting down many of Krampus's evil stuffed toy minions with his sword as well as bisect each gingerbread man armed with candy cane weapons as they leaped at the Hippogriff, slicing the candy figures in mid-air. But while he, Desdemona and Link continued cutting down more minions with Link the Peryton trampling more gingerbread men underfoot with his front hooves and Bird-like hind feet, Cyril was about to lunge at an evil Nekomata as it telekinetically animated the carcass of a deceased Hag armed with a spike ball attached to a stick, the Hag's carcass moving precisely with the evil Cat's movements and its eyes glowing red-orange with its animator's eyes (this glow is not from fury mode, but from a sinister form of telekinesis specialised in animating carcasses which the Nekomata and Bakeneko who had fallen for Jadis's side had been trained by her to perform, besides shapeshifting and illusion casting), while another evil Nekomata had shapeshifted to the form of a demonic monster towering over Desdemona when suddenly, a silvery blade appeared and stopped by his neck, dangerously close to the carotid area, stopping the young Hippogriff in his tracks.

"Halt, you reckless Horse-Bird," crooned the owner of the sword threateningly, which was Aku no, the leader of the Tenome, a type of Hag-like Yokai with eyes on their hands rather than their heads. Because of this, when using objects, Tenome would always close their eyes tightly to protect them from damage, and Aku no was doing just that as she handled the hilt of the sword with her right hand. Her left hand with her other eye, however, was open and was fixated on Cyril, who had frozen at the touch of the blade to his neck, saturated with pure malice alongside her mouth on her eyeless head. Aku no then began to coerce Cyril into complying with her commands under the threat of slitting his throat.

"Now you will DO AS I TELL YOU or this blade will be slicin' through your neck like a dumb Chicken," growled Aku no maliciously at which Cyril flinched; "Now you will take your sword and drop it."

Cyril flashed a glance at Desdemona as she was knocked hard into a tree trunk by the shapeshifted Nekomata and tried to act but Aku no said, "Ah-ah. Leave that Griffin alone and concentrate on my commands, or we'll be havin' a headless Hippogriff there and then, and I am NOT bluffin."

Cyril, alarmed by this and fearing for his life, obediently raised his sword and dropped it from his talon, which was the front foot of a Hippogriff as well as a Griffin. After the sword landed in the white snow; Aku no commanded Cyril to come along with her, all the while her sword's blade hovering dangerously close to his carotid artery.

"Since you are one of the traitorous Talking Beasts who had abandoned us, you vile Horse-Bird," growled the Tenome in a dangerously low voice, her empty hand's eye fixated on the Hippogriff as she had him at knifepoint and guided him away from Desdemona and Link, the former who managed to dodge the swing of the spike ball flail from the Hag carcass animated by the evil Nekomata, "YOU will be slain first by orders of Her Majesty the Queen of Narnia."

Aku no then continued to lead Cyril away at knifepoint while everyone else continued to viciously fight the rest of the evil cronies.

However, as the lead Tenome approached the rock face with the timid Hippogriff trembling at the tip of her sword's blade touching the skin of his neck exactly where his important neck vessels ran, a fragment of a gingerbread man's candy cane weapon flew in from Link as he mowed down more of the armed, demonic candy figures with his antlers and front hoof feet, kicking up some fragments of them and their weapons in the process, and struck Aku no painfully in the side of her eyeless head. A howl from the sudden pain erupted from the hand-eyed creature as she stumbled from the impact of the piece of solid rock candy to the head and as she stumbled and yelled in pain, her sword-armed hand rushing to the impacted area, Cyril, upon realising that he had been freed from knifepoint by Aku no, whirled round and landed a powerful kick with his Horse's hoof-like hind feet to the Tenome's eyeless face to knock her down. Then when Aku no was knocked over, Cyril rushed for his dropped sword and seized it, before glaring stormily at Aku no as she immediately rose to her feet and charged at the Hippogriff, her left hand-eye burning with bloodlust and her other hand, her right hand-eye closed tightly to protect the eyeball from damage (a Tenome's eyelids were super-tough and were sufficient enough to protect the Hag Yokai's eyes from damage when they handled things with their hands), clutching the hilt of her sword and the moment the pair met, they clashed wildly.

Aku no released a Haggish scream and lunged at the Hippogriff, her sword in her right hand raised and the moment she was near Cyril, she brought the sword's blade down in an attempt to slash him but the Hippogriff dodged, flapping his feathered wings once and striking the Tenome in the eyeless head. Cyril then whirled round and tried to slash Aku no with his sword but Aku no raised her sword in her right hand and blocked it, the two metallic blades releasing a clang into the stormy dark air. As the two glared daggers, Aku no glared at Cyril with her left hand-eye before forcing the Hippogriff heftily back. After this, Aku no immediately swiped her sword at Cyril and knocked his sword out of his talons (front feet), sending it flying towards the rock face, the Tenome having struck the Hippogriff's sword with such force. Cyril shot an alarmed gaze at his sword as it clattered onto a hard rock partially submerged in the snow and turned that gaze to Aku no as she lunged towards him, a Haggish grunt erupting from her mouth and her sword raised in an attack pose. Cyril galloped off with Aku no in hot pursuit towards the large rocks and leaped onto one of the rock faces, his wings flapping as he did. Aku no brought the sword down with a grunt and narrowly missed Cyuril's Horse's hind legs, the blade slicing off some of the hairs from the Hippogriff's Horse-like tail and slamming into the rock with a horrible sound, the blade sticking in there. As Aku no yanked the blade free of the rock, Cyril flap-galloped onto the next few rock faces and then leaped off a tree trunk, surging towards Aku no and seizing his sword the moment he landed in the snow. Aku no glared daggers with the Hippogriff with her left hand-eye and lunged towards him again, her sword in her right hand and attempted to slash the Eagle-Horse hybrid Talking Beast with more slashes of her sword. However, Cyril dodged the first two by ducking before raising his sword and blocking Aku no's sword with his, the two metal blades meeting with another metallic clanging. More metallic clangs erupted into the air as the Tenome and Hippogriff continued clashing their swords in an attempt to slice each other with their weapons. Around them, the others in Kushanku's group continued to savagely fight Aku no's comrades, Desdemona finally managing to cut down the Nekomata animating the Hag's corpse with a powerful claw swipe. The moment its animator was slain, the Hag corpse, released from the Nekomata's telekinetic control, lost the red-orange glow in its eyes and flopped down limply into the snow, the flail falling out of its grasp. Desdemona then seized the flail and turned her attention to the shapeshifted Nekomata in the form of a giant beast while Link continued to slaughter more of Krampus's toy minions with his antlers and hoof-like front feet, ripping apart some of them in the process and sending fluffs of their stuffing flying off with the wind and snow.

Cyril and Aku no continued wildly clashing swords until the moment the pair struggled against each other, Cyril managing to force Aku no's sword down to the ground and landing a vicious talon slash to the Tenome's eyeless head, knocking her back. However, Aku no, undeterred by the strike and despite the set of bleeding claw marks marking her eyeless face, lunged at Cyril and clashed swords wildly with him again. The pair continued to clash swords over and over again in rapid succession until Aku no twirled round much to Cyril's confusion and reached with her sword at the Hippogriff's face. The tip of the sword swooped dangerously close to Cyril's eyes, missing by inches. Then after this sword swipe, Aku no's other hand, the one she was using to watch her opponent, darted out and poked the Hippogriff in the face with a clawed finger, making the Hippogriff release an Eagle's cry and jerk his head back. Cyril and Aku no continued clashing swords until Aku no lunged forward and lashed her sword at the Hippogriff, catching him in the shoulder where his wing joined the body, opening a wound on that area. Cyril let loose a louder Eagle's cry of pain and flashed a gaze at the wound before resuming his attention to his foe who tittered at him, her mouth widened into a sadistic grimace and her left hand-eye gazing at the injury on her opponent's shoulder. Despite the agony erupting from his injury, Cyril boldly eyed his opponent and prepared his sword, rearing up on his Horse's hind feet as he did so. He then lunged at the Tenome and engaged her in another bout of vicious swordfighting. More sounds of metal blade striking metal blade erupted as the Tenome and Hippogriff tried to slash each other with their weapons. This continued until Aku no dropped down and did a powerful low sweep at the Hippogriff's Horse's feet. Cyril lost balance the moment Aku no's foot struck his Horse's hind feet and was forced back onto all fours and sent into a stumble. However, he recovered by rolling sideways on the snow, his wings tucked in so that they did not overstretch during the manoeuvre, and rising to his feet again. Aku no glared maliciously and sadistically at the Hippogriff as he puffed and panted from the demands of the fight.

"Hah, I bet you didn't know that Tenome could make EXCELLENT and FORMIDIBLE swordfighters, Eagle-face," crooned the Haggish Yokai mockingly as she advanced towards Cyril, his Eagle's face saturated with wrath and his Eagle's talons clutching his sword, poised to strike, "And even though our eyes are on our hands instead of our heads, WE STILL HORBOUR EXCELLENT COORDINATION IN OUR MOVEMENTS!"

And with that, she lunged at the Hippogriff and tried to bring down her sword held in her right hand to his neck but Cyril raised his sword and blocked it, the sound of metal striking metal erupting into the air. Aku no's hand-eye then approached the Hippogriff's face tauntingly.

"And it seems you are USELESS IN THAT AREA!" she continued, before forcing Cyril powerfully back. Cyril stumbled and landed on his side, the force of the fall knocking his sword out of his talons. Aku no then approached him and prepared her sword to deliver the deathblow. During this, Cyril flashed a glance at the rock face, an idea entering his head.

"And furthermore, Hippogriff," she continued, "I can anticipate and predict EACH and EVERY MOVE you MAKE, so there's NO point in tryin' to outsmart ME!"

Cyril, at this, glared maliciously at his opponent as she raised her sword in her right hand and rolled out of the way, sending the sword's blade crashing into the snow moments where his head had been. Then Cyril spread his wings despite the injury on his shoulder where Aku no had struck him earlier and lofted into flight. Then he seized Aku no by the neck in his talons before the Tenome could realise what he was planning to do. After this, the furious Hippogriff flew towards the rock face with Aku no in his talons.

"Oh yeah, try anticipating and predictin' THIS…" snarled the Hippogriff and with that, he powerfully slammed Aku no as hard as he could against the rock's surface. The impact was so hard that it was enough to inflict a lethal head injury on the Tenome. Cyril continued to glare at his foe as he held her by the throat with his talons mercilessly.

"…Rotting snail-eyed POTATO HEAD!" spat the Hippogriff, saliva flying into the Tenome's eyeless face and her hand-eyes laced with stun. Then Cyril removed the Tenome from the rock face and slammed her head as hard as he could onto the rock's surface several more times to ensure a guaranteed deathblow. After this, he released Aku no and she was sent crashing onto the rock at the foot of the larger erected rock, dead. Cyril glared at his fallen foe and flew away to help his allies deal with the other opponents.


	72. Chapter 71

**Chapter 71- the most brutal fights in Kushanku and company's lives part 2 and a heart-wrenching sacrifice**

The savage fight between Kushanku and Malefor's groups continued to rage with more Manticores, Triffid-Jaws, Wendigoes, Wolves and a number of other horrible creatures arriving to serve as backup to Malefor and company. Triffid-Jaws continuously lashed their venomous tongue-like vine at Kushanku and company only for them to dodge but Nyarth, with his amazing and agile jumping ability, began to leap between tree trunks and the rock face so agilely and fast that the ugly tri-lobe mouth plants became confounded. Then as soon as he had confused the Triffid Jaws enough, Nyarth surged forward and cut them down with his sword like a machete slicing through plant material. During this, an evil Nekomata telekinetically seized some sharp stones, its eyes glowing with an aqua blue light along with the aura enclosing the rocks, and flung them at Kushanku and company like daggers, the sharp tips aiming for them. However, Kushanku and company ducked and dived out of the way to avoid the arrow-like rocks as they sliced past them. Link narrowly dodged one of the rocks as it flew right over his head, the sharp tip slicing out some of his head hair as it passed between his ears and antlers while Dahlia deflected more of the rocks with her own antlers. After she had batted the last rock aside with her antlers like a tennis racquet, she turned to face a group of Humanoid-Woman-faced snakes as they slithered towards her and Link, malicious hisses filtering out of their mouths. Link backed away timidly as the Nuri-onna slithered towards him and the Jackalope but the latter glared maliciously at the Woman-faced Serpents with the most volcanic glare she had ever harboured in her life.

"You gotta ask yourselves one question, you ugly Snake-Hags," growled Dahlia as she boldly sauntered towards the Nuri-onna, "'Do I… FEEL… LUCKY?'"

She then stood right before the Woman-faced Snake Yokai as they reared up and bared their vicious fangs, a loud hiss erupting from them. However, Dalia stood her ground.

"Well, DO YA, YA BUNCH OF HAG-FACED SLOWWORMS!?" screeched the Jackalope at the top of her lungs. Then when one of the Nuri-onna lunged at her and attempted to bite her, Dahlia ducked and had the Hag-Serpent bite her antlers instead. After this, the Jackalope charged towards the other Nuri-onna and began to viciously maul them with her sharp antlers. Link looked on in astonishment and said nothing.

Nearby, Crystal and Nyarth clashed wildly with one of the Wolves, a female who was Romulus's mate while Romulus fought Satoshi, revenge boiling volcanically within the Wolf after what the Nekomata had done to Scar, Malefor's brother. When Romulus's mate swiped Nyarth's legs and knocked him down before turning to Crystal and tackling the young Parrot away, she sauntered towards the former, her teeth bared and her lips vibrating with the growls. Nyarth backed away as the Wolf approached him until he reached the foot of a tree but before the She-Wolf could longer at him and possibly maul him, a slender orange Cat with black spots appeared out of nowhere and tackled violently into the Wolf's side, sending her flying and crashing hard into another tree trunk. This leafless tree had icicles hanging from its branches and those spear-like ice lances shuddered as the shock of the She-Wolf's impact against the trunk shook them and the tree. The She-Wolf shot a poisonous look at Nyarth and Sandstorm but before she could get up, some of the icicles dropped from the branch directly above her. Romulus's mate only had time to look up at the falling ice spears and within moments, the icicles struck. Sandstorm and Nyarth flinched and looked away from the gruesome sight as the icicles impaled the Wolf and killed her instantly. The Wolf's death was witnessed just in time by another certain Wolf as he drove away Snowwing but the moment his eyes landed on his mate's dead body, a heart-wrenching howl of anguish erupted from his muzzle and he bounded over to inspect his dead mate's body. Nyarth and Sandstorm exchanged glances and backed away as Romulus broke down in tears, a howl saturated with sheer grief at his mate's death erupting into the snowy dark air. Behind Nyarth and Sandstorm, Molayne had stabbed a Wolf through the stomach with a sword as it leaped at him in an attempt to pounce onto him and bite him. Nyarth and Sandstorm continued to back away as they watched Romulus grieve over his deceased mate but before they could inch away further, they were met with the most VOLCANIC, VENGEFUL glare from the Wolf as he eyed his mate's killers. The Cheetah and Nekomata let loose terrified cries as Romulus, an ENRAGED growl exploding from his muzzle, bolted after them.

Kushanku clashed viciously with Malefor, his large sword striking the Manticore's Scorpion's tail as the Manticore attempted to stab Kushanku and envenomate him. Malefor then whirled round and wing-slapped Kushanku with a Bat's wing, knocking them Nekomata down and knocking his sword out of his paws. As Kushanku scrabbled to his feet, Malefor sauntered towards him like a Mountain Lion towards its downed prey, a menacing grimace stretching his fanged mouth across the width of his face.

"You know, you look so much like your father when he tried to protect his precious little mate and her four little kits from our raid on their secret den when Lightningflash divulged its location to us and Her Majesty," taunted Malefor sadistically especially as Kushanku flinched at the mentioning of his late father Frosty, "An' I'm surprised that you've managed to survive that fateful night with your two brothers and only sister. But it seems that your luck is about to run out tonight as I am gonna SLAY you and your three SIBLINGS like how I did your BIOLOGICAL PARENTS."

Kushanku rose to his feet and prepared his large sword, its tip aiming threateningly at the Manticore's face. However, Malefor was totally unfazed by the threat of the sword's sharp tip hovering dangerously close to his forehead.

"I may have been a vulnerable and helpless little kit back then along with Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira, fang-faced brute," retorted Kushanku aggressively, "But I am not a vulnerable and helpless little KIT ANYMORE!"

And with that, he flared his eyes red-orange as he allowed fury mode to take him over and lunged at Malefor and attempted to strike the Manticore with his large sword only for Malefor to dodge and retaliate with a paw swipe, sending Kushanku flying and crashing into the snow again. However, he rolled to his feet and glared daggers with his foe and began to circle with him. Growls emanated from Malefor's gritted mouth and made his lips vibrate while the red-eyed Kushanku released a hiss through his teeth. Then after a few more seconds of circling, Kushanku lunged at Malefor once again and tried to strike him with is sword only for Malefor to dodge and send the sword slamming into the snow. Then Malefor slammed his front paws onto the Nekomata's head and back and proceeded to deliver the deathblow in the form of a bite to the neck but Kushanku twisted his tails and powerfully slapped them in Malefor's face, making him jerk his head back and release him. Kushanku rose to his feet and, with an extremely LOUD Cat screech, raised a paw, flared its claws and scored them right over Malefor's face, opening a few gashes. Malefor retaliated by swiping Kushanku across the face and sent him flying towards a tree trunk but Kushanku landed before it, rolled to his feet once again, twisted his tails and took off into the air, before rocketing towards Malefor. After dodging a massive pounce from the Manticore, Kushanku seized his sword and tried to slash Malefor with it but the Manticore dodged, sending Kushanku's seemingly cumbersome sword flying toward a tree trunk, penetrating it and lodging in its wood. Malefor glared sadistically and mockingly at Kushanku as he struggled to free the blade.

"Hah, looks like you've been disarmed, you puny fork-tailed Housecat," gloated the Manticore triumphantly, "There's NO WAY you're gonna dislodge that heavy thing from the tree trunk."

And with that he let loose a cackle as he watched Kushanku struggle to dislodge the sword from the tree's bark. However, the Nekomata soon remembered that the sword was designed to be _two_ swords in one and that the larger blade was in fact a scabbard for a smaller, thinner one. Flashing a glare at the gloating Manticore as he continued to cackle mockingly at his attempts to free his sword, Kushanku twisted the hilt of the sword until he heard a click. He then pulled the smaller sword out of its larger counterpart and before Malefor could predict what was happening, the smaller blade slashed right over the Manticore's left shoulder, opening a wound and making the chimeric Magical Beast release a roar of agony and surprise. Kushanku glared maliciously at the Malefor as he continued to wear that flabbergasted face.

"Looks like the joke's on YOU, Bear-face," yelled the Nekomata, "You've fallen for this tricky sword bait, trap and cage! This sword is in fact TWO swords in one!"

However, Malefor snapped from his surprise at the sword within a sword to pure outrage and lunged at Kushanku as the Nekomata lunged forward with his small sword but as the pair met, Kushanku plunged his sword's blade right through the wicked Beast's chest, inflicting the fatal blow. A scream of pure agony exploded from Malefor's mouth as Kushanku gripped the sword with a twisted face of effort. However, the Menticore's Scorpion's tail stinger snapped like a whip at the Nekomata and struck him in the left shoulder, the same one on which the paw grasping the smaller sword was joined, prompting Kushanku to withdraw his sword from Malefor's chest. One of Kushanku's paws flew to his injured and bleeding shoulder and he gritted his teeth as agony ripped through that area as envenomation from Malefor's stinger took hold. Malefor, however, staggered backwards on his hind legs, his front Lion's paws grasping his fatal wound before he finally lost balance and toppled backwards like a mighty tree, crashing hard into the body of his brother Scar where he also lay there, dead.

Kushanku, his right paw grasping his stung left shoulder, looked on in astonishment as his brain took time to register that he had slain his parents' main murderer. However, a familiar scream nearby pulled him back to reality and when he turned and saw that a Wendigo had seized Alexandrite by the neck and had begun to throttle to try and break her neck to kill her, horror tore through the Nekomata and his eyes flashed red-orange once again. Ignoring the agony in his shoulder from Malefor's sting attack on him and snapping his red-eyed gaze to the large sword-scabbard lodged in the tree trunk, Kushanku bolted for the tree trunk and yanked his large sword from the trunk. Then with both swords in his paws, he lunged at the Wendigo and leaped right onto its back, causing the Wendigo to drop Alexandrite and thrash wildly to dislodge Kushanku from its back. However, Kushanku began to fiercely slash the monstrous Goat-like Beast with his swords while Alexandrite hurried to safety. From there, she watched on in astonishment as Kushanku, his eyes red-orange from fury mode, prepared to slay the creature.

"Keep your claws…" snarled Kushanku as he then plunged his smaller sword into the Wendigo's back to inflict the deathblow, "OFF MY ALEXANDRITE, you SKELETAL BRUTE!"

The Wendigo froze there, rigid from the deathblow vial impalement through the back, but as Kushanku then withdrew his smaller sword and jumped off its back, the Wendigo fell forward and slammed facedown into the snow, dead. Kushanku then sheathed the smaller sword into its larger counterpart, allowed his fury mode to dissipate resulting in his eyes resuming their normal colour and then staggered over to Alexandrite, his right paw clutching his wounded left shoulder where Malefor had struck him. Around him and Alexandrite, Nyarth and the others continued to fight more of Jadis and Krampus's cronies with Satoshi fatally wounding a creature called a Futakuchi-onna, a Woman-like creature with a pair of jaws on its head in addition to the ones on its face, as she tried to snap her head-jaws at Satoshi and Paddy only for Satoshi to run her through the chest with his sword, his eyes flashing red-orange. As Kushanku fell to his knees with his face twisted in agony and his right paw grasping his left shoulder, Alexandrite immediately reached into her medical potion kit to search for her fire-flower cordial.

"Did you know that a Manticore's sting is _extremely_ painful, debilitating and fatal?" said the Nekomata as soon as she found her bottle of the red juice, uncapped it and rushed over to Kushanku's side, "It's a wonder you have managed to slay my would be killer."

She then tipped the bottle and allowed one drop of the cordial to drip from its container's lip and onto the injury on Kushanku's shoulder where Malefor's tail stinger had made contact and struck. The moment the drip of the potion splashed onto the wound, the skin closed and the wound was sealed while any venom that had entered Kushanku's system was neutralised, pulling Kushanku from the brink of heading down the slow and EXTREMELY painful road to death on which a Manticore's sting always sent its victim.

However, the moment Alexandrite had applied her fire-flower cordial to her friend's shoulder injury, and while Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne continued to viciously fight off Jadis's cronies and those of Krampus, an explosion of pure white fire-lightning erupted and struck a tree, almost hitting Crystal and Desdemona while they were fighting another Futakuchi-onna, her jaws having clamped onto Crystal's bow only to release it from the surprise of the sudden appearance of the fire-lightning. Crystal and Desdemona also let loose startled screeches of surprise when they saw the fire-lightning and flapped to one side. The others including Alexandrite and Kushanku also snapped surprised gazes in the direction of the fire-lightning's source. Kushanku then identified the fire-lightning for he had seen Gandalf and some other Kitsune cast this energy blast before.

"Was that foxfire?" he asked Alexandrite. Before Alexandrite could answer, and while Sandstorm was walking over to investigate what had sent the foxfire blast that had nearly struck Desdemona and Crystal, the sound of hooves pounding snow and the slicing of metal blades on the same stuff erupted and within seconds, a sleigh pulled by some reindeer exploded from the leafless trees, heading directly towards the Cheetah cub. At this, Cyril rushed in and tackled Sandstorm out of the way in time just as the sleigh and reindeer slammed onto the snow, exactly where Sandstorm had been, before swerving round and stopping. Krampus and Jadis's cronies, the moment they spotted the sleigh and reindeer which were white with glistening silvery decorations on them, stopped fighting Kushanku's group and retreated towards their mistress while she, together with a beautiful but frightening nine-tailed Fox with pure white fur and a fan of shining white tails, rose out of the sleigh and climbed down it. Kushanku, at this, took up a defensive stance while Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne regrouped and turned to face the maniacal tyrant as she, her face saturated with the most acidic and caustic mix of outrage, rancour, bloodlust and other highly venomous things, landed in the snow and strode over to them to confront them, the white nine-tailed Nogitsune, Amanita, her face a carbon copy of Jadis's glare, by her side. Then as the pair stood before Kushanku and his group with the cronies behind them, Jadis glared maliciously at the little group and pointed her sceptre-like wand at them. She was still missing her icicle crown but she planned to forge another one to replace the one Kushanku had destroyed later.

Jadis's face was restored to its usual appearance much to Kushanku's surprise for he thought he had slashed her across the face while Amanita also looked unmarked. However, Kushanku and company might not have noticed that aside from their potency in sorcery such as illusion casting and in Jadis's case, telepathic assault, both Jadis and Amanita had the ability to heal their injuries quickly without the need for fire-flower cordial and the pair had utilised this ability to cure themselves of Kushanku's claw marks on the face and the defected Kamaitachi's claw marks on her body respectively. However, Kushanku and company pushed aside the astonishment at how Jadis and Amanita had healed themselves of their wounds and glare back at the Witch and phony nine-tailed Fox. Around Jadis, some very ugly Horrors appeared. They were Succubi and Incubi, a subspecies of Bat-Harpy that had the abilities of a Spectre. The Succubi was the female of the species and the Incubi were the male, and both sexes of the Spectre Bat-Harpies were INCREDIBLY immoral and lecherous like the Satyrs on Jadis's (and theirs by extension) side, and those Spectre Bat-Harpies were wearing the same bloodlust-saturated deadeye glares as their allies as they leered at Kushanku's group. Then as Kushanku's eyes met with Jadis's, the latter began to speak in her bratty, volcanic voice.

"You have REALLY CROSSED THE LINE, you FOURTEEN, especially YOU, you mangy FORK-TAILED BRAT!" snarled the Witch and with that, she pointed her sceptre-wand with terrifying accuracy at Kushanku who flinched somewhat for he knew that that wand was capable of. However, he pushed aside the nervousness at Jadis's weapon and stood his ground, the other thirteen standing behind him and also glaring at the Witch maliciously and defensively. Jadis continued.

"YOU don't DESERVE TO LIVE after WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME BACK THERE!" bellowed the Witch as Kushanku began to tremble with rage. Then Amanita came in, her subzero-temperature glare on Kushanku and his group. When they saw the pure-white nine-tailed Nogitsune, the fourteen flinched, wary of the Fox's immense power. However, because Amanita was only a fraction of her ancestors Gandalf and Kyukon's age, she was not as powerful as that couple but Kushanku and company did not know it yet. But not only was Amanita's rushed transformation into a nine-tailed Fox at the Witch's hands intimidating to Kushanku and company. Amanita's malicious glare also reminded them of another Nogitsune who had caused them so much trouble back at Gandalf's (now-destroyed) base.

"How DARE you scratch OUR GODDESS of the HIGHLANDS ACROSS THE FACE, you FELINE FERRET!" snarled Amanita right at Kushanku as he glared back at her, "HOW DARE YOU TREAT HER WITH SUCH DISRESPECT."

"And because of that, you are to be PUNISHED…" said one of the Succubi in a high-pitched, raucous voice, "by DEATH in the most AGONISING WAY!"

"As for your little FRIENDS, including your two brothers and SISTER and also your adopted Cheetah brother," continued Jadis and with that, she moved the tip of her wand and aimed it at Akira, Nyarth, Satoshi and Sandstorm just behind Kushanku who flinched, "I'M gonna CAPTURE THEM, TAKE THWEM BACK TO MY CASTLE and either BUTCHER THEM FOR MEAT or MAKE THEM INTO SLAVES either for my palace or as playmates for my Satyrs and Incubi and Succubi."

This sent immense revulsion tearing through Kushanku's group and Crystal seized an arrow, nocked it into her bow and aimed it at the dark coloured Bat-Harpies. Kushanku, however, hardened his glare of fury, especially as sinister and lustful titters escaped the Incubi and Succubi.

"Aslan FORBID IT, you FERAL SNOW ANIMAL!" the Nekomata snarled and with that, he protectively spread his paws across his thirteen friends and stood his ground. Revulsion tore through Jadis and company and one of the Futakuchi-onna, her head-jaws snapping furiously, rushed off to throw up somewhere. This individual ESPECIALLY DETESTED the name of Aslan with a CAUSTIC passion.

"The 'A' word, You Majesty," said Amanita in outrage, "He SAID THE BLASPHEMOUS 'A' WORD!"

Jadis was about to issue a command to her cronies and also those of Krampus to launch into an attack charge at Kushanku to capture them when suddenly, a howl erupted nearby, stopping everyone in their tracks and prompting them to shoot confused gazes this way and that.

"Now WHAT!?" snarled Jadis bitterly, "Just as when we were about to capture these _revolting_ little creatures as well!"

Amanita also shot wary glances this way and that. Kushanku and company did the same. However, recognition was welling within some of them, especially as another howl erupted, this time louder as the source was closer.

"That sounds like…" said Snowwing.

"A Wolf?" asked Dahlia. However, Molayne shook his head in disagreement, especially as another howl exploded.

"That's _definitely_ not a Wolf…" said the Dog as recognition of the howl's owner's species took hold. Jadis then turned her attention back to Kushanku and company, prompting the fourteen to prepare for action but before the Witch could bark a command at her cronies to attack the group and bind them, the pounding of feet on snow began and within moments, and to the astonishment of Kushanku and company, a shining ivory and metallic yellow Fox with a fan of nine tails and a pair of eyes blazing orange from fury exploded from the wall of leafless trees, launched himself into the air like a pouncing Cat and flew towards Jadis, a Fox howl of pure rage exploding from his mouth. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne all drew in astonished gasps as the newcomer then plunged onto Jadis and knocked her clean over and away from the little group.

"MR GANDALF!?" shouted all fourteen of them at the same time when they saw the ivory and metallic yellow Fox with a set of tails spread out like a Peacock's train. The Kitsune, which was indeed Gandalf then sent Jadis careening towards a tree trunk where he deliberately had her head slam hard against the bark. The Witch, stunned from the impact of her head to the hard surface of the trunk, then slumped to the foot of the tree, dazed. As soon as he had the Witch collapsed onto the snow and stunned, the nine-tailed Fox snapped his orange-eyed glare at the cronies of Jadis as they prepared to attack the newcomer. Amanita, however, had dived into hiding to avoid being seen by the patriarch of the Kitsune species.

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne all dived behind a leafless bush as Gandalf began to unleash his fury on Jadis's cronies as they rushed to attack him. The fourteen watched on as the centuries-old Kitsune retaliated full force against the cronies with his fighting skills and powers he had developed over more than 900 years since his transformation from a Regular Fox by Aslan along with Kyukon shortly after Narnia's creation. Some of the Wolves and Manticores were flung backwards in an aqua blue aura enclosing them as Gandalf, his eyes also flashing aqua blue, telekinetically flung these foes towards the tree trunks and the large rock face and slammed them hard into the hard surfaces. Romulus was flung telekinetically towards a tree branch when he tried pouncing onto Gandalf from behind only to be seized in the Kitsune's mental grasp. Kushanku and company flinched harshly when Gandalf psychokinetically and powerfully slammed the Wolf's neck against the outstretched arm. The force of the impact was so powerful that Romulus's neck was snapped and the Wolf was instantly killed. The Wolf's body then flopped limply onto the snow, lifeless. More of Jadis's cronies were telekinetically flung against the trees and rock faces where they were either stunned or killed on impact. A Futakuchi-onna was flung against a rock face by Gandalf's telekinesis where she suffered a broken arm. Then Gandalf began to blast a few more of the cronies with his foxfire. Screams of terror erupted from Jadis's cronies as they fled getting fatally charred by Gandalf's fire-lighting which flowed in the form of yellow plasmatic energy beams from the Kitsune's paws at them, fatally incinerating any of them into blackened carcasses on contact. One of a pair of Wolves, who were Nanu's parents, was caught in a blast of Gandalf's foxfire and cooked instantly into a blackened Wolf corpse. Several evil Nekomata were also incinerated. Gandalf, not wanting to use his foxfire too much for it tired him out if he used it excessively, then resorted to using another power; fire breath. He blasted blue fire from his mouth at some of Krampus's toy minions including some pseudo-Cherub dolls and charged them black as well, and the gingerbread men were turned to blackened sugar lumps on contact. One gingerbread man tried to plunge its candy cane spear into Gandalf's back from above but the nine-tailed Fox snapped his gaze at the candy figure and charred it with his blue fire. Kushanku and company looked on in astonishment.

"I didn't know Mr Gandalf could breathe fire," said Alexandrite in awe. She flinched as a Manticore, one of the now-dead Scar's minions ran past, its body engulfed in blue flames from Gandalf's fire breath. The creature was emitting screams of agony and was desperately trying to extinguish the fire consuming it by rolling around in the snow. Some Vampires and Wendigoes were also incinerated by Gandalf's blue fire. Then after using his fire, Gandalf began to physically attack more of Jadis's minions by using his tails, jaws and paws skilfully. One Black Dwarf was whacked hard in the face by a swing of Gandalf's tails and flung against a tree trunk where he slammed into it and slid to the foot of the tree and a Wendigo was kicked square in the face by a bolting of Gandalf's back feet, and Gandalf bit down hard on the hoof of an attacking Carcasus, forcing the skeletal Pegasus to back away, injured. Then Gandalf launched into a speedy run and began to charge around some more of the creatures, among them a few more Wolves, Carcusi, Tenome, Incubi, Succubi, Vampires and Manticores. Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne watched on from behind their bush as Gandalf rushed around the group, faster, and faster, until he moved so fast that he resembled an ivory and metallic yellow comet. The cronies tried to follow the Kitsune's speedy movement but because Gandalf was moving so fast, they were beginning to get extremely dizzy.

"I heard Mr Gandalf had used that ability to confound even that Father Christmas-impersonating beast Krampus and attack him at some point before we met him," said Akria as she watched in amazement as Gandalf continued whizzing around the cronies. Then as soon as the cronies were severely dazed, Gandalf suddenly pulled out of his speedy dash, lunged at them and savagely mauled them. Kushanku and company turned their faces away to avoid watching the gruesome scene, especially as Gandalf viciously mauled a Nekomata and slayed it. The remaining cronies, terrified at the Kitsune's immense power and fighting capabilities, retreated to Jadis as she shook off her dizziness from the impact of her head against the tree trunk. She rose to her feet and glared maliciously at Gandalf as he brutally killed a Vampire by snapping its neck with his jaws like a Jaguar dispatching its prey. Amanita peered out from behind a tree and flinched when she watched the nine-tailed Fox kill the Vampire and dropped its dead body onto the snow. Not wanting to be confronted by the truly matured Kitsune and his immense power, the nine-tailed Nogitsune turned tail and fled, but not before Gandalf glimpsed her white nine tails as they thrashed at the air during her escape. The moment the Kitsune spotted the Nogitsune and her nine tails, immense grief swept through him but he pushed those thoughts aside and turned to face Jadis once again.

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne all crept out of their hiding place and approached Gandalf as he fanned his tails at the Witch as the huge Humanoid approached him, an icy smirk marking her face.

"Well, well, if it ain't that smarty-tails Gandalf," crooned the Witch mockingly as she sauntered like a false and evil Snow Lioness towards the Kitsune, "Not come to try and fight me, eh? You know I'm totally immune to your telekinesis, foxfire, fire breath and speed attacks, like how one of your sons who had also been a nine-tailed Fox had tried to attack me only for me to overpower him and turn him to stone."

Gandalf bared his teeth and began to viciously and threateningly growl at Jadis when his onyx eyes which were flashing orange, caught-sighted some familiar forms. However, he identified them without turning his head their way to look straight at them.

"Kushanku, folks," said the Kitsune seriously, "get outa here right NOW while I hold her off."

"But Mr Gandalf," protested Satoshi, "You know you'll not stand a chance against that Devil Woman!"

"Think of the demise of one of your nine-tailed sons when he tried taking her on!" put in Kushanku. Gandalf, however, was aware that he would not be able to stand a chance against the Witch but he knew he had to hold her off for Kushanku and company to get to safety. The Witch then prepared her wand, her face morphing from a taunting look to a look of acidic outrage and pure rancour. Just then some aqua blue auras appeared around some of Kushanku and company and before they knew it, they were levitated off the ground. Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira were also levitated off the ground but not by a telekinetic grasp, but from the lifting by beings made purely of air. Kushanku, as he levitated in an aqua blue aura, shot confused glances this way and that until his eyes landed on a Sphinx as she hovered in the air, her eyes glowing blue. Ptériga, who had Cedrus, Thundersparx and Trotterhoof riding on her back, had come to pick up Kushanku and company and carry them to safety while a couple of Sylphs, beings of the air, had seized Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira to carry to safety. As they were lifted towards Ptériga and company, the Sylphs carrying Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira, Kushanku gazed back at Gandalf as he continued to confront Jadis.

The Kitsune first blocked Jadis's attempt to telepathically assault him like she had done to Thundersparx by flashing his eyes white just as she flashed hers white in an attempt to project her HIGHLY immoral thoughts into Gandalf's mind. When Jadis saw that Gandalf was blocking her psychic attack, she aborted her mental attack and prepared her wand.

"Gandalf, PLEASE, come with us!" cried Kushanku desperately as Thundersparx took him onto Ptériga's back the moment the Sphinx had telekinetically lifted him and the others them close to her while the two Sylphs kept a hold on Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira as they also tearfully watched Gandalf as he continued to confront Jadis. Gandalf flashed a glance at the Sphinx and the others.

"Take Kushanku and the others to safety," commanded the Kitsune, "While I keep this Devil Woman at bay."

"Please come with us, Gandalf!" cried Kushanku again, his eyes beginning to stream tears. Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm and Nyarth also began to weep as Gandalf continued to glare at Jadis.

"You certainly are a foolish Fox despite being over 900 years old, aren't ya, Kitsune?" crooned the Witch as she prepared her wand, before her voice tone faded to one of threat, which she uttered gutturally, "Now I'm gonna give you to the count of three to either get your Kitsune tails outa my sight OR face my fury! One…"

"Look, you NEED to continue your journey, Kushanku, folks," barked Gandalf in a more desperate voice, knowing Jadis's attack was imminent.

"Two," said Jadis.

"My journey ends here but yours goes on," continued Gandalf and with that, he turned to face Jadis. Kushanku and a few others began to weep all the more. Then when 'Three' escaped Jadis's mouth, the Witch twirled her wand and shot it forward at Gandalf, casting her petrification spell at the nine-tailed Kitsune, the white-blue energy shooting out of her icicle-like wand's tip. Gandalf countered by thrusting his paws forward and sending a golden yellow stream of plasmatic foxfire from them at Jadis. The two forces of energy clashed in the middle of the foes and formed a two-layered, vertical pancake in the middle.

Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm, Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne watched on as Gandalf, his eyes glowing yellow from his foxfire use, strained as hard as he could to keep the energy blast of Jadis's petrification spell away from him with his foxfire while Jadis was straining to push her spell towards Gandalf. The result was a push-of-war between the Witch and the nine-tailed Kitsune and the two began to struggle to push the pancake against each other with Jadis trying to force it towards Gandalf and vice versa, resulting in the energy pancake moving back and forth. But because excessive use of foxfire was a Kitsune's Achilles heel, even for a 900-plus-year-old, fully matured one like Gandalf and Kyukon, Gandalf was fighting a losing battle which he had anticipated, but he still exerted all the energy he had in fighting against Jadis's petrification spell. Then within moments, the pancake was beginning to move back in the Kitsune's direction as Jadis was beginning to overpower him, and as foxfire usage was beginning to cause fatigue to well within Gandalf. Gandalf continued to struggle harder and harder despite the pancake approaching him as Jadis forced it towards him. His eyes were screwed shut and his teeth were gritted, and he was grunting fiercely with effort as he exerted every ounce of strength he could muster to keep the pancake from him but this was becoming more and more difficult as the foxfire usage was sapping him of that strength. Kushanku and company continued to watch from above.

"He's starting to get tired," said Dahlia worriedly. The group watched on in horror as Jadis continued to force the bi-layered pancake of her spell and Gandalf's foxfire back towards the weakening Kitsune. Gandalf continued to expel every last ounce of his strength using his foxfire to counter Jadis's petrification spell but eventually, his strength gave out and the pancake was forced back against him. An explosion erupted and Gandalf was propelled towards the large rock face where he crashed hard against the stony surface. Although Kitsune, especially older ones such as Gandalf, had an acceleratory healing factor and thus the ability to heal their injuries as quick as the properties of fire-flower cordial, and so could recover from wounds quite quickly, over-exhaustion from overuse of foxfire prevented the Kitsune from using this ability and because of this; Gandalf was unable to recover from his overuse of foxfire and as a result, he was now extremely vulnerable.

The Witch, after overpowering the Kitsune, then strode towards the downed and severely exhausted Gandalf as he struggled to rise to his feet, his front legs shaking under the weight of his body and giving away, causing the Kitsune's upper body to collapse onto the floor. Then as the Witch's cronies and Kushanku's group watched on, the Witch stopped before Gandalf and twirled her wand-sceptre elegantly. Then before Gandalf could realise what was happening, he was run through the chest by the Witch's sceptre, making him go rigid as he stiffened in agony from the fatal blow.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Kushanku and a number of others in tears as they watched the Witch fatally impale Gandalf with her wand which can sometimes be used like a spear besides a magic casting tool. Gandalf then flashed Kushanku and company one last pleading gaze as his life ebbed away, and that gaze read, "Get out of here, NOW! Get to Archenland and stay there until the Aslan brings the Dawn of Spring."

Kushanku began to scream hysterically as he and the others including Cedrus, Ptériga, Thundersparx and Trotterhoof and the two Sylphs as they held Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira watched on as Gandalf finally breathed his last and became still as the Witch withdrew her sword-like wand, its icy tip running and dripping with the Kitsune's blood. Then Ptériga felt it was time to flee.

"Hang on, my riders," commanded the Sphinx and with that, she prepared to launch into a rapid flight to flee while the two Sylphs prepared to carry the other three who were also in hysterics for Gandalf, after her. However, Kushanku, the immense grief at the loss of Gandalf still gripping him, did not want to leave the Witch to take Gandalf's corpse as a trophy. Alexandrite, despite the immense anguish over Gandalf's death at the hands of Jadis also boiling within her, began to try and snap him out of it.

"Come on, Kushanku," said she as her eyes sent rivers of tears down her cheeks, "We need to leave for Archenland as Mr Gandalf commanded. Mr Gandalf's gone."

Kushanku continued to sob and wail and refuse to comply as Ptériga began to leave. Then fury mode exploded within the Nekomata and his eyes flashed red-orange once again. His fur puffed out and the insatiable urge to launch himself off of Ptériga's back to fly at the Witch and savagely attack her in revenge for Gandalf's death brutally took hold.

"I DO NOT WANNA LEAVE FOR ARCHENLAND!" he bellowed, his red eyes still oozing tears, "I WANNA KILL THAT SNOW MAGGOT!"

And with that, and to the alarm of Trotterhoof and company, Kushanku twisted his tails and took off from Ptériga's back, much to the Sphinx's alarm. At this, she stopped her course and turned round.

"Kushanku, GET BACK HERE!" she bellowed.

"We MUST LEAVE FOR ARCHENLAND!" put in Cedrus as he held on to Nyarth to prevent him from falling off Ptériga's back.

"Yes, just as Gandalf commanded us to," added Thundersparx. However, Kushanku did not hear them and continued flying in the direction of the Witch, his eyes still flaring red-orange. Then one of the Sylphs handed Akira to Ptériga who took hold of the sister of the enraged Nekomata in her paws and tore after Kushanku like a gust of wind.

Kushanku continued flying in the direction of the Witch when he felt hands made of pure air seize him by the nape and spinning forked tail. At this, the young Nekomata exploded into a violent paddy.

"LET ME GO!" he screamed, "I WANNA FLAY THAT SNOW SERPENT!"

"Look, that Snow Beast is TOO DANGEROUS and TOO POWERFUL for you to take on, young Nekomata," demanded the Sylph as she struggled to restrain the writhing and fury mode-fuelled Kushanku, "NOW SNAP OUT OF IT AND LET'S LEAVE FOR ARCHENLAND RIGHT NOW!"

Kushanku; his red-orange eyes still oozing a huge river of tears down his cheeks, continued struggling and writhing in the Sylph's grasp in an attempt to free himself and throw himself at the Witch to savagely claw her. Then an aqua blue aura enclosed the writhing Nekomata and the Sylph and they were pulled towards Ptériga who was using her telekinesis based on her glowing blue eyes to return Kushanku to the others. Kushanku continued flailing, wailing and screaming like a Nekomata possessed until he was finally back in the safety of the Sphinx's reach. This done, Cedrus seized the Nekomata and pulled him into a tight hug, along with Thundersparx, Nyarth and several others on Ptériga's back as the Sphinx then launched into a flight with the two Sylphs, one of them still carrying Satoshi and Sandstorm. The trio was desperate to put some distance between themselves and the Witch as well as get to Archenland with the other evacuees. However, they had someone in mind that they want Kushanku and the others to see first.

As the two Sylphs and Ptériga continued to fly away, Kushanku sobbed hard into the weeping Cedrus's shoulder while Alexandrite came in and nuzzled against his face, a massive stream of tears running down her cheeks. Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Nyarth, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne also joined in the hug along with Satoshi and Sandstorm as the pair were carried to them by the Sylph. The other Sylph also took Akira from Ptériga's front paws to allow her to join in the hug as well, their eyes also sending a stream of tears of anguish and grief from Gandalf's demise down their cheeks as well. This comforting group hug from his friends and siblings was enough to snap Kushanku out of his fury mode and return his eyes to their usual colour as he continued to break down. As she flew along and carried the group on her back, Ptériga also wept. She had known Gandalf since the beginning of the Eternal Winter and the Witch's reign, along with Kyukon, and had been one of the Kitsune couple's closest friends, and the two Sylphs were also grieving for Gandalf as well. However, the grieving for the Kitsune who had been forced to sacrifice his life to save Kushanku and the others, as well as the other migrating Narnians, would have to wait as Ptériga knew she had to get Kushanku and the others to safety as soon as possible.

Back in the area where Kushanku and company had had their fiercest battle in their lives, the Witch, her wand still soaked with Gandalf's blood, glared without a sliver of remorse at Gandalf's now-lifeless body. As she did that, her cronies gathered around her, among them Pazuzu, the leader of the Shadows. As they did that, many of the cronies also gathered around their fallen comrades, among them Aku no the Tenome who had had her neck broken by Cyril when he slammed her several times against the rock face, much to the other Tenome's anguish; Romulus and his mate much to the grief of the Wolf pack; and Scar and Malefor the Manticores who had been slain by Satoshi and Kushanku respectively, much to the grief of the Manticore pack. Ganondorf the Lizard-Man leader, however, was still alive but he was in a right state. Padparadchsa's savage attack on him had left him in a bloody and scratched mess, and he was wincing from the pains of his wounds as he was being tended to by his Lizard-Men underlings. A small group of Bonehead Crawlers, Xenojaws, Slender-Men and the Giants on Jadis's side then began to start to pick up the bodies of the fallen cronies to take back to Jadis's palace for burial. While the skull-like headed crawlers and company did that, Amanita approached Jadis as she continued to glare at Gandalf's dead body, two Black Dwarves, a Carcasus, and an Incubus (singular of Incubi, the male Spectre-Bat-Harpies) flanking her while some Fairyflies buzzed just above the Nogitsune.

"Your Majesty," said Amanita, "What are you intending to do to that nine-tailed Fox?"

Jadis stood up and thought for a while as she continued to glare at Gandalf's deceased body. The nine-tailed Fox's nine tails lay sprawled out like beautiful snakes of ivory and metallic yellow silk behind the Fox's rump, and Jadis's eyes were fixed on them.

"Well, I was gonna make this nine-tailed Fox a part of my collection of statues," said the Witch at last, "but because I have been forced to kill him when he wouldn't behave, I'm afraid that is out of the question. However…" a devilish smirk formed on the Witch's bone-white face as an idea formed into her beyond-corrupted, psychotic mind, "I have something else planned for this Fox."

Amanita and her friends gazed at the Witch as she turned to a Bonehead-Crawler as it carried Malefor's carcass to a Slender-Man to carry.

"Zugaikotsu," called the giant Humanoid. At this, the Bonehead-Crawler with this name pulled himself along with his arms, the only pair of limbs all Bonehead-Crawlers had for they did not have legs, and approached the Witch, prostrating himself the instant he was before her before rising to face his mistress.

"Take this Kitsune's body with us," commanded the Witch, "I'm gonna make use of his nine tails while the rest of his body will be processed into meat in order for us to celebrate our triumph in defeating the patriarch of the Kitsune species."

Zugaikotsu nodded obediently and without question, he seized Gandalf's body and whisked it away. After the Bonehead-Crawler l;eft with Gandalf's carcass in tow, Amanita turned to the Witch.

"Well, what now, Your Majesty?" the nine-tailed Nogitsune asked, "Now that those migrators have gone, what are we gonna do?"

"Let's return to my palace and we'll discuss it there," replied the Witch nonchalantly, "Furthermore, I could do with synthesising a new crown to replace the one that fork-tailed Feline Rat destroyed." She then turned to Amanita.

"Gather everyone else and command them that we're returning to my castle," she ordered. Amanita nodded in obedience and left to carry out the command. The Witch gazed in the direction of Kushanku and company's departure one last time before finally turning and leaving after her comrades as soon as they had gathered every last body of their fallen comrades including the torn and trampled remains of Krampus's toy minions who had been destroyed by Kushanku's group during the battle.


	73. Chapter 72

**Chapter 72- aftermath and the journey continues**

The rest of the evacuees, or those that had managed to survive Jadis, Krampus and their minions' savage attack on them when they disobeyed Aslan's guidance to go down the foggy path that resulted in quite a number of victims getting slain or turned to stone in the process continued to walk quickly down the foggy path with Aslan guiding them with his golden Lion fireball that shone brightly ahead of them in the fog. Kids and small creatures such as the metallivorous (metal-eating) Alicanto Birds kept close to the others to avoid separation and getting lost in the thick fog while pregnant mothers were carried by the stronger and larger creatures such as the Centaurs and Unicorns. The aquatic creatures such as the Merfolk, Ichthyocentaurs and Dolphins were pushed in their tanks though a few of them had sustained damage in the form of large cracks in their sturdy glass, or glass-like equivalent to our world's glass, from the attacks of Jadis and company, and the lamps in which the Pyros, among them Emberflame, were still intact except for a couple of them which had been smashed during Jadis and company's attack, resulting in the Pyros within them being released and exposed to the lethal frigid air. Because they had been unable to seek safety of another lamp, the two Pyros eventually fizzled out and passed away. The darkness and the blizzard brought upon them by Krampus had been lifted and it was now daylight with a light snowfall, but that natural daylight was fading as night, the natural night that is, was fast approaching, the Narnian sun approaching its setting point in the Eastern horizon which was actually also the edge of the Narnian disc for Narnia was a flat, disc world as opposed to a sphere like earth.

As the evacuees continued along under the guidance of their escorts who had been Gandalf's helpers, a large majority of them were saturated with pure terror and heartbreak from the attack of the White Witch, the Father Christmas imposter and their cronies which had resulted in a large number of casualties, fatalities and a few more turned to stone statues. Deodara and her family including Troodon were grieving the loss of Deodara's sister who had been fatally stabbed by one of the gingerbread man with its candy cane spear when she tried protecting Troodon from the savage candy figures, and a few of the kids had ended up becoming orphans due to their parents or carers getting slaughtered during Jadis's attack on them. A clutch of five Ducklings had lost their single mother to a Futakuchi-onna whose head-jaws had fatally bitten her when she tried to protect them from the savage Humanoid Yokai beast, while a basket of Hippogriff eggs and chicks had been seized by a Curupira when their mother and older siblings ended up slain by some of the evil Kamaitachi. While there were those that were grieving the loss of their loved ones from Jadis and company's attack, there had also been casualties, some of who had been fatally injured, such as from the slashes from the venom-laced claws of the Lizard-Men, the biting of the Fairyflies, and the Scorpion tail stings from the Manticores, as well as massive blood loss from lethal slashes of swords or other sharp, bladed weapons from Jadis and Krampus's cronies, or burns from the flame attacks of the fiery cronies of Jadis, such as the Hellhounds for there had been several of those Black Fire Dogs amongst Jadis's attackers as well. These casualties were being carried to safety by their comrades and although the majority of those that had been pulled from the brink of death by the application of the fire-flower cordial which had healed their fatal injuries and had neutralised any venom they had received from the venomous creatures such as from the Lizard-Men and Manticores (Bursyamo being one of them when he had been clawed across the chest by Ganondorf), the last few were unable to be saved. This was due to the limited and small supply of fire-flower cordial the evacuees had due to the low number of fire-flowers Gandalf and company had managed to grow, and apart from the cordial still in the possession of Kushanku's group, that supply had run out. And even though the defectors from Jadis's cronies also had some supply of fire-flower cordial they had managed to steal from the Witch and their former allies' labs where the cordial was being processed into a form of poison, even that was not enough to pull all the individuals from the brink of death. For those with non-fatal but serious injuries, however, potions of other types had been administered to treat them with the appropriate potion being applied to the appropriate injuries, such as the Fracture-Fix Potion for broken bones much to the fracture sufferers' reluctance due to its FOUL taste, but they knew they had to take it and had no other option than have their bones heal by themselves via the long route as some of them had insisted.

After a Cherub and a species of Faun-like Humanoid called an Adlet (who, like Fauns had the upper body of Humanoids but the legs and tail of a Canid rather than the Goat legs and tail that Fauns had, and there was a number of them amongst the evacuees), had had their fatal injuries cured with the last drops of fire-flower cordial, with the Cherub facing death from massive blood loss and the Adlet from a fatal sting from a Manticore (he had been in EXTREME agony since a Manticore had managed to sting him in one of his Dog's legs with its Scorpion's tail and was dying until now), the Fairy and Belle the medical Mermaid (in her human form for she had chosen to walk the way rather than transform into her aquatic form in the tanks) who had applied these drops then gazed at the empty bottles.

"That's the last of our fire-flower cordial," said the Mermaid sadly as the Cherub and the Adlet were pulled from the brink of death. Then a flying Ferret-like creature with scythe-like claws called a Kamaitachi flew in. He was a young adolescent Kamaitachi based on his size and had white fur, and had a large metallic yellow patch on his forehead and he, alongside the newcomers, had been defectors from Jadis's army.

"I can't believe we found you so easily," said the hovering Ferret, "I thought you'd have been IMPOSSIBLE to find after you stalled 'our' army for time with your decoys and deletion of your footprints. We had been forced to show our change of alliance to Jadis and the others with her when we came upon you like Krampus's dark blizzard…"

However, Belle did not reply to the Kamaitachi's disbelief as she continued to gaze at a fatally wounded Wolpertinger who was one of the brothers of Koga and Janine, one of the individuals she had been unable to save. This Wolpertinger had been stung several times by a Triffid-Mouth when he had been trying to shield his family from the savage sentient plant when it lashed at them with its lethal whip-like vine, and this Wolpertinger had taken a large number of extremely painful hits. Now he was dying from the envenomation from the Triffid-Mouth's stinger for like a Manticore's tail stinger, a Triffid-Mouth's stinger vines were highly venomous. Nearby, Janine, Koga and their family stood with streams of tears running down their cheeks as they watched the Mermaid look over their dying relative in despair. The adolescent Kamataichi who hovered nearby also shuddered and began to shed a few tears. He could not believe that his former mistress and his former allies would take such pleasure in torture like this, and although he had not witnessed the Massacre Event yet (he had been at the Narnian beach near where the Cair Paravel Castle would eventually be and helping to haul in the captured Talking sea creatures but had managed to help a few of them escape while his 'allies' had their back turns, among them a Merman prince of an underwater city and an only son of the King Merman and Queen Mermaid that ruled there during the event), the Kamaitachi, along with the other defectors, had only begun to realise how _immoral, unfiar and corrupt_ Jadis and company were with the Narnians and had begun to think about leaving them, but he had been too afraid to show his change of alliance. The young hovering scythe-clawed Ferret, at one point had also been part of a thieving group helping to sneak food from Jadis and company to the starving Narnians but he had been caught by his parents and imprisoned for days, along with the other participants in his group when they were caught packing food from the food storage area to take outside the palace grounds. Then the Kamataichi heard a familiar voice call him.

"Teal'c, can you lend a claw over hear please? One of the young Ichthyosaurs had leaped out of one of the tanks," called Ahhuayo who had been one of Teal'c's friends when Teal'c had been a pup. The Kamaitachi, named Teal'c, flashed one final glance at the Wolpertinger family as they huddled their dying brother/son/cousin, and left in Ahhuayo's direction to rescue the struggling Ichthyosaur and place it back into one of the tanks.

While the evacuees and the newcomers, the defectors from Jadis's army, continued to hurry down the foggy path and treat their injured comrades, Dashiell was being carried in a hammock-like leaf held like a stretcher by another Adlet and a Satyr. The Cheetah had been fatally injured by a combination of a Fairyfly attack and laceration from a sword-like candy cane weapon from one of Krampus's gingerbread man minions, and that candy cane weapon had been laced with a poison potent enough to kill an adult Cheetah. Now Dashiell was dying from this poison as it continued to wreak havoc on his system and cause his organs to shut down. As the Adlet and the Satyr gently placed the Cheetah down separate from the other evacuees, Bursyamo (now healed of his fatal Lizard-Man slash from Ganondorf during his battle with him thanks to the application of fire-flower cordial), touched down nearby and gave the Cheetah a disgusted, stink eye look. Nearby, Passiflora the Cherub and an Owl managed to pick out a familiar form flying in the air through the fog. At this, the pair called for the large form to come and land.

"You REALLY have gone and done it, Dashiell," said Bursyamo in a low voice. This voice tone was saturated with utmost disbelief, disappointment and of someone who had lost faith in someone who kept letting them down, "Not only have you attempted to cause division amongst the evacuees with heresies such as the evolution story of Narnia's history and disowned your own son and four adopted Nekomata kits, but you have also persuaded a LOT of the evacuees into disobeying the Great Lion's guidance to go down a forbidden path where Jadis and company had managed to find us and attack, resulting in so many fatalities, more individuals getting turned to stone and a few more dying, including parents and carers of so many of the younger members. We have used up every last drop of fire-flower cordial to rescue as many dying casualties as possible but due to the sheer number, we are unable to save EVERY SINGLE one of them."

Dashiell only replied with an extremely sad and guilt-saturated gaze. The Cheetah was clearly stuffed to the brim with guilt at persuading the crowd into going down the clear path against the escorts' commands, and even worse that of Aslan for the Lion had indicated to the crowd that they should take the foggy path, and landing everyone in frigid water with Jadis, Krampus and their minions. The Adlet and the Satyr also glared at the Cheetah in utmost disappointment matching that of the lead Basan's glare.

"Not to mention tear so many hearts into two, especially the young ones whose parents and carers had died trying to save them. Those youngsters will now have to grow up without a mother, a father or other carer such as aunts, uncles, or older siblings, adopted families and friends," said the Adlet and with that, the Dog-Humanoid gestured to a family of Goats as they huddled together with tears running from their eyes and down their cheeks as an example. These Goats had lost an elderly relative who had been unable to escape capture by a group of evil Nekomata and Bakeneko in time. Dashiell weakly flashed the Goats a gaze and flinched with a flash of guilt.

Just then, the noise of pounding of paws in snow occurred nearby, pulling Bursyamo, the Adlet and the Satyr's attention from the Cheetah to the arrival, which was Ptériga with Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cedrus and also Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne on her back, along with the two Sylphs who had carried some of them. As soon as the Sphinx had touched down, her Sphinx comrades, the moment they saw her and had a wave of relief course through them, rocketed towards her as her riders disembarked from her back. Relief also swept through Bursyamo, the Adlet, the Satyr and many of the other members of the crowd as they saw the arrivals.

"KUSHANKU, GUYS!" called Chicory the Sauropod from the crowd while Tesseract galloped in to meet with Kushanku and company, alongside a few of the other creatures, among them Deodara, her offspring and Troodon and some of the Curupira tribe members the moment their eyes found Cedrus as he dismounted Ptériga moments before her Sphinx comrades rushed in and swallowed her up in a relieved hug. Then as soon as the number of crowd members had met Kushanku and company, the fourteen were pulled into a group hug. While this happened, Ptériga broke her hug with her Sphinx comrades. It was then that Bursyamo spotted an extremely sombre look on the Sphinx's face. Kushanku and company's friends and family also broke the hug with the Nekomata and his friends while Cedrus's family released Cedrus. Nearby, Milky Way and Obsidian met with Trotterhoof and Thundersparx and also noticed that the Raiju and the Pig bore extremely sombre facial looks as well.

"Has something happened?" asked Bursyamo, dread welling within him. At first, Ptériga didn't answer verbally. Instead, the Sphinx lowered her Woman's head and feathered wings. Passiflora and the Owl flew in as the sombre look was replicated on Cedrus's face as Deodara his wife and their children, among them Keteleeria and Tsuga, stood nearby, worry welling within them. Kushanku and company also began to weep heavily again. Through the small crowd that had formed, Dashiell looked up and saw the fourteen but not with resentment, but immense guilt. Then after a while's silence, Sandstorm finally broke it. Nearby, the rest of the escorts continued ushering the crowd down the path when many of them stopped to gaze at the gathered group in curiosity.

"While… we were fighting… some of Jadis's… and Krampus's… minions…" began the Cheetah cub slowly, "and when the Witch… herself found us… Mr Gandalf appeared…"

Gasps rolled through the listeners and Passiflora covered her mouth with her hands in shock.

"Did I just hear that right?" asked Tuvok from the crowd.

"Gandalf came in to help!?" blurted out Passiflora incredulously. Sandstorm flashed the Cherub a tearful gaze and broke down again. Then Nyarth continued the Cheetah cub's explanation.

"Mr Gandalf... came to help us but... he... he... he..." he trailed off, not wanting to mention it. Glances were exchanged between the listeners.

"Nyarth," said Tuvok as he walked in, "What happened to Father?"

Nyarth didn't reply but only broke down in tears and more sobs. Then Thundersparx finished the explanation.

"That nine-tailed Fox was so brave," said the Raiju, "He confronted the White Witch but sadly... he was overpowered and then he was... was..." then he trailed off, not wanting to mention Gandalf's demise at the hands of the Witch. At first silence hung over the crowd but then it dawned upon them. As it did, tears began to well within the eyes of Tuvok, Deodara, the other Curupira present, Bursyamo, Passiflora and the other listeners and some of them began to break down in tears. Keteleeria erupted into tears and leaped into her mother's arms and sobbed, her mother hugging her while everyone else bowed their heads. In the flowing traffic of evacuees nearby, the other escorts who had heard of Gandalf's demise also began to weep as did many of the evacuees. On his stretcher, Dashiell winced and began to weep all the more. It was clear that not only had he endangered everyone else's lives with the loss of some of them but one of the fatalities had also been the father of all the Kitsune species as well.

"Gandalf had sacrificed himself to save these fourteen," said Cedrus with a gesture to Kushanku and company, speaking in a strangled, tearful voice, "But unfortunately, it didn't end well for him..."

"He's met his end hasn't he?" said Dashiell in a weakening voice, "The Witch had managed to..."

"Yes she has, Dashiell!" snapped Nyarth bitterly as his grief over Gandalf's demise took hold. He then stormed over to Dashiell and glared at the adult Cheetah in the eye. Behind him, Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne all came in and gathered around the dying adult Cheetah. Some of them wore saddened looks when they saw the state of Dashiell but a few of them had resentment and rage boiling dangerously within them and that rage was piercing Dashiell through those individuals' frigid and tearful glares.

"Please, I'm your father," pleaded Dashiell to Nyarth but the oldest brother of Kushanku shook his head bitterly.

"Not anymore you're not," snapped Nyarth in a strangled, enraged voice, "In fact you said it yourself back in Mr Gandalf's base that we were no longer your adopted offspring..."

"Nyarth," said Thundersparx but Nyarth swept on, more tears spilling down his cheeks.

"Mr Gandalf is DEAD because of YOU!" screamed the Nekomata at the top of his voice, making Dashiell flinch harshly much to the shock of Thundersparx, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira but to the agreeing glares of Dahlia, Snowwing and Link, Cyril and Desdemona. Molayne, Paddy, Alexandrite and Crystal, however, backed away, not wanting to be drawn into the fierce confrontation and blaming.

"If YOU hadn't have persuaded so many of the evacuees into going down that foggy path, WE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD FATALITIES, AMONG THEM MR GANDALF!" screeched Nyarth right into Dashiell's face much to the boiling guilt of the Cheetah. Then before Cedrus or any of the other adults could walk in and restrain Nyarth, the Nekomata had turned tail and bolted, sobs escaping from his mouth and tears flying everywhere.

"Nyarth!" called Trotterhoof and with that, the Pig rushed off after the sobbing and devastated Nekomata. Alexandrite and a number of others also gazed sadly at Dashiell, tuned round and left one by one. Only Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm remained, sad gazes on the dying Cheetah as he wearily lifted his gaze to them. The three Nekomata knelt down by Dashiell's side.

"Y-y-you four," whispered the dying Cheetah sadly and guiltily, "I-I-I-I would like to apologise for all that I have said back in the base..."

"You don't have to apologise, Dad," said Sandstorm, "You were just upset..."

"Yes, especially from Soran's betrayal of us and your surviving of the savage raid on our former home village and town, and not to mention the loss of your mate Honeycomb and Gingerfur," said Kushanku. He winced as he mentioned the loss of his adopted brother and mother to the Massacre Event and to Jadis herself respectively and Sandstorm, Akira and Satoshi also wept for them for a moment. Dashiell, however, shook his head.

"No, what I have said to you five was completely out of order and unreasonable," said the Cheetah, "I only caused you more emotional damage when that Fox slimeball Belladonna was causing everyone trouble, and I blamed you for the death of your mother and brother when I shouldn't have done."

Akira then took out her bottle of fire flower cordial and uncapped it but just as she was about to apply the healing potion, Dashiell shook his head.

"No, don't waste that precious resource on me, my adopted daughter," said the Cheetah, much to Akira's tearful gaze, "Save that for future emergencies."

Akira, at this, placed the cap back onto the bottle and packed it away. Dashiell continued to gaze at his son and adopted siblings.

"Now you four go with the others to Archenland," he continued, before moving his eyes from Sandstorm to Satoshi, "My son... two adopted sons... and my... adopted daughter. Stay there until this horrible Eternal Winter thaws. Also, look after Amberpaw who has also survived the savage attack from Jadis because of me... she may not believe in Aslan like you four but she needs you. Also... look after Nyarth and the others and make sure you obey your new carer Thundersparx and Trotterhoof... a-a-and I hope you can forgive me..."

"We will, Father," said Kushanku in a strangled voice and tearful gaze, "And we do forgive you."

Sandstorm, Satoshi and Akira nodded in agreement while Thundersparx and Trotterhoof came in and gently put a paw or hoof on the shoulders of two of them. Then soon, Dashiell breathed his last and became still as the last of his strength ebbed away. The Adlet checked the Cheetah's pulse and gazed at Kushanku and the others.

"That's it, I'm afraid," he told the others. At this, Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira gazed over their father/adopted father's still body and finally broke down. They buried their faces into Dashiell's dead body and sobbed hard. Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cedrus and the others looked on sympathetically before finally persuading Kushanku and the other three gently to leave Dashiell's body to the Adlet, Bursyamo and the Satyr as they lifted the Cheetah's body and carried him away to bury somewhere. Sobbing, the quartet left with Thundersparx and the others and joined the crowd with Akira applying her fire flower cordial to the remaining dying casualties and pulling them from the brink of death. However, she had been unable to save one or two of them, one of them being Koga and Janine's brother who had passed away before Akira could make it to him with the cordial. Then while grieving the loss of those that had died during Jadis and company's attack after disobeying Aslan's guidance, including Gandalf the Kitsune who had bravely sacrificed himself to allow Kushanku and company to escape but also everyone else, the evacuee crowd continued their journey, this time being extremely careful to follow Aslan's guiding Lion faced fireball that glowed clearly and brilliantly in the fog and at night for the sun had now set.

 **Meanwhile**

Kyukon and company were preparing to turn in for the night with the the helpers of Gandalf's mate checking over the salvaged flora and fauna of Narnia as well as the crops and food. Worry for Gandalf's little group was gnawing at them and they had hoped they were okay, especially since the communication between them had been interrupted when Gandalf had charged off from his hiding place after watching the migrating evacuees on the magic Narnia map run into trouble with Jadis, Krampus and their cronies. And while Gandalf was gone, Perseus and the others with him had taken over the watching of the evacuees on the magic Narnia while a Faun and a Satyr remained to continue to talk with Kyukon and her group over the communicator screen. However, neither group was aware of the harrowing news that was about to reach their ears.

While Kyukon and company continued their tasks with Alestomeria, who was not far from gaining her ninth tail and transforming into a truly mature Kitsune and was pledged to marry Hagrid, an already nine-tailed Fox (much like Adam and Eve's first descendants and generation of humans who could only marry brothers and sisters and reproduce, the first few generations of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures had only brothers and sisters to marry and have offspring, but this is because of stronger genes within the individuals unlike nowadays where inbreeding increased the risk of passing on harmful genes and genetic diseases), was talking with the Faun and the Satyr, a very worried look on her face. Alestomeria was chosen, along with her fiance Hagrid, to be the next Kitsune Chronicler couple once Gandalf and Kyukon had retired after spending more than 900 years collecting and recording the key events of Narnia's timeline, and the books on Narnia's historical events and prophecies, along with every other book the Kitsune parents had also written during their lifetime of studying and researching, was also safely in the possession of Kyukon's group. However, worry for Gandalf's wellbeing was plaguing the group at the moment, especially Kyukon and her descendants; that is all the members of the Kitsune species excluding those that had joined Jadis's side and became Nogitsune.

While Alestomeria continued to talk with the Faun and Satyr of Gnadalf's little group on the crystalline communicator screen, just close to the mouth of the cave where Kyukon and company had retreated, Kyukon was talking with a Basan who had volunteered to go with Kyukon's group rather than the rest of her flock under Bursyamo's command, and also a Thunderbird and a Phoenix (not Cumulonimbus and Blaze). This trio and the rest of Kyukon's group, had established a communication link with the dwellers of the Narnian moon community, among them the Moon Viscacha, the dream cloud eating Baku, the Dream Sylphs, a population of strange neon green Humanoids called Little Green Men who resembled our common depiction of Martians in our world, and the Grey Moon-Men who resembled the common grey alien also in our world, but also had silvery markings patching their bodies. These two species were close friends with the Star people and often observed the patterns and constellations the glowing Beings made in the Narnian sky, though these Alien-like Humanoids cannot interpret future events based on their patterns. THAT was exclusively the Centaurs' gift. Like some of the species of the land dwellers, the Little Green Men and Grey Moon-Men had a few magical abilities like telekinesis and the ability to fly on clouds though they had their own mode of transportation, the Flying Saucers (called UFOs in our world). These Moon Men, along with the other Moon dwellers and the Stars, had formed an aerial observation group high above the land of Narnia and had been tasked with helping Kyukon's group to monitor any changes in the snowy land and the strength of the Witch's spell locking it in the Eternal Winter, but they were NOT allowed to set foot on the ground until the Golden Age Prophecy for obvious safety reasons. And when the Baku, the Viscacha and the Dream Sylphs that had been rescued from captivity by Jadis and her cronies had been released back to the Moon by Kyukon's group, they had been given a crystalline communicator to remain in touch with their friends on the ground to provide updates on their aerial observations of the Eternally Winter-locked Narnian land.

"It's excellent news that Asgard and his clan of Grey Moon-Men and Martian and his clan of Little Green Men had dispatched a few Flying Saucers from the Moon to observe and monitor Narnia's condition until the Golden Age Prophecy," said Kyukon with a smile at the good news, "at least we have some aerial assistance without us having to exit our cave and examine our winter-locked land and endanger ourselves with the Witch's spies."

"Yes, Kyukon," said the Basan, who was a Hen, "And furthermore, Martian and Asgard, who are also experts in magic, have also rigged our communicator to prevent the Witch from accessing the magical transmission between the communicators and interfering with our updates. That way we can communicate safely without any interference from that Devil Woman and her cronies like how they had managed to magically access our communicators while we were leaving our base behind."

While the Hen was talking, a gust of wind suddenly appeared and with that wind was a pile of plant material consisting of bark and leafless branches. The woody tree pieces were riding on the wind through the dark and frigid night air towards Kyukon and the three Birds just at the entrance of the cave's mouth which had a large boulder partially covering it to allow fresh air to enter the group's new home for the rest of the Eternal Winter hopefully, and when Kyukon and her group turned in for the night, that boulder was moved over the whole entrance to block out any trouble from the outside. As the pieces of tree bark and branches swept upward and began to take the form of a Humanoid at the entrance to the cave by the boulder, Kyukon, alerted by the small gust of wind, immediately seized a large rock telekinetically, her eyes flashing a neon blue and that rock with the neon blue aura enclosing it and levitating into the air, and glared viciously at the possible intruder while the Basan Hen, the Thunderbird and the Phoenix looked on in confusion before following Kyukon's defensive gaze to the cave entrance.

"WHO GOES THERE!?" barked Kyukon glutterally as she telekinetically held the rock and poised to throw it full force at the intruder, just as Hagrid, Alestomeria's fiance, walked in. As the tree bark pieces and branches and twigs took the form of a Humanoid, that Humanoid, an Earth Sprite called a Dryad spoke.

"Be still, my nine-tailed Kitsune friend," said the Dryad in a Woman's voice, prompting Kyukon to lower her telekinetically hovering rock and her defensive hostility carefully fir this Dryad was on her, her group's and Aslan's side, "I bring grave news about Gandalf your mate."

At this, worry and dread at this report from the Dryad welled within Kyukon and she released her mental grip on the rock, sending it clattering to the floor while Hagrid exchanged worried glances with the Basan Hen, the Thunderbird and the Phoenix.


	74. Chapter 73

**Chapter 73- arrival at the destination at last and epilogue part one**

The migrating crowd continued their journey through the snowy Narnian landscape south towards the Narnia/Archenland border under the guidance of Aslan who shone his glowing Lion-faced fireball as a beacon to guide the migrants during the day and the night. Since their attempted detour down a wrong path leading to them getting set upon by Jadis, Krampus and their minions had severely traumatised them and had made them learn the lesson of disobeying Aslan's guidance the hard way, the migrants were more eager than ever to get out of the cursed wintery Narnian landscape. Amongst the desperation to flee Jadis's diamond-ice fist of tyranny, heartbreak was present. Cedrus, Deodara, Tsuga, Keteleeria and the other Curupira were still devastated over the loss of their tribe members, amongst them Deodara's sister who had sacrificed herself to save Troodon from certain death from the gingerbread men minions of Krampus when his biological family, amongst them Dromaeo his uncle and except a few of them such as his mother Ena who had thanked her son for saving her from certain death at the clutches of those cursed candy figures, had left him to die in revenge for his actions he had done to everyone back at Gandalf's base under the coercion of Belladonna, and that grudge was still festering within them against Trooodon even now, and some of them were planning on causing the young and troubled Theropod a LOT of trouble and misery in the future. However, the Theropod family's minds, like everyone else's in the crowd, was getting out of the Narnian landscape and the White Witch's reign as soon as possible, and that journey still had a few Narnian days before the crowd reached the Narnia/Archenland border in the south.

While the migrants continued their journey with many of Gandalf and Kyukon's former helpers escorting them, back in Kyukon and company's cave and tunnel home, extreme sadness and bereavement was saturating the inhabitants, especially a certain nine-tailed Fox and many of her elder children, among them Alestomeria and her fiance Hagrid who were to be the next Kitsune Chroniclers after Gandalf and Kyukon retired. However, that handing on of the role would have to wait. When the Dryad had told Kyukon and her group of Gandalf's demise and the events leading up to it, a crack of thunder had shattered Kyukon's heart into a million pieces, and the hearts of the others in her group had also shattered as well and over the next few days, the group had entered a state of deep bereavement. But although she was severely heartbroken over her beloved mate's death, Kyukon had arrived at the conclusion that Gandalf had bravely and willingly gave up his own life to ensure that the migrating Narnian crowd had made it safely to Archenland for Jadis and her crowd had been extremely eager to track down the vulnerable crowd to catch and haul back to her palace, where the captured creatures would have been assigned a different variety of horrible fates, such as 'playmates' for the highly immoral creatures such as the Satyrs, Incubi and Succubi; death for their meat, death by slaying each other in the Arena of Blood Jadis and her cronies used for their Massacre Event (which the Witch still planned on using but for every year this time with fewer forcibly selected Narnians who chose to remain behind in the land), or turned to stone or made into slaves, either in the labour zones or in and around the Witch's palace and its grounds. But with the triumph of killing a nine-tailed Kitsune and processing his body for his meat and using his tails as part of her attires of pure vanity occupying the Witch, it seemed that the Witch had decided to abandon her pursuit of the migrating crowd and relish in that triumph as well as try out her 'new' addition to her attire, the nine tails of a fully matured Kitsune sewn to one of her sparkling coats, and it was likely that she would remain occupied with that new addition to her wardrobe for quite some time. Although this sounded like a very dark blizzard, in that dark blizzard was a silver lining and that was the migrants continuing their southbound journey to Archenland safely but they still needed to follow Aslan's guidance, lest they be destroyed through their disobedience like how they almost did back at the fork in the road and they chose to go down the clear path rather than the foggy one as indicated by the Great Lion, resulting in the mess as seen in the previous chapters and its subsequent results.

 **Several days later**

As the crowd of migrating Narnians approached the border to Archenland after several days of near-nonstop walking and trekking except for one or two rest stops since their disturbing encounter with Jadis, Krampus and their cronies which nearly resulted in all of them getting captured, killed or turned to stone if it weren't for the escorts who had chosen to leave Gandalf's side with his permission to go with the migrants, they noticed that the snow was beginning to melt away into smaller and smaller patches and give way to patches of green grass strewing the thinning snow. These grass puddles grew larger and merged into one larger mass towards the border and the white patches of snow became less and less. This grass was the _first_ natural greenery the crowd members born between the Witch's usurping the Narnian throne and this event the Exodus, such as Kushanku and company, Alexandrite and her group, Tesseract, Troodon and Guinan, among others, had EVER encountered while for those that were born before the Witch's takeover of Narnia, such as Cedrus and the other of Gandalf's helpers who had chosen to escort the migrants, it was the first grass they had ever come across in decades. This was because Archenland was not a part of Narnia and was a separate country in its own right, and thus was not a part of Jadis's Eternally Winter-locked land hence why the snow faded to smaller and smaller patches towards the border. The Narnia/Archenland border itself was mountainous for ahead of the crowd of migrants and beyond the sea of grass rose a line of mountains, and it was the final obstacle the migrating crowd had to hike through in order to completely be out of Jadis's reach, and their Archenlandic home for the rest of the Eternal Winter until the Golden Age Prophecy and the Dawn of Spring arrived, was to be in those mountains and just outside the Archenlandic towns.

As the crowd gazed at the series of mountains ahead of them, Cedrus, with his staff indicating his leadership in his tribe which he used as a weapon, a walking stick, and as a symbol of his rank as tribal patriarch, struggled to the front and stared hard at the towering near-pyramidal hills ahead, the smaller ones at the front and the taller ones behind them. As soon as recognition that this was the Narnia/Archenland border took hold within the Curupira tribe patriarch, he sent some of the flying escorts, among them Ptériga, Cygnus and Swomee, and Passiflora, ahead of the crowd as a signal to the Archenlandic inhabitants that the migrant crowd had arrived just outside the border and will need help hiking through the mountains to their new homes. As the flying scouts flew on ahead, Kushanku gazed at the mountains with Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira. Nearby, the Pyros such as Emberflame were being released from their lamps for it was now safe for the Fire Sprites to leave their lamps as the Witch's deadly winter curse was weaker here. The Pyros were especially glad to be out of their lamps after so long and were flying around like fiery Humanoid fireballs and relishing the air for the first time in days.

"So that's our destination?" asked Kushanku as Alexandrite, Padparadchsa, Dahlia, Snowwing, Crystal, Molayne, Link, Cyril, Desdemona, Tesseract and Chicory came in with Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Obsidian, Nanu, Milky Way, Ahhuayo and new friend Teal'c.

"Yes it is, Kushanku," said Thundersparx as he also gazed at the mountains leading into Archenland while Obsidian flopped down nearby, relief that the journey was nearly over washing over her and the other migrants. The journey had clearly demanded every ounce of their energy and they were all exhausted as a result.

"It is to be our home for the coming years until the Dawn of Spring arrives," added Tuvok nearby.

"When will the Dawn of Spring come?" asked Nyarth.

"In Aslan's timing," said Obsidian as she relaxed from the journey for a while, while the flying scouts continued to shrink as they receded further into the distance from the crowd in the direction of the mountains, "It might not be in the lifetimes of some of us but our descendants will be present to see the First Spring arrive with the Great Thaw and the Golden Age Prophecy."

"But one thing is clear," said Milky Way seriously, "We're to stay in Archenland until then and continue our lives, as well as repopulate our species, which will be the case in the critically endangered species such as the Okuri-Inu," she flashed a glance at some of the Canid creatures who wearily walked in and collapsed onto the grass patches from exhaustion. ALL the members of this species of Canid present in the crowd were relieved beyond description to be out of the range of the White Witch's curse with the hope that they can increase their numbers for their pups strongly required the natural day-night cycle to mature into reproduction-capable adults, something the pups had been unable to achieve in Gandalf and Kyukon's base due to a lack of the natural circadian rhythm as the Kitsune couple had been well aware and had planned to send the Okuri-Inu off to Archenland earlier. Due to lack of maturation in the Okuri-Inu pups had not been born for years and years. However, the Okuri-Inu were not the only creatures that were relieved. The metallivorous Alicanto Birds were also relieved to be out of the Witch's grasp as the land in Archenland would be fertile enough to grow metal trees which will provide them with food for the rest of the Eternal Winter. Back in Narnia, their only source of food had been the trees grown in Gandalf's underground base for growing the metal trees aboveground was extremely difficult due to the conditions the metal trees required. Furthermore, the White Witch and her cronies were not hesitant in taking the harvested metal pieces from those trees for their own selfish and greedy uses, such as the Jadis idols, which left the Alicanto Birds starving. And although there were a LOT of individuals in this crowd, not every Narnian had chosen to depart their Winter Curse infected land. A large number of Narnians had chosen to remain behind, and it will be them only who will be on the lookout for the Great Thaw on the ground while Asgard, Martian and their Moon Men will keep an eye out for the Great Thaw from above. Milky Way continued.

"And when the Dawn of Spring arrives with the Golden Age Prophecy, we'll be returning to Narnia for the Winter Revolution," said the Pegasus. At this, the faces of Kushanku and company fell. The sound of 'until Aslan's timing' was clearly igniting despair and discouragement within them but then Thundersparx put a paw on Kushanku's shoulder and gazed sympathetically at him and the others with him.

"I know it sounds bleak but remember, Aslan knows best," the Raiju said gently, "It is for the safety of the majority of the Narnians, especially for those of the younger generation such as yourselves, and the coming generations after us for as long as our stay in Archenland lasts, which will NOT be forever."

At this, Kushanku and company slowly perked up and prepared to move into Archenland with everyone else. Although this age of Narnia was called the Eternal Winter, also the Age of Winter, it will, ironically, not last long, but that's another story. Then when Ptériga and the other flying escorts were spotted returning to the crowd, the crowd prepared to cross the Narnia/Archenland border and into the mountains, called the Narnia-Archenland Mountains. With the flying scouts were strange creatures and they were following the scouts on a special mode of aerial transport. As these creatures melted into view, Kushanku and company, to their surprise, saw that they were riding on CARPETS that could FLY. Magic carpets were not very common in the Narnian world but they were sometimes used by a few individuals for aerial transport and the users of those carpets were often Fairies, Elves, Oni (that is, Oni who were not on the Witch's side) and a variety of other Humanoid Magical Creatures though some species, such as Curupira and Dwarves, were not known to use them a lot. As soon as Ptériga and company ha touched down, the riders of the magic carpets also landed before the crowd. Then one of the Oni, a large hairy creature resembling a Troll, approached Cedrus and shook hands with him.

"Welcome, Cedrus," he said, "Welcome to the Narnia-Archenland border and the mountains marking it," he then broke his handshake with Cedrus and commanded the crowd to get moving. The crowd did so and as soon as any items, kids or pregnant mothers, or baskets containing unhatched eggs and babies too young to walk that had been put down for the short rest stop were picked back up or had mounted the stronger creatures such as the Centaurs, Unicorns and Horses, the crowd got moving again. Within hours, the crowd was seeping through the mountains under the guidance of the magic carpet flyers in the direction of their place of stay, which were a large collection of houses, dens, caves, a river, ponds, forests and lakes and various other habitats suited for the variety of creatures. Amongst the soon-to-be-occupied villages and towns, farms and fields had been provided to help with the growing of food though some will be provided by the inhabitants of Archenland, among them Humans though these individuals will not leave their villages for safety reasons for where the migrated Narnians will be staying was too close to the Narnian border, and because of the Witch's immense power in sensing the presence of humans afoot in her winter-cursed land, presumably through the power of telepathy, any presence of even ONE human was enough to have her send her cronies to the border to capture him or her to haul back to the Witch's palace for humans were a significant threat to the Witch due to their inclusion in the Golden Age Prophecy and the Witch wanted to make sure that ANY trace of human, no matter how small, was present in her land.

As the crowd continued to seep through the mountains to their temporary villages, the Narnians that went ahead of them, such as some of the defectors from Jadis's crowd, such as Dionaea the Manticore who had managed to escape and fly all the way south to Archenland after freeing the Rainbow Serpent and the captured Sea folk with her friends, had been working to build the villages and towns for the main Exodus travellers and had managed to finish them before the crowd arrived at the border. Present was a small clan of Komainu, a noble species of Magical Creature resembling a Lion with some traits of a Dog who revere Aslan and call him the Lion Above All Lions (there were some Komainu on the Witch's side back in Narnia but these ones were against the Witch); and Kirin, also called Qilin, beautiful Draconic Horse like creatures with metallic and colourful scales, feathery manes and tails, and in some, Draconic feathery beards and whiskers by their mouths. One subspecies of Kirin possessed a single horn on their head like a Unicorn while another subspecies had antlers instead. Some Kirin possessed tails resembling the feathers of a Peacock's train and the males, the stallions, were more colourful than the females, or mares. The stallions also had larger horns or antlers than the mares and they were very noble like their snow-white counterparts and a few other creatures, and possessed a variety of magical abilities such as electricity usage, telekinesis and fire usage. Much like many other groups of beautiful Narnian creatures, this Kirin herd had completely lost their habitat to the Witch and her cronies who turned their homeland into one of the labour zones, forcing the Kirin herd to abandon their home and flee south, though a few of the individuals of the herd had not been so fortunate. Several of them had been turned to stone by the Witch when they refused to comply while a few more, including the patriarch of the herd, had been captured, slain and then butchered for their meat, which was a VERY great crime to carry out on a noble creature, and the Witch was known for committing this crime countless times before.

Then as soon as the crowd had completely left their snow-saturated land behind and had entered in the northern mountains of Archenland, they began to settle into their new home with the help of the Narnians already present, alongside the Archenlandic non-human inhabitants and had been provided with fresh food in the form of a large feast. Then after this, the migrants had been given their new homes, family by family, species by species, tribe, clan or equivalent by group. Kushanku settled into a simple small den with Amberpaw, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Akira with Thundersparx as their foster guardian. This den resembled their previous den and brought back many sad and nostalgic memories but they settled into the den anyway. Everyone else also settled into their new homes and relished the presence of green leaves and flowers, some of the things that had been missing from their original homes for so long due to the Witch's Eternal Winter, alongside the warmth of the sun and the fresh air of spring which came as quite a surprise to the migrants for they had not seen spring for so long in their original home. Then as soon as the migrants had all settled down, they began their lives anew which will continue until the coming of the Dawn of Spring, and away from the Witch's tyranny and the difficult implications it brought, such as immense food shortage due to the Witch's corrupt legal system, and the risk of being forcibly selected for her sickening and excessively-violent Decadal Massacre Event, though it would take a long time for the victims who had lost loved ones to the sickening event, such as Shadewing the Bat with his son Firewing, and Kushanku and his family the loss of their brother Gingerfur, to recover and move on.

 **Epilogue**

A number of years had passed since the Exodus and the migrants' settling into the northern mountains of Archenland, and during that time, a lot had happened. The Witch continued her tyrannical rule with her iron (or rather, diamond-ice) fist over the land of Narnia and since the Exodus, she had enforced even stricter and crueller rules on whoever had chosen to remain behind in Narnia to keep an eye out for any humans entering the land through a wooden box portal according to the Golden Age Prophecy. One of these was the forcing of those remaining Narnians, among them Tumnus and his family who were related to Guinan, into becoming spies for any such humans and if any human was found in Narnia, they were to take them in and hand them over to the Secret Police, many divisions who had obtained new leaders to replace the ones who had been slain, some by Gandalf, to be forcibly carted off to the Witch to be dealt with. Among the divisions were the Wolves with Romulus's leadership being taken over by his older son and his mate who will eventually become the ancestors of Maugrim in the future. Furthermore the Witch had kept her Massacre Event games going but only this time, the event was to take place once per year with fewer Narnians, mostly young ones, being forcibly selected and thrown into the Arena of Death for the entertainment of the Witch and her cronies and to continue to enforce the diamond-ice control over everyone who had remained in Narnia. Thankfully, the majority of the younger generations was absent and will not face such demise unlike the unfortunate younger victims before the Exodus.

While life continued to flow under the White Witch Snow Beast's rule, in Archenland, the evacuees had settled into their new but temporary homes until the Golden Age Prophecy arrived. Kushanku and company had grown into young creatures with some of them getting married and having their own offspring. Kushanku and Alexandrite were amongst these couples and have had their first litter of their own kits. There were four kits in the couple's litter; three daughters and a son. The three daughters were named Aka, Kiiro and Midori while the son was named Ao. Satoshi had married Padparadchsa and the two had had a litter of three kits, all three of which were daughters named Merida, Sunstone and Moonstone. Akira had married Nyaonix the Bakeneko, one of Dionaea the Manticore's friends and together, the couple had had a litter of two kits, Neelix and Fleur. The two kits were Nekomata/Bakeneko hybrids due to their parents' different species of magical Cat Yokai though Nekomata and Bakeneko could also breed with Regular Housecats as well similar to how Kitsune could breed with Regular Talking Foxes. Nyarth also married a female Nekomata and had had two daughters, Amethyst and Spinel. In the same way, Sandstorm, the only Cheetah family member who remained close to his adopted Magical Cat Yokai siblings, had married a female Cheetah and had had a litter of three cubs with her, and several other members of Kushanku and his siblings' close friends had also paired up and had offspring, including Snowwing the Skvader and Dahlia the Jackalope. Kushanku and company had indeed become proud parents and had yet to tell them about the horrors they had faced during their time in Narnia at the hands of the evil White Witch. Kushanku, Akira, Satoshi and Nyarth had also yet to tell their kits about their grandparents that they will never meet and how they had sacrificed themselves to save them from certain death after Thundersparx's father had betrayed them and the other Aslan believers to the Witch by revealing their den's location to the evil tyrant and her cronies resulting in the slaughter that resulted in the death of their parents, a swell as other adventured they had had growing up, and the hardships they had to deal with while living with Dashiell and his family. The majority of the other young evacuees, including the Okuri-Inu who had passed maturation due to their exposure to the natural day-night cycle, also had litters and offspring, while eggs that had been carried during the Exodus had finally hatched, and mothers gave birth to the young they had been carrying during the journey. This generation of young Narnians was the first generation to be born on Archenlandic soil and they will not see their true home for a good while until the Golden Age Prophecy came true. Speaking of this, as time went by, there were some Narnians that eventually lost faith in this Prophecy and worse, Aslan.

Amongst these doubters was Amberpaw, the only other surviving Cheetah member of Sandstorm's biological family. Because she did not believe in the existence of the Great Lion, she had turned to the secular, evolutionary view of Narnia's history and had encouraged a number of other Narnians to follow her. This led to a group of Narnians who doubted Aslan's existence and the Golden Age Prophecy and so denied them forming, and this group had encouraged some of the other Narnians, especially the new additions to the evacuees into joining them and learning about the false history of the Narnian world, among it the evolution story of how Narnia came to be with the seeding of the primitive Narnian sea with a comet that exploded with the fragments containing various types of microbes, supposedly the ancestors of all the different Narnian creature types, raining into that ocean, and the microbes all evolving into the various Talking Beast and Magical Creature varieties with many eventually migrating onto land. This disheartening and disappointing path this group of Narnians took thanks to Amberpaw and a few others caused divisions amongst the evacuees and they split into two groups; the secularists and the Aslan and Golden Age Prophecy Believers. Kushanku and company had kept their children from the secular crowd and educated their kids with the true history of Narnia, including Aslan's creation of it and the Golden Age Prophecy and how it will be carried out.

Besides the saddening and disheartening formation of the secular group, some of the evacuees had also not faced a happy ending. Troodon, who continued to live with the Cururpira tribe with Cedrus and his family and learn better personality traits such as manners thanks to the counselling and education from Cedrus and his tribe, continued to be fiercely shunned by his own biological family except Ena and a few others who such as being naughty and had forgiven him for his antics with Belladonna for saving Ena's life and Cedrus and company did not blame the Theropod for the death of Deodara's sister who had rescued him from the cursed gingerbread men of Krampus when Dromaeo his uncle and many other of his family abandoned him to his fate. The reason for Troodon's troubled behaviour was that he had felt utterly rejected by his own father as a young Theropodling when the father had abandoned Ena's family to join the Witch's side, and the little Theropod had been bottling up his emotions since that devastating time since. As Troodon grew up, Ena had been too busy to understand him better while his siblings shunned him, leading to the Theropod developing troubling behaviours such as becoming naughty which continued until Cedrus and his tribe counselled him. It seemed that Belladonna had exploited this weak spot and his desire to make friends and had plunged him into further trouble but despite this, Troodon had eventually learned to let go of his past and move on. Eventually, Troodon had met a lovely young female Theropod but due to the antics of his biological family except Ena and a few others, just as the Theropod was to become Troodon's wife, Troodon had ended up framed for a VERY serious crime by his biological family such that even Cedrus, his tribe, Kushanku and company, and even Ena even believing the lies, leading to the female Theropod, who had become engaged to Troodon at the time, to forsake him and marry one of his brothers instead which was what Dromeao and the other members that still despised Troodon wanted. This resulted in Troodon leaving the evacuee home in heartbreak and secretly becoming a recluse far away from the home area, leading Kushanku and company, as well as Cedrus, his tribe, and Ena down the path of severe guilt, and had arrived to the assumption that Troodon had left the evacuees for good, or worse. Furthermore, Kushanku and company still grieved the loss of Gandalf and had hoped that Kyukon and the others who will also be grieving for the loss of the Kitsune who bravely sacrificed his own life to save the evacuees as well as continue to live in their Eternal Winter-stricken home of Narnia until the Dawn of Spring. Sadness was clearly gripping a lot of the evacuees and would take a while to be overcome.

While things were certainly improving for Kushaku and most of everyone else in the evacuees who continued to live in Archenland, sadness, resentment, hurt and other negative emotions were still present within a lot of them including Kushanku and his siblings who continued to grieve the loss of Gingerfur, Honeycomb and Dashiell who had died in Narnia during their time in the place ruled by the Snow Beast they knew as Jadis.


	75. Chapter 74

**Chapter 74- epilogue part 2**

 **Years since the Exodus**

Kushanku, Akira, Nyarth and Satoshi were now fully grown, adult Nekomata, their tails completely divided into two separate branches, indicative of their adulthood. Kushanku had become more and more skilled in flying by spinning his two tails like a propeller while Satoshi had honed in his telekinetic skills better. Akira and Nyarth had also honed their agile jumping skills far better and all four of them had become skilled fighters and medics. The others in their closest circle of friends such as their adopted brother Sandstorm and also Alexandrite, Padparadchsa "Paddy", Cyril the Hippogriff, Desdemona the Griffin, Dahlia the Jackalope, Snowwing the Skvader, and Link the Peryton who were also grown up were also skilled in their respective areas though a few of them had coupled up to have offspring as mentioned in the previous chapter.

One day, while the evacuated Narnians continued to live their lives in their towns and villages in the Archenland mountains, a small group of young kits and cubs darted through the fields, running playfully and giggling through a small garden of green grass and metal trees where Goldbert and his Alicanto clan lived. Kushanku and company pursued their offspring as they continued to chase each other and play fight in the Alicanto clan's home garden of metal trees.

"Careful, kids," called Kushanku as he and his beautiful wife, Alexandrite, rushed in with Satoshi and his wife Paddy, Akira and her Bakeneko husband Nyaonix who was one of the friends of Dionaea the Manticore who had also matured and had started a family of her own with a male Manticore like many of the others of her generation; Nyarth and his wife named Kagayaku, a beautiful female Nekomata with glistening silvery fur and patches of pelage resembling a calico cat strewn through it, and also Sandstorm who was now an adult male Cheetah resembling his father Dashiell and was married to a female Cheetah named Campanula, as the young Nekomata, Cheetah cubs, and Nekomata/Bakeneko hybrids played near one of the money coin trees with some of the Alicanto Birds perched in it, feasting on the coins that grew on the branches and gazing at the playing Cats. Sandstorm and Canpanula had become proud parents of two cubs and they were the adopted cousins to Kushanku and his siblings' kits but despite this status and their vast difference in species, the two cubs were like biological cousins to Kushanku and his siblings' kits, similar to how Sandstorm was like a biological brother to Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira but he was also a close friend of Alexandrite and Paddy and their family including Desdemona and the others, and also Nyaonix and Kagayaku. Together, the five couples were like one big family.

As with every other Nekomata when young, the kits of Kushanku, Alexandrite, Paddy, Satoshi, Nyarth and Kagayaku resembled the kittens of Regular Talking Cats when born and very young and as they grew, their tail began to split from the tip down. Currently, the kits only had a forked tail but when they matured into adult Nekomata, their tail will be completely divided into two separate appendages. Kushanku and Alexandrite's four kits, Aka, Kiiro, Midori and Ao, possessed a combined traits of their father and mother. All four had the grey head and neck of their father but the fluffy white Persian cat-like tails, the Persian cat like trait having come from their mother. All four had metallic body fur with Aka's being metallic red; Kiiro's being metallic yellow; Midori's being metallic green and lime green, and Ao's being metallic aqua blue, dark blue but also some patches of metallic purple as well. It was uncertain if any of them had inherited Kushanku's ability to fly by spinning their tail branches but they were still too young for any confirmation to be determined. However, the son, Ao, did display a hint of telekinesis as he was sometimes able to move small objects like pencils a short distance without handling them with his paws, but his telekinetic strength was still weak and developing.

Satoshi and Padparadchsa's three daughters, Merida, Sunstone and Moonstone, had quite different appearances between each other. Sunstone had fiery colours consisting of red, orange, yellow, neon yellow and neon orange with her fur resembling flames and a sun-like marking on her chest while Moonstone was mostly white with a smattering of metallic blue, aqua, icy blue and silver thrown over her pelage. She had an icy aspect to her pelage and she had a silvery crescent moon-shaped marking on her chest. Unlike Jadis the Devil Woman and White Witch, Moonstone's icy beauty was not one bit marked with with ANY spot of any alluringly seductive and vain-saturated traits, and her appearance did not remind Kushanku or pretty much anyone else of the Devil Woman who had caused them so much trouble for more than three decades before the Exodus. Merida, however, resembled a spitting image of her uncle Kushanku and had the majority of his traits including his grey furred head and neck and powder blue metallic body fur. However, she did not have his white and expressive head hair but she appeared to have inherited her uncle's ability to propeller-tail fly though it was only for a few seconds for her tail was only partly divided. Akira and Nyaonix's kits, Neelix and Fleur, were half Nekomata and half Bakeneko and were dubbed 'Bakomata' due to their mother Akira being a Nekomata and their father Nyaonix being a Bakeneko which resembled the Nekomata species to a very great extent including the bipedality and the magical abilities (Nyaonix possessing telekinesis) but their tails did not split as they aged. Due to their kits' heritage, Neelix and Fleur's tails were only split at the tips. When they become adults, their tails will only partially split half way down and they will resemble young Nekomata even though they were adults. However, their magical abilities will be as well developed as any full-blooded Nekomata or Bakeneko. Nekomata-Talking Cat and Bakeneko-Talking Cat hybrids on the other hand, however, will have weaker magical abilities due to Regular Talking Cats not possessing any innate magical abilities, though these kinds of hybrids would still be able to walk on their hind feet and, in the case of the Nekomata-Talking Cat hybrids, have a partially split tail even as an adult. Neelix and Fleur had inherited their father's telekinesis ability though again, it was very weak due to their age but as they grew, their telekinesis will develop and get stronger. Finally, Nyarth and Kagayaku's daughters, Amethyst and Spinel, resembled tabby cats with colourful metallic fur smothering much of their bodies and partially split tail with Amethyst's colours being mostly metallic purples and pinks, and Spinel's being mostly metallic magenta and red. Both girls had inherited their father's ability to leap between objects in a cluttered environment but Spinel could also propeller-tail fly like her uncle Kushanku and Merida, one of her cousins. Sandstorm and Campanula's cubs both resembled regular Cheetah cubs and the cubs of our world's cheetahs. These two, which were both sons, were still learning to how to hone in their speedy running abilities and were only capable of a few seconds' bursts of speed, indicated when they playfully chased down Neelix as he dove out of the way, giggling.

As the kits and cubs continued to play with their parents pursuing them, the Alicanto Birds looking on from the trees with smiles on their beaks and some visiting Fairies and Dwarves accompanying them, one of the kits of Satoshi and Paddy, Merida, sneaked away from the other kits and cubs and sat under a silver money tree as some Alicanto pecked at the coin-fruits and chatted. Kushanku, after spotting his niece leave the other kits and sit under the tree, decided to break away from the other adults as they continued to play with their kits, Sandstorm shouting, "Just wait till I catch you, Ao," when Ao, Kushanku's only son, splashed water on the Cheetah from a large leaf, laughing mischievously with a chase between him and his adopted Cheetah uncle ensuing. Flashing a smile at his son as he rushed off with his adopted Cheetah brother in hot pursuit, a wide smile on his muzzle, Kushanku turned his attention to Merida and sat beside her.

"Are you alright, Merida?" asked the uncle when Merida picked up a daisy flower and began to fiddle with it.

"Uncle Kushanku," squeaked Merida in a low voice, "Will we see Mr Troodon again? I've been thinking about him a lot lately. So have my sisters Sunstone and Moonstone. Also, when will we see the land of Narnia you and the other grownups keep telling us about, as well as Gandalf and Kyukon?"

Kushanku, a small smile forming on his muzzle, sat beside his niece and put a paw on her back.

"My niece Merida," said the proud uncle as well as father, "Regarding your first question, I can only say that Troodon has decided to live as a hermit indefinitely in an undisclosed location, far away from us, to get away from his troublesome family..." Kushanku paused as he felt a wave of guilt grip him, "But based on what his mother Ena and adopted Curupira father Cedrus told me, we're to respect his decision to move away from the rest of us and live as a hermit like they have to do. To answer your second question, when we will see Narnia again is Aslan's timing. Only Aslan knows when the Golden Age Prophecy will come true. It might not be in your adopted Cheetah cousins' lifetime but it certainly won't be in your uncle Sandstorm's lifetime for Cheetahs can only live for around 70 years or so, sometimes but rarely longer, compared to 200 to 250 years, sometimes longer, we Nekomata, Bakeneko and the hybrid of the two species have in our lifespans..."

Merida flashed her uncle a saddened glance as he continued.

"And lastly, in regards to your third question, we might see Kyukon again but Gandalf, I'm afraid that's no longer possible."

At this, disappointment took over Merida and she lowered her face and ears. Kushanku smiled, put a paw to her chin and lifted her gaze to his.

"Listen, what Gandalf has done for me, your mother, your aunts and uncles, and everyone else here today was beyond-brave," he said gently, "He was honestly amongst the bravest Kitsune and Talking Beasts I and the others have ever met and known, alongside your grandfather Frosty and grandmother Ferntail. If it wasn't for Gandalf and his brave intervention against the Witch resulting in him surrendering even his very life to allow us to escape to safety, we wouldn't have likely made it to Archenland and out of that evil Witch's reach, and you and your sisters, cousins and the other kids wouldn't be here today, just like how it wouldn't have been for my father and mother, your grandparents, I, along with your uncle Nyarth, father Satoshi, and aunt Akira, wouldn't be here today which again would apply to you being born too. All this, even though there were extremely difficult times involved, alongside heart-wrenching losses like that of Gandalf the great Kitsune, was Aslan's doing and we have to thank the Great Lion Above All Lions for getting as many of us Narnians to safety and away from the Witch and her tyrannical reign," Kushanku then turned sombre as thoughts for those who had chosen to remain behind flashed in his mind, "As for those who had chosen to remain behind in our Eternally Winter-stricken land and home of Narnia, they will be lookouts for the Golden Age Prophecy which will bring with it the Dawn of Spring and the Winter Revolution, alongside anyone else who had chosen to take up that role, such as Kyukon and her group who I hope are still alive... but in the meantime, we're to stay here until the Dawn of Spring comes."

Merida, at this, perked up slightly and managed a small smile. Then she got up with Kushanku and the pair ran off after the others. As Merida rejoined her cousins and sisters as they continued to playfully elude their parents/uncles/aunts, Alexandrite came in and nuzzled her cheek against Kushanku's shoulder with Kushanku putting an arm around her.

"At least our darling little kits, cubs and the rest of the new additions to our families are safe from the Witch's frigid hands, eh, my charming Nekomata tom (male cat)?" cooed Alexandrite as she relished her husband's embrace. Kushanku rested his cheek on Alexandrite's crown.

"Yes absolutely, dear," he romantically cooed back, "Especially those that have had breeding trouble such as the Okuri-Inu and the Alicanto," he flashed a glance back at the thriving Alicanto flock as they continued to feast on the metal trees' 'fruit', play and chat with each other and their friends, among them the Fairies and the other varieties of Talking Birds, among them Cumulonimbus the Thunderbird who was accompanied with a mate and a chick, as well as Blaze the Phoenix who also had a wife and two chicks. The two Elemental Birds flashed Kushanku and Alexandrite a smile before resuming their conversation with some of the Alicanto, some of them being parents with chicks. Kushanku had also heard that Brina, the Ice Roc had also coupled up with a male Roc and has had a daughter with him. Things certainly were thriving for the migrants from Narnia and they had little worry about facing torture from the Witch, one of which had been forced selection into the Arena of Death for the Witch and her cronies' sickening and bloodthirstily sadistic entertainment. For those who had been part of the Witch's cronies and had managed to escape the evil Devil Woman and her cronies, such as Nyaonix, Akira's Bakeneko's husband, and Dionaea the Manticore, and also Ahhuayo the Ahuizotl, Teal'c the Kamataichi, and Nanu the Wolf, many of whom had also become family males and females with Nanu becoming the proud father of three Wolf cubs with a female Wolf who was also a rebel from the Witch, their life with the Witch as her followers and underlings had been put behind them and they continued to live with their new allies in Archenland while they wait for the Golden Age Prophecy. Then Alexandrite spoke lovingly to Kushanku.

"Kushanku, dear," she said.

"Yes, my beautiful crystal?" asked Kushanku lovingly. Alexandrite formed a loving smile and placed her paw on her belly. Kushanku smiled and placed his paw over hers and stroked her belly as well. Alexandrite's tummy was slightly larger than it was and it only meant one thing. Together, the couple continued to watch as their extended family, and their four kits, or rather their first litter of them, Aka, Kiiro, Midori and Ao, continue to play and chase each other with Merida playing tag with them.

 **Meanwhile**

Back in the frigid land of Narnia still under the Devil Woman's evil, tyrannical rule, the Narnians that had chosen to remain behind continued their difficult lives. Amongst them were Gandalf and Kyukon's helpers as they continued to live in their new base. The conservationists of Narnian's endemic flora and fauna continued to look after the specimens that will be the ancestors of the new population for the country once the Dawn of Spring arrived with the Golden Age Prophecy while everyone else continued to keep an eye out for said Prophecy and its initial signs in partnership with Asgard, Martian and their clans of Moon-Men who will be examining Narnia from the sky with the Star People and the other celestial creatures such as the other species part of the Moon's communities like the Moon Viscacha.

Kyukon's group was still in a state of grief over the loss of Gandalf but despite this, Kyukon had decided to hand over her role as Kitsune Chronicler to her chosen heirs, Alestomeria and her husband Hagrid, now both nine-tailed Foxes like her and the deceased Gandalf, complete with the shining ivory gold and metallic yellow fur. When Alestomeria gained her ninth and final tail, she underwent a beautiful transformation that would be breathtaking to watch. Unlike Amantina's illegitimate transformation into a nine-tailed Fox (she was still by the Witch's side serving as her second-in-command) by the Witch which had beauty saturated with a sinister theme, Alestomeria's transformation to a nine-tailed Fox had genuine beauty. A golden sunny yellow wave had coursed through Alestomeria which changed her red and metallic fur which she had had all through her extremely long life, to the lush ivory and metallic yellow pelt characteristic of all matured, nine-tailed Kitsune though a subspecies of Kitsune, called a Kumiho, had recently developed. While they had all the traits of a Kitsune, this new subspecies, when they reached the nine-tailed stage, developed icy blue and metallic blue fur instead of ivory and metallic yellow, and few individuals even appeared white and silver, but unlike Amanita who also had white fur, these individual Kumiho were genuine and had genuine beauty to their colder-coloured fur. Their foxfire involved mostly ice and they also breathed ice instead of fire. Aside from these differences, their other magical abilities, such as powerful telekinesis and super speed, were largely the same. Then as soon as Alestomeria had become nine-tailed, Kyukon had handed over her role as Chronicler to her and Hagrid and they gladly took over. After this, Kyukon went into semi-retirement though she will still be around to give advice and help see in the Golden Age Prophecy and along with it, the Dawn of Spring and the Winter Revolution.

 **Conclusion**

The Eternal Winter continued with Jadis's reign over Narnia for another 70 or so Narnian years, and once, some of the migrant Narnians had tried taking back their land too prematurely by waging war against Jadis, only to be horribly overpowered and squelched, with many fatalities resulting. Amongst these fatalities were Guinan's uncle and Thomas's father, and sadly, Nyarth, one of Kushanku's brothers who, like a number of other Narnians who had lost patience in waiting for the Golden Age Prophecy to arrive, had returned to Narnia against orders to stay in Archenland to try and take back their land only to meet a gruesome demise at the hands of the Witch and her cronies. This left Amethyst and Spinel without a father while their mother, Kagayaku, had ended up widowed. Before leaving, Nyarth had had frequent falling out sessions with his wife about returning to Narnia despite it still being the Eternal Winter and eventually left, meeting his demise in the process. This news devastated Kushanku and the others in his family and despite the grief over losing one of their closest members of the family, they continued to live in Archenland with the other, equally devastated Narnians who had also lost those that had tried taking back their country only to meet either gruesome demise or be turned to stone by the Witch. And because Kagayaku had sunken into a heartbroken depression, Amethyst and Spinel were put under the care of Obsidian who was wife to a male Wampus Cat and mother to two cubs (Thundersparx had chosen not to pair up and have Raiju cubs while Milky Way had paired up with a male Pegasus and had had a foul with him). But eventually, by the time the Year 1000 came round, the initial signs of the Golden Age Prophecy finally arrived with one young human girl accidentally finding her way into the magical land of Narnia through a magical wooden box portal where she crossed paths with Guinan's cousin. And from there, came the subsequent events of the Golden Age Prophecy and its fulfilment, and the Winter Revolution and the Dawn of Spring with Narnia eventually seeing greenery and colour for the first time in decades.

 **And c'est fini. My first Narnia story is FINALLY completed. However, Kushanku and his group's story will not end there. I have in mind a sequel that will involve the return of Kushanku and company that will take place during the events of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Stay tuned for a possible sequel!**

 **VPVPVP**


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